By Bida Elly David
Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) has started preparing for the cash transfer payment for the year 2022 in full gear as well as commenced the validation of eligible girls to receive the grants.
The cash program was initiated by donors through the Ministry of General Education and Instructions aimed at rendering financial assistance to school girls with a target of maintaining them in class.
The program targeted girls due to the number of challenges they faced amid addressing their needs.
The GESS program receives funding through the United Kingdom aid from the UK government, the government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, the U.S Agency for International Development USAID.
Cash transfers are direct payments given to girls to encourage them to enroll in school and to help them stay focused and engaged in learning.
Girls receive financial support to allow them meet their personal needs especially sanitary pads and scholastic materials to keep them in school and prioritize education needs as they still face many barriers to education such as early marriage, early unintended pregnancies and an uneven share of household chores.
The program has been on-going for number of time and it has been contributing positively towards remedying girls who could not afford to buy soaps, sanitary pads and many other essential items of immediate demand.
In a press statement extended to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, the GESS stated that the validation process was to confirm the number of girls that would be eligible to receive the cash transfers.
According to the statement, the cash transfers have been limited to primary school girls in primary five (P.5) to (P.8) based on the condition that they attend regular classes.
“The preparation for the payment of Girls Education South Sudan (GESS) cash transfer for 2022 is in full gear. The validation of eligible girls in schools was scheduled to start from 19th –of September 2022 and continue through to the end of October-2022” GESS said in a statement extended to the media.
“Parents and guardians are encouraged to send their daughters for validation and help their daughters keep cash transfer enrolment form. Only girls whose learner unique IDs on the cash transfer form match that on the admission registers will be paid,’’ the statement added.
They urged the beneficiaries and their parents as well as their school administrations to abide by the above mentioned guidelines for easy run-up of the process until its completion.
“We urge girls, parents, teachers, school managers and school communities to follow this guide so that the process can run as smoothly as possible so that all eligible girls receive their cash transfers.”
“We therefore encourage individuals to report the misappropriation of funds or threats to safety. This may include, reduction of money during the payment process, replacement of girls who are absent during payment, issuing cash transfer enrolment forms to girls who are not the correct owner,” it further stated.
According to GESS the payment shall be directly made to all the girls that shall be eligible to meet the payment criteria without any challenge.