NOVEMBER 2012 AfriKids is a Child Rights Organisation working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in a holistic, inclusive and sustainable manner
NEW BEGINNINGS First cycle of beneficiaries graduate Three years on from the start of AfriKids’ New Beginnings Programme in 2009, the first group of beneficiaries are now graduating from the project, and some have gone on to set up their own businesses. New Beginnings is a programme for displaced children who may have been working in hazardous labour or living on the streets. The programme focuses on giving some of northern Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children a decent start in life. The programme was set up in 2009 with the support of The Baring and John Ellerman Foundations, to support children
who had worked in dangerous forms of labour, lived or worked on the street, been displaced from their homes or were at home but at risk of dropping out of education due to poverty.
from the project. Some are still in education thanks to the project staff and some are about to set up their own businesses in trades they have been working hard to perfect over the past three years.
All 60 beneficiaries taken on in 2009 received support tailored to the children’s individual situations, through AfriKids’ ‘one child at a time’ way of working. The beneficiaries were either placed back in education or found vocational training places in trades that would equip them for a long and sustainable life. Alongside all of this, AfriKids staff worked closely with schools and communities in the region in order to boost community understanding of child rights.
Rita, pictured above, is now able to set up shop as a hairdresser. When first getting involved with New Beginnings, Rita was homeless and from a very fragile family background with no father. AfriKids’ support means she’s now able to stand on her own two feet.
This year this first group of beneficiaries are now graduating
Thanks to Comic Relief funding, 300 further New Beginnings beneficiaries were taken on in 2011. We can’t wait to report back on their progress over time. They, like Rita, have a lot to look forward to.
PROJECT FOCUS Operation Sunlight Mba-Eng graduated from Operation Sunlight last year and is a great example of how this approach leads to sustainable adulthoods for those it supports. The New Beginnings project is a development of the ‘one child at a time’ approach AfriKids first used in core projects such as Operation Sunlight; a project specifically aimed at resettling former child miners. In 2006, life for Mba-Eng was hard. He was 15 and spending his days working on an informal surface mine in the harsh Talensi Nabdam district of northern Ghana. Some days he would find nothing and make no money, others he may find flecks of gold which together fetched small amounts of money. He had little education and few prospects. So when in 2007 AfriKids agreed to enrol him as a beneficiary of the new Operation Sunlight, he jumped at the
opportunity. For four years he trained as a carpenter, mastering the skills needed to make a living. In October this year, Liam and Katie from AfriKids UK caught up with Mba-Eng and were welcomed into the shop that he opened in November 2011. With the skills he learned, and the equipment provided by AfriKids during his apprenticeship, opening a shop was a natural progression for Mba-Eng. AfriKids fieldworker Bingo said that Mba-Eng’s work was of such a high standard that Bingo had employed him recently to renovate the wooden door frames in his own home. Mba-Eng is now a year into being a business owner and he is also a Master Trainer at the age of 21, with two trainees learning their trade from him. These trainees are part of the second phase of the New Beginnings project, and Mba-Eng is proud to be able to pass on the skills he learned to those who were recently as vulnerable as he once was.
AfriKids Academy AfriKids Eco Village AfriKids Ethical Trade AfriKids Medical Centre Bolga Area Programme Educational fund Kassena Nankana Area Programme Medical fund Operation Bolga Operation Mango Tree Operation SINGh Operation Smiles Operation Zuarungu Street Mothers Association Talensi Nabdam Area Programme Young Entrepreneurs
“Mba-Eng’s work is of such a high standard that I employed him to do my own wooden doorframes!” Bingo AfriKids Fieldworker
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01: Rita’s Hairdressing Salon 02: A happy Rita chatting with Gabriel 03: Sifting for gold on a surface mine 04: Rita braiding a customer’s hair 05: A surface mine like the one Mba-Eng used to work at
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06: Mba-Eng
AFRIKIDS ONLINE “He’s best known in comedy for playing Bollo The Gorilla in The Mighty Boosh – but now Dave Brown [an AfriKids Ambassador] is showing a different side, with an exhibition of comedians’ photographs [in support of AfriKids].
with big smiles on their faces, the funny man, the wacky women telling jokes, getting the laughs... But before all this, in the early days, when they were starting out, it has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world.’”
Brown’s portraits – including Jimmy Carr, Harry Hill, Bill Bailey, Tony Law, Noel Fielding and Lee Mack – will be going on display at London’s Strand Gallery in December.
Tough Crowd exhibition runs from the 5th-15th December at The Strand Gallery.
‘Comedians are by their very nature tough, they have to be’ he said. ‘We always see them mucking about
AfriKids
AfriKids Christmas 2012 Catalogue is out now! Take a look at our fantastic, unique range of christmas gift ideas, perfect for all the family! http://issuu.com/afrikids/ docs/afrikids_christmas_catalogue_2012
A signed, limited edition run of the prints will be available to purchase from the gallery and on AfriKids website, raising funds for AfriKids.
ALMT Join @wwwalmtorg and @AfriKids on January 24 for Burns Night 2013 AFTERPARTY! guestlistapp.com/ events 01 Nov
Noel’s Fieldmice Please RT and share! noelsfieldmice. com for Dave Brown and the charity AfriKids xxx 27 Oct
To view our full range of AfriKids’ Christmas gifts and to place an order please click here
Alice Lomax “1 person can’t change the world, but 1 person can change the world for another person” Georgie Fienberg #Afrikids’ inspiring founder. #JDOV 25 Oct
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Let’s tweet @AfriKids
Frieda Huang from A&O’s Shanghai Office with her host family and Nich Kumah in Talensi Nabdam
THE EXPERIENCE CHALLENGE
The first two weeks of October saw AfriKids’ innovative fundraising programme, the Experience Challenge, take place for the third consecutive year. Forty-eight individuals, including forty staff from AfriKids’ corporate partner Allen & Overy and two families who took part in our first ever Family Experience Challenge, visited rural northern Ghana to live alongside local families in their compound homes. The Experience aims to immerse its participants in a world that might otherwise be unreachable. By placing people like Maurice (quoted) and his A&O colleagues in a compound home in one of the poorest parts of the world, AfriKids is helping supporters to live and breathe the real Africa, closing the divide between the donor and
the recipient and giving the local people we work with the unique opportunity to speak for themselves. The Experience is by no means a holiday – the heat, lack of running water and electricity in many of the compound homes and numerous emotional challenges each participant encounters make for an intense, albeit fruitful and rewarding week. Perhaps this is why this year’s participants managed to raise over £58,000 for AfriKids’ projects, a monumental figure that plays testament to the amazing fundraising initiatives each has led and how this once in a lifetime opportunity inspires and engages the family, friends and colleagues of those that take part. Thank you so much to each and every 2012 participant!
To find out more about The Experience Challenge please click here.
“Personally this was one of the greatest life experiences I have ever been through.” Maurice Simon Allen & Overy Singapore
www.afrikids.org
FUNDRAISING NEWS Run to the Beat 2012
A&O Staff initiatives
Thirteen AfriKids supporters took part in Run to the Beat powered by Nike+ on Sunday 28th October. AfriKids’ supporters raised a combined total of over £8,500!
Paul Regan from A&O raised over £5,600 by taking part in the North Downs Way run on Saturday 11th August.
Thank You to: Henry Fovargue, Beth Scaysbrook, Rebekah Lee, Joanne Fairhead, Robert Simmons, Reema Kotecha, Nasreen Bhana, Matthew Kimber, Mike Beswick, Barbara Ryan, Paula Gibbs, Matthew Naughton, Jocelyn Newton!
Rachel Holdstock from A&O raised £590 by taking part in the Sydney Marathon on 16th September. David Stranger-Jones, and the Litigation Team at A&O organised a Quiz Night in October, raising roughly £2,000 for AfriKids.
AFRIKIDS GHANA ANNUAL AWARDS AfriKids’ Annual Awards Ceremony took place at the end of October and it truly was an evening to remember; a chance to celebrate AfriKids Ghana staff members’ phenomenal work. “We want to thank you, once again, from the bottom of our hearts for your extraordinary commitment to the children of Ghana. You are both the fabric of your communities and the solution to their problems. We couldn’t be more proud to be your partners.” Georgie Fienberg International Director
Best Staff Awards 2012
Best Core Project Staff Member: Beatrice Talensi Nabdam Area Programme Best Partner Project Staff Member: Magdaline Operation Smiles Best Sustainability Project Staff member: Vero Mama’s Place
Best Project Awards 2012
Best Core Project: Kassena Nankana Area Programme Best Partner Project: Next Generation Home Best Sustainability Project: AfriKids Medical Centre
Special Awards
Saratu The School of Night Rabbits The Academy
Journalist Outstanding Contribution to Child Rights:
Benjamin Glover