Kutung (N/R), Aug 14, GNA - An Early Childhood Development and Children's Centre (ECDC) valued at over 36 million GH cedis, was on Wednesday commissioned for the people of Kutung, a farming community in the Gushegu District.

The Centre was constructed by the Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC), an international NGO through funding from a deceased Canadian Philanthropist and the assistance of Markaz Al Bishara a Tamale based NGO.

Equipped with two water tankers with a capacity of 30,000 litres each, the centre was named Bill Proctor Children's Centre after the son of the deceased philanthropist. Mrs Sanatu Nantogma, Country Director of the CCFC said her organisation undertook the project as part of efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to also complement governments' efforts at providing school infrastructure especially for the rural communities.

She noted that the Kutung and Kpatinga communities both in the Gushegu District were facing a lot of challenges such as low illiteracy rate, potable drinking water, food security and lack of skills and credit to undertake income generating activities. Mrs Natogma said the CCFC would continue to partner with other organisations to bring development to children in deprived communities so that "no child will be left out of the loop of free and compulsory education for all". She hoped that if adequate educational infrastructure were provided in the communities, it would help increase enrolment and retention in schools.

Mr Abukari Mahama, Gushegu District Chief Executive (DCE) commended CCFC for the numerous development projects it had provided to the district and urged the chiefs and people to take good care of the projects.

He urged the chiefs and parents to take advantage of the introduction of the capitation grant to send their children to school and also provide their basic needs. He said education was the greatest investment any parent could give to his children adding: "Let us give our children the capacity now for them to take good care of us in our old age". Mr Edward Asakeya, the District Director of Education said the free education policy was intended to provide quality education for all children at the basic level. He said government alone could not provide the entire infrastructure and therefore, appealed to NGOs to complement governments' efforts. He said if similar childhood development centres were constructed throughout the district, it would help reduce the incidence of children sitting under trees to learn.