In Ghana, social and cultural norms within most rural communities dictate that girls have no future in either further education or gaining meaningful employment. They are often not supported by their families and/or communities and as such look into other ways to break free.
They have not been exposed to greater life skill opportunities and experiences, equipping them to be able to make informed choices about their education, career and general life potential. GGG aims to address this by enabling and empowering rural girls to reach their own potential as well as supporting their communities to in turn facilitate this change for girls.
Informing girls on issues like sexual and reproductive health, hygiene, family planning but also more soft education like peer pressure and the opportunity to discuss personal issues with their peers, enables them to make better informed life decisions and feel strong enough to make them. Demonstrating that there are different (vocational) opportunities available to them, also through the lens of their peers, will make them more likely to remain in school or return to school. As GGG supports the communities by informing them about the benefits of equality and educating their girls, they will be able to take ownership of the issue and as such take positive action themselves. In turn this can inspire other girls and their families in the communities to be educated and aspire for a better future.
objectives
Overall objective
Improving girl attendance and enrolment in late primary and secondary school
Specific objectives
- Mobilizing girl groups and building on self-empowerment and strengths.
- Changing parent’s perception on girls’ equality and the importance of girl education.
- Provide better access to information on reproductive health, personal hygiene and family planning.
- Promote inclusive community ownership by bringing parents, officials, teachers and youth together with as common goal equality and education of girls.
Activities
GGG has created community-based projects that respond directly to the root of the issue. As the goal is to achieve long term, sustainable change, we looked at a project that will educate, facilitate and inspire not only girls but the community as a whole. Ultimately, we want to enable girls to let their voices be heard and to be educated so they are better prepared to take care of themselves andtheir family, consequently contributing to an improved quality of life within their society.
Support in assisting girls to attain objectives will be provided through:
- GGG has created “Go-Girl-Groups” for in and ‘out of school’ girls. Connecting the groups to local role models and peers will create a safe space where girls feel confident to express issues and raise awareness in relevant topics such as education, health, hygiene and family-planning. Additionally, monthly workshops will provide opportunities to experience activities outside of the formal education system, which will enable them to consider that education can bring about other options in their life.
- SALT training given to our full team gives our facilitators tools to motivate their communities during weekly home-visits. This will give opportunities to raise issues to disseminate information and discuss ideas regarding why girls deserve an equal place in society, what difference educating girls can make for their future and encourage communities to develop their own long-term solutions (local response) to maintain girls in school.
- Mother Clubs and quarterly community events will reinforce the goals and ideas of the communities. These events will be open discussion forums to keep the debate in education and local response going between guest speakers, beneficiaries and other stakeholders talking about subjects as money saving, sexual education and the importance of education as a whole.
- For the committed students, whose families see the importance of education but are struggling with the how-to or the financial means, we will give “back to school support” by making a personalized plan to work together with the parents and get the girls back to school. This can include books, uniforms, bags.
- GGG actively advocates with (local) governments and (inter-) national businesses to assist reaching the beneficiaries’ goals.
Sustainability
Go Girl Ghana wants to make sure that the communities maintain the road to change for girls, even without our physical support. We believe that by training, inspiring and mobilising the communities to think of community based solutions, they will take ownership of the challenges that they face and work together. This way they are on the road to sustainable social change.
Where we are active
From 2017 to 2019 we were active in 12 communities the Awutu-Senya West District. Currently we have started operations in 2 communities in the Awutu-Senya East and Gomoa East districts. Buduburam which used to be a refugee camp and Nyanyano which is a catchment area of Kasoa.