Development Ratings

AfriKids tackles child rights through practical local actions and community education. There are three types of projects: core, partner, and sustainability projects. The range of projects managed by local staff is complex and overlapping. The aim is for the sustainability projects to become self-financing and profitable. They will both directly help develop the local economy for the long-term and support AfriKids Ghana’s project work. AfriKids UK will become redundant in 5-10 years, winding itself up at the latest by 2018. The UK staff assist with local programme design and have introduced extensive, detailed management controls and processes for close reporting and monitoring of projects, staff and overall accountability.

The new National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) provides all Ghana nationals with basic healthcare for an annual fee. AfriKids registers families under the NHIS, pays the first year’s fee of ~£8, and helps families with schemes such as goat rearing to be able to afford the future fees. Awareness is raised on children’s rights particularly with women’s groups. Women are then better able to care for their children and have more say in decisions about raising them. Children’s Clubs teach children about their own rights in a fun environment.

Examples of core projects include:

• Operation Fresh Start: Tackles child trafficking, labour and rural-urban migration from northern to southern Ghana. AfriKids resettles children with their families, supporting the children with schooling or vocational training, and the families with economic support. Video footage is shown on the dangers of child migration to help prevent it. Conferences are held with local authorities, government officials, and traditional councils to develop business plans to replicate Operation Fresh Start across Ghana.

• Operation Sirigu: Provides a home for abandoned ‘spirit children’ and provides for any special medical needs. Awareness is raised on the children’s rights. Micro-finance is provided for young mothers.

• Operation Sunlight: Staff, in conjunction with the ILO, remove children from small-scale gold mines, prevent new children from entering them, and spread awareness about the dangers of mine work. Risks include TB, mercury poisoning, and injury or death from rock dust, suffocation, and dynamite explosions. Ex-miners attend school or vocational programmes to train for alternative work.

• The School of Night Rabbits: Provides national curriculum teaching to 40 street children as well as healthcare and social and personal hygiene training. Children are later resettled with their families.

• Also AfriKids Academy (provides free IT literacy classes to middle schoolers & fee-based IT services to adults); AfriKids Emergency Relief (provides short-term emergency funding for flood victims to recoup their livelihoods); Medical Fund (for medical cases not covered by the NHIS); and Education Outreach Fund (education support for children that are not covered by other projects).

Examples of partner projects include:

• Operation Bolgatanga: Tackles the issues of street children by providing a safe shelter and giving care and opportunities for children to turn their lives around. This includes education fees, a library and literacy classes, healthcare, sports activities, and family income support to allow them to return home.

• Operation Mango Tree: Provides residential care for street children unable to return to their families.

• Operation Zuarungu: Provides primary school learning and vocational skills training. A medical clinic has been built and two boreholes sunk for clean water. The project invests in the family of each child at the school through micro-finance, livestock rearing activities (goats), and registration in the NHIS.

• Also Operation Smiles (care and micro-finance for young mothers); Bright Academy (primary schooling where private student fees pay for street children’s education); Operation SINGh (education and micro-finance); Street Child Development Programme (surveying and registering street and working children in Kumasi with the aim of supporting them and preventing further migration south); Shekeena Needy Trust (funding street children work in Kumasi until they are ready to return to their families in the north); Single Mothers Association (a cooperative providing mutual emotional and financial support); Federation of Muslim Women (micro-finance & business skills to a group of Muslim women).

The sustainability projects currently include:

• AfriKids Medical Centre: Bought as a going concern in early 2007, the centre has been expanded to provide high quality health services. It provides care under the NHIS as well as serving private patients. The current 53% return on investment is sufficient to pay for senior AfriKids Ghana salaries. The Ghana Health Ministry has invited AfriKids to considered upgrading it to full hospital status.

• AfriKids Ecovillage: The village is being built to supply ecotourism revenues and local employment. Funds are required to complete the building work.

• AfriKids Ethical Trade: A pilot scheme from mid-2007 saw an Ethical Trade clothing range sold at Top Shop in summer 2008. A 2 ton order for shea butter is underway that benefits 200 women with profits returning to AfriKids Ghana. UK cosmetics companies are in discussions on exports of further orders.

• Also, Operation Mango Tree partially supports itself with a shop and a farm. Operation Bolgatanga runs 4 local businesses including a livestock farm.