Plan Ghana Annual Progress Report 2009

A YEAR IN

GHANA 09 ALGERIA

LIBYA

SUMMARY REPORT

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GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Ghana

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The Anyaboni soccer team trains with a visiting German professional.

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• One child in eight dies before reaching their fifth birthday • Only 21% of communities have access to primary health services

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• Over two million children in Ghana are working

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Relief supplies arrive after recent floods.

Language: English (official); local languages including Hansa and Akan Climate: The climate is tropical. The eastern coastal belt is warm and comparatively dry, the southwest corner is hot and humid and the north - hot and dry.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Economy: The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 50% of GDP and employs 85% of the work force – mainly small landholders. On the negative side, public sector wage increases and regional peacekeeping commitments have led to continued inflationary deficit financing, depreciation of the Cedi,

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and SAO rising public discontent TOME & PRINCIPE with Ghana’s austerity measures.

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GHANA FACTS Population: 23 million

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Capital: Accra

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• Working to raise awareness of children’s rights, and promote their protection • Offering savings and loans schemes to enable families to increase their e nu of education for children household income Improving the quality Be

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Our priorities in Ghana BURKINA FASO

“The presence and voice of the child is increasingly being felt in the schools, communities, districts and at the national level.”

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Samuel Paulos, Plan’s Country Director

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A YEAR IN

GHANA SUMMARY REPORT

09

FOCUS ON: RAISING AWARENESS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Plan works to promote understanding of children’s rights, to ensure children are protected from harm and have the chance to make their voices heard.

We support birth registration campaigns to recognise children’s identities and rights in law. We run training on child protection. We support children’s clubs, media projects and events where children learn about their rights, and we help children express their views to local and national policy-makers.

BIG DREAMS

T

he young members of the Anyaboni Resettlement football club live, breathe and dream football. When they’re not on the pitch, they’re pondering where their talents might take them.

A student receives a scholarship to her local school

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Ghana faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Improved schools by supporting school library construction and the provision of furniture and library books in 17 communities • Offered training to professional health workers in how to manage malaria • Constructed or upgraded 682 latrines in 27 communities to protect children from disease • Enabled 3,000 children to claim their right to a birth certificate.

Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

“Poverty, tradition and entrenched views about a girl’s role in society combine to keep girls like Nancy at the margins of their communities.”

To learn more about Plan’s work in Ghana visit www.plan.org.au/ourwork/westafrica/ghana

Produced for Ghana by the Australian National Office.

“Playing football could bring fame or money to my family,” says one hopeful.

This is no ordinary ambition for a young person from one of Ghana’s poorest communities, but then Anyaboni Resettlement is no ordinary football club.

It’s for girls like Nancy, the player dreaming of fame and money.

Nancy lives with her parents in a rural community in Asesewa, southern Ghana. Here, girls might aspire to become seamstresses, or run a market stall, but a famous footballer? It’s unheard of.

In the deprived regions where Plan works, poverty, tradition and entrenched views about a girl’s role in society combine to keep girls like Nancy at the margins of their communities.

Girls are rarely consulted on how their lives should develop. Instead, they are expected to help with household chores like fetching water, and to marry.

Many parents see little value in educating their daughters; less than half attend secondary school.

Sadly, some will marry very young and risk their health with early pregnancies. Others fall prey to abuse and sexual exploitation.

Confidence through football Nancy’s escape is football. Her club is one of ten formed in the last year as part of a joint project between Plan and local communities in Asesewa to give girls the opportunity to train in football skills.

For girls like Nancy, football means freedom. For the first time, they are part of something that puts them centre stage. As they master the game, they’re also learning how to work as a team, solve problems and take decisions – skills that will help them to care for their families and develop their communities in future.

“Some of the girls who have dropped out of school are beginning to return to be part of the established girls’ football teams.”

As part of the project, 25 girls from each of the communities taking part have been given a taste of life outside Asesewa, with visits to places like Parliament House and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, in Accra. Precious, one of the girls, had never left Asesewa before. The experience opened up her horizons.

“I would like to be like one of the women I met in Parliament House,” she says, “that is, to be a lawyer.”

Positive change Most Sundays the girls play matches organised by the Eastern Regional Women’s Football Association, part of the Ghana Football Association. These attract a large crowd of spectators – so much so that community leaders use half-time as an opportunity to broadcast important messages on health, education and other social issues to their neighbours.

The project has brought other benefits, too.

Nancy and her team mates are not the only girls in Asesewa with aspirations to improve their lives. The Director of Education for the region says: “Some of the girls who have dropped out of school are beginning to return, to be part of the established girls’ football teams.”

For a lucky few, football may bring them wealth and recognition. The Ghana Football Association has selected three girls to take part in national trials.

But it’s not just about the small number who could go on to play at a higher level. The club fosters self confidence and raises girls’ profiles in the community at large –making it less likely that their future views and needs will be ignored in the way their mothers’ or grandmothers’ were.

Nancy’s parents are proud of her abilities and recognise the contribution she can make. “I am now included in decision-making in the home,” she says.

Others are now back at school, with big dreams for the future.

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

plan.org.au