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A programme designed to support basic schools to create child friendly and gender responsive environments was launched in Accra on Wednesday with the aim of training 275 teachers in child protection, rights and counselling issues. The programme dubbed: �Teacher Mentor,� seeks to empower teachers to undertake mentoring exercises by responding to children�s needs and giving necessary attention to worrying situations and activities. Ms. Wendy Otoo, an official of Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a non-governmental organization that initiated the programme, said the Teacher-Mentor programme was being piloted in 14 districts in the Northern Region. She explained that the Northern Region showed a high disparity in terms of school enrolment with a number of 78 girls matching 100 boys hence the NGO concentrating its activities in those areas. Ms. Otoo said as part of the programme, CAMFED had established a fund called Safety Net Fund, which would provide cash transfers to schools to support individual needy children. �We provide the beneficiary full and complete scholarship for female children through to secondary school level, in addition to providing them with school bags, footwear, sanitary pad, and mathematical sets.� Some 4,000 needy girls in Junior and Senior High Schools will be supported with bursary packages for the 2009/2010 academic year as well as supporting 12,000 vulnerable children to continue primary school through the Safety Net Fund. Ms. Otoo said the teachers who benefited under the teacher-mentor programme were expected to provide counselling sessions to children in schools, support the creation of school policies, provide psychological and social support to orphans and vulnerable children and promote child protection policies in schools. The programme being implemented with the support of FIDA-Ghana, a organization of female lawyers, would adopt a practical approach to imparting the mentoring knowledge to the teachers. Mr. Stephen Adu, Director, Basic Education at the Ghana Education Service, urged the media to place emphasis on the positive side of girls� education and development. He said the teacher-mentor programme was a timely one, expressing belief that it would contribute to the quality of education in the basic and secondary schools. Mr. Adu said government was committed to improving education infrastructure in the Northern Region. He said the sector Ministry will monitor their programmes closely and give them the needed advice and support where necessary. Ms. Saratu Mahama, Representative of FIDA Ghana, noted that the laws protecting females in Ghana were not yielding the right results especially in the Northern Region. She said FIDA�s partnership with CAMFED was aimed at ensuring an increase and retention in girls� enrolment in schools. She said the absence of organizations like the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVSU) and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) as well as the Department of Social Welfare did not help promote and protect the rights of children especially the girl-child in the Northern Region. Ms. Mahama appealed to government to strengthen the legal institutions by giving them the needed support especially in the Northern Region.