Plan Ghana Annual Program Report 2007

146.5mm FLAP

148.5mm BACK

Challenge and change in Ghana

Real progress

Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence in 2007, and the government marked the occasion with initiatives to develop hospitals and nursery schools, among others.

With the support of Plan, children and adults in Ghana are working together to develop their communities and claim their right to a better future. And real progress is being made. Last year, our work included:

Yet in a country where 45% of people live on less than 50 pence a day, much remains to be done. Plan is committed to help give children in the poorest communities clean water, a decent education, better health services and training in skills for the future.

In 2007 we were able to bring children together for the first time with decision-makers like government ministers to discuss the issues that matter to them. Promoting children’s rights and their role in developing their communities is a fundamental part of our work, and a priceless legacy for future generations.

But plenty of challenges remain.

In this Country Progress Report, we look at the work Plan is doing in one of the poorest areas of Ghana to help women boost their incomes, and so improve their children’s lives.

148.5mm FRONT

• Helping to run educational campaigns on HIV/AIDS for 30 communities, so they can protect their children from the virus and care for those affected by it

p We’re en couraging tea chers to mould system more clo the education sely to the ne eds of children

• Raising the standard of teaching in mathematics

and English by training over 500 primary school teachers in new methods centred on the needs of children

Ghana

• Protecting children from the dangers to their health of poor sanitation by working with families to build or improve nearly 700 latrines

• Working to keep children safe from abuse and exploitation by supporting training for nearly 2,000 community members and volunteers on child protection.

p Plan is helping to give more and more Gha naian children a decent start in life

Ghana country facts Capital: Accra

Adults who cannot read and write: 42%

UN Human Development Index ranking: 136th (of 177 countries)

Primary-age children not in school: 35%

Rural people without adequate sanitation: 82%

(Sources: the UN, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

Population: 22 million

Plan’s greatest successes come from a joint effort combining the hard work and determination of communities, children, volunteers, staff, and partner organisations. The ongoing support of our sponsors is a vital ingredient, too. It’s their generosity and commitment that allows us to continue to help children in 49 of the poorest countries in the world.

So on behalf of the children and communities we work with, thank you to all our sponsors!

Plan UK Registered Charity No: 276035

GHA

Any enquiries please contact: Nick Burton. e: nick@bright-uk.com m: 07884 367567. d: 020 7620 8150 Size (Prod)

Colours(Prod)

Admagic No: Bright No: Client name: File name: Date: Size: Studio proof: Art (A/D)

0407 100647 PLAN 0407_Ghana 04.12.07 210x443.5mm FOLD TO A5 Client proof: 2 3 Copy (C/W)

Content (Acc.)

Country Progress Report 2007

146.5mm FLAP

148.5mm BACK

Challenge and change in Ghana

Real progress

Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence in 2007, and the government marked the occasion with initiatives to develop hospitals and nursery schools, among others.

With the support of Plan, children and adults in Ghana are working together to develop their communities and claim their right to a better future. And real progress is being made. Last year, our work included:

Yet in a country where 45% of people live on less than 50 pence a day, much remains to be done. Plan is committed to help give children in the poorest communities clean water, a decent education, better health services and training in skills for the future.

In 2007 we were able to bring children together for the first time with decision-makers like government ministers to discuss the issues that matter to them. Promoting children’s rights and their role in developing their communities is a fundamental part of our work, and a priceless legacy for future generations.

But plenty of challenges remain.

In this Country Progress Report, we look at the work Plan is doing in one of the poorest areas of Ghana to help women boost their incomes, and so improve their children’s lives.

148.5mm FRONT

• Helping to run educational campaigns on HIV/AIDS for 30 communities, so they can protect their children from the virus and care for those affected by it

p We’re en couraging tea chers to mould system more clo the education sely to the ne eds of children

• Raising the standard of teaching in mathematics

and English by training over 500 primary school teachers in new methods centred on the needs of children

Ghana

• Protecting children from the dangers to their health of poor sanitation by working with families to build or improve nearly 700 latrines

• Working to keep children safe from abuse and exploitation by supporting training for nearly 2,000 community members and volunteers on child protection.

p Plan is helping to give more and more Gha naian children a decent start in life

Ghana country facts Capital: Accra

Adults who cannot read and write: 42%

UN Human Development Index ranking: 136th (of 177 countries)

Primary-age children not in school: 35%

Rural people without adequate sanitation: 82%

(Sources: the UN, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

Population: 22 million

Plan’s greatest successes come from a joint effort combining the hard work and determination of communities, children, volunteers, staff, and partner organisations. The ongoing support of our sponsors is a vital ingredient, too. It’s their generosity and commitment that allows us to continue to help children in 49 of the poorest countries in the world.

So on behalf of the children and communities we work with, thank you to all our sponsors!

Plan UK Registered Charity No: 276035

GHA

Any enquiries please contact: Nick Burton. e: nick@bright-uk.com m: 07884 367567. d: 020 7620 8150 Size (Prod)

Colours(Prod)

Admagic No: Bright No: Client name: File name: Date: Size: Studio proof: Art (A/D)

0407 100647 PLAN 0407_Ghana 04.12.07 210x443.5mm FOLD TO A5 Client proof: 2 3 Copy (C/W)

Content (Acc.)

Country Progress Report 2007

148.5mm INSIDE

148.5mm INSIDE

Saving for success It’s market day in Sissala, Northern Ghana, and if you want to sample pito, the local beer, it’s the place to be. Walk through any village and you’ll find women selling it.

But delicious though pito may be, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Until three years ago, the markets were awash with pito. Why? Well, many local women didn’t have the means or the knowledge to make anything else that was saleable.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could, but it seemed as if every avenue besides pito-brewing was blocked.

Without savings, they had no resources to train in new skills, or start new businesses. Nor did they have the capital to qualify for a loan from the bank.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could.

There were practical problems, too.

Even if a bank was prepared to offer financial advice or services, most women didn’t have the transport to

p A Village Savings and Loans

Association in action

travel the long distance to the district capital where the banks are based.

Pooling resources The solution was to bring the bank to the villages, giving local people the chance to deposit savings and take out loans. So, in 2005, Plan started working with 15 communities across northern Ghana to pilot finance schemes known as Village Savings and Loans Associations.

These associations work by bringing together groups of people – usually women – to make a regular contribution to a shared fund. These deposits are typically too small to appeal to a bank, but gradually the fund grows, attracts interest and can be used to offer loans to group members to help them meet household expenses or set up small businesses, like running a stall at the market for instance.

A group member from Nimoro describes how she has benefited from the fund: “I used part of my savings to purchase clothes, a washing basin and soap to help my pregnant daughter-inlaw, which I would not have been able to do in the past.”

You might wonder how women living in such poverty could afford to save, but Plan has found that even the poorest women can put aside small amounts.

Village Savings and Loans Associations allow women to pool resources, so that everyone benefits. As the women’s businesses make profit, they are able to repay their loan with a nominal amount of interest, enabling the fund to grow and be drawn on by other savers.

In Sissala, the women agreed to save in regular, fixed cycles. At the end of each cycle, each association member receives

a proportion of the fund, plus interest, according to how much she has saved.

Each association is owned by local women, who manage them responsibly to make the funds work hard for them.

All this would not be possible without some knowledge of business and finance, of course, so Plan organised and supported training for the women in skills like record keeping, business development and time management.

Strength in numbers The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

In the border community of Fielmua, many more have started trading activities, with some trading grains with their neighbours in Burkina Faso. In another village, women are buying and storing grain to sell on later in the season when supplies are low. Others are rearing animals to sell, an activity which used to be the preserve of the men.

146.5mm INSIDE

The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

“I had a loan from the group to buy things in bulk to retail and that gave me more profit to expand my trading activities,” she says. Like many women, she has ploughed that profit back into her family, helping to send p Investment in small-scale her children to school. “This has farming is one use the women put their money to helped me buy books for my children and supported my husband in paying But the women’s ambition for their our children’s fees,” she explains. children doesn’t end here. In Fielmua, There are real signs that the women’s the project has helped them realise determination to give their children a just how much their lack of education better future is paying off. Across the had held them back. Now they are district, health professionals have found determined their daughters will not that malnutrition is gradually follow suit and have set up a fund decreasing, and anaemia cases are low. to support girls’ education in their community.

It’s just one example of how, with the right impetus, women and their communities in Ghana’s poorest regions can secure the future for their children.

No longer struggling to make ends meet, the women are growing in confidence. Now they can contribute towards the household finances, women are having a greater say in what happens to their children. Take Ashi from Fielmua:

Some names have been changed for privacy and child protection reasons.

p A piggery was another woma

n’s investment

148.5mm INSIDE

148.5mm INSIDE

Saving for success It’s market day in Sissala, Northern Ghana, and if you want to sample pito, the local beer, it’s the place to be. Walk through any village and you’ll find women selling it.

But delicious though pito may be, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Until three years ago, the markets were awash with pito. Why? Well, many local women didn’t have the means or the knowledge to make anything else that was saleable.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could, but it seemed as if every avenue besides pito-brewing was blocked.

Without savings, they had no resources to train in new skills, or start new businesses. Nor did they have the capital to qualify for a loan from the bank.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could.

There were practical problems, too.

Even if a bank was prepared to offer financial advice or services, most women didn’t have the transport to

p A Village Savings and Loans

Association in action

travel the long distance to the district capital where the banks are based.

Pooling resources The solution was to bring the bank to the villages, giving local people the chance to deposit savings and take out loans. So, in 2005, Plan started working with 15 communities across northern Ghana to pilot finance schemes known as Village Savings and Loans Associations.

These associations work by bringing together groups of people – usually women – to make a regular contribution to a shared fund. These deposits are typically too small to appeal to a bank, but gradually the fund grows, attracts interest and can be used to offer loans to group members to help them meet household expenses or set up small businesses, like running a stall at the market for instance.

A group member from Nimoro describes how she has benefited from the fund: “I used part of my savings to purchase clothes, a washing basin and soap to help my pregnant daughter-inlaw, which I would not have been able to do in the past.”

You might wonder how women living in such poverty could afford to save, but Plan has found that even the poorest women can put aside small amounts.

Village Savings and Loans Associations allow women to pool resources, so that everyone benefits. As the women’s businesses make profit, they are able to repay their loan with a nominal amount of interest, enabling the fund to grow and be drawn on by other savers.

In Sissala, the women agreed to save in regular, fixed cycles. At the end of each cycle, each association member receives

a proportion of the fund, plus interest, according to how much she has saved.

Each association is owned by local women, who manage them responsibly to make the funds work hard for them.

All this would not be possible without some knowledge of business and finance, of course, so Plan organised and supported training for the women in skills like record keeping, business development and time management.

Strength in numbers The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

In the border community of Fielmua, many more have started trading activities, with some trading grains with their neighbours in Burkina Faso. In another village, women are buying and storing grain to sell on later in the season when supplies are low. Others are rearing animals to sell, an activity which used to be the preserve of the men.

146.5mm INSIDE

The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

“I had a loan from the group to buy things in bulk to retail and that gave me more profit to expand my trading activities,” she says. Like many women, she has ploughed that profit back into her family, helping to send p Investment in small-scale her children to school. “This has farming is one use the women put their money to helped me buy books for my children and supported my husband in paying But the women’s ambition for their our children’s fees,” she explains. children doesn’t end here. In Fielmua, There are real signs that the women’s the project has helped them realise determination to give their children a just how much their lack of education better future is paying off. Across the had held them back. Now they are district, health professionals have found determined their daughters will not that malnutrition is gradually follow suit and have set up a fund decreasing, and anaemia cases are low. to support girls’ education in their community.

It’s just one example of how, with the right impetus, women and their communities in Ghana’s poorest regions can secure the future for their children.

No longer struggling to make ends meet, the women are growing in confidence. Now they can contribute towards the household finances, women are having a greater say in what happens to their children. Take Ashi from Fielmua:

Some names have been changed for privacy and child protection reasons.

p A piggery was another woma

n’s investment

148.5mm INSIDE

148.5mm INSIDE

Saving for success It’s market day in Sissala, Northern Ghana, and if you want to sample pito, the local beer, it’s the place to be. Walk through any village and you’ll find women selling it.

But delicious though pito may be, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Until three years ago, the markets were awash with pito. Why? Well, many local women didn’t have the means or the knowledge to make anything else that was saleable.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could, but it seemed as if every avenue besides pito-brewing was blocked.

Without savings, they had no resources to train in new skills, or start new businesses. Nor did they have the capital to qualify for a loan from the bank.

Families here were so poor that the women were determined to contribute to their families’ income however they could.

There were practical problems, too.

Even if a bank was prepared to offer financial advice or services, most women didn’t have the transport to

p A Village Savings and Loans

Association in action

travel the long distance to the district capital where the banks are based.

Pooling resources The solution was to bring the bank to the villages, giving local people the chance to deposit savings and take out loans. So, in 2005, Plan started working with 15 communities across northern Ghana to pilot finance schemes known as Village Savings and Loans Associations.

These associations work by bringing together groups of people – usually women – to make a regular contribution to a shared fund. These deposits are typically too small to appeal to a bank, but gradually the fund grows, attracts interest and can be used to offer loans to group members to help them meet household expenses or set up small businesses, like running a stall at the market for instance.

A group member from Nimoro describes how she has benefited from the fund: “I used part of my savings to purchase clothes, a washing basin and soap to help my pregnant daughter-inlaw, which I would not have been able to do in the past.”

You might wonder how women living in such poverty could afford to save, but Plan has found that even the poorest women can put aside small amounts.

Village Savings and Loans Associations allow women to pool resources, so that everyone benefits. As the women’s businesses make profit, they are able to repay their loan with a nominal amount of interest, enabling the fund to grow and be drawn on by other savers.

In Sissala, the women agreed to save in regular, fixed cycles. At the end of each cycle, each association member receives

a proportion of the fund, plus interest, according to how much she has saved.

Each association is owned by local women, who manage them responsibly to make the funds work hard for them.

All this would not be possible without some knowledge of business and finance, of course, so Plan organised and supported training for the women in skills like record keeping, business development and time management.

Strength in numbers The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

In the border community of Fielmua, many more have started trading activities, with some trading grains with their neighbours in Burkina Faso. In another village, women are buying and storing grain to sell on later in the season when supplies are low. Others are rearing animals to sell, an activity which used to be the preserve of the men.

146.5mm INSIDE

The women have wasted no time in using their skills to raise their incomes.

“I had a loan from the group to buy things in bulk to retail and that gave me more profit to expand my trading activities,” she says. Like many women, she has ploughed that profit back into her family, helping to send p Investment in small-scale her children to school. “This has farming is one use the women put their money to helped me buy books for my children and supported my husband in paying But the women’s ambition for their our children’s fees,” she explains. children doesn’t end here. In Fielmua, There are real signs that the women’s the project has helped them realise determination to give their children a just how much their lack of education better future is paying off. Across the had held them back. Now they are district, health professionals have found determined their daughters will not that malnutrition is gradually follow suit and have set up a fund decreasing, and anaemia cases are low. to support girls’ education in their community.

It’s just one example of how, with the right impetus, women and their communities in Ghana’s poorest regions can secure the future for their children.

No longer struggling to make ends meet, the women are growing in confidence. Now they can contribute towards the household finances, women are having a greater say in what happens to their children. Take Ashi from Fielmua:

Some names have been changed for privacy and child protection reasons.

p A piggery was another woma

n’s investment

146.5mm FLAP

148.5mm BACK

Challenge and change in Ghana

Real progress

Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence in 2007, and the government marked the occasion with initiatives to develop hospitals and nursery schools, among others.

With the support of Plan, children and adults in Ghana are working together to develop their communities and claim their right to a better future. And real progress is being made. Last year, our work included:

Yet in a country where 45% of people live on less than 50 pence a day, much remains to be done. Plan is committed to help give children in the poorest communities clean water, a decent education, better health services and training in skills for the future.

In 2007 we were able to bring children together for the first time with decision-makers like government ministers to discuss the issues that matter to them. Promoting children’s rights and their role in developing their communities is a fundamental part of our work, and a priceless legacy for future generations.

But plenty of challenges remain.

In this Country Progress Report, we look at the work Plan is doing in one of the poorest areas of Ghana to help women boost their incomes, and so improve their children’s lives.

148.5mm FRONT

• Helping to run educational campaigns on HIV/AIDS for 30 communities, so they can protect their children from the virus and care for those affected by it

p We’re en couraging tea chers to mould system more clo the education sely to the ne eds of children

• Raising the standard of teaching in mathematics

and English by training over 500 primary school teachers in new methods centred on the needs of children

Ghana

• Protecting children from the dangers to their health of poor sanitation by working with families to build or improve nearly 700 latrines

• Working to keep children safe from abuse and exploitation by supporting training for nearly 2,000 community members and volunteers on child protection.

p Plan is helping to give more and more Gha naian children a decent start in life

Ghana country facts Capital: Accra

Adults who cannot read and write: 42%

UN Human Development Index ranking: 136th (of 177 countries)

Primary-age children not in school: 35%

Rural people without adequate sanitation: 82%

(Sources: the UN, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

Population: 22 million

Plan’s greatest successes come from a joint effort combining the hard work and determination of communities, children, volunteers, staff, and partner organisations. The ongoing support of our sponsors is a vital ingredient, too. It’s their generosity and commitment that allows us to continue to help children in 49 of the poorest countries in the world.

So on behalf of the children and communities we work with, thank you to all our sponsors!

Plan UK Registered Charity No: 276035

GHA

Any enquiries please contact: Nick Burton. e: nick@bright-uk.com m: 07884 367567. d: 020 7620 8150 Size (Prod)

Colours(Prod)

Admagic No: Bright No: Client name: File name: Date: Size: Studio proof: Art (A/D)

0407 100647 PLAN 0407_Ghana 04.12.07 210x443.5mm FOLD TO A5 Client proof: 2 3 Copy (C/W)

Content (Acc.)

Country Progress Report 2007