Reduced domestic violence and FGM amongst women in Ghana...
So What's the Big Picture Now?
Press Release!
African Initiatives has been awarded a 3 year grant by Comic Relief totalling £255,500 for work in girls’ education in Tanzania. This follows on from a successful pilot project that aimed to increase the enrolment, retention and performance of girls in 14 secondary schools in 2 districts that took place in 2009 and 2010.
Girls suffer applauding levels of sexual violence both in school from boys and school staff, on their way to and from school as well in communities in which they live unsupervised whilst attending school. As a result of this, girls do not enrol in schools and if they do, they often drop out and do not complete their final exams.
Working with our long time partner CASEC, the work will take place in 30 secondary schools in northern Tanzania to ensure that girls enjoy their right to education in a safe environment that is conducive to studying. CASEC will work with local officials and schools boards and management to increase their understanding of the barriers girls face in attending and achieving in school and of their obligations to ensure girls’ can participate in education. 30 girls’ dormitories will be built to house more than 2,200 girls which will provide them with safe and supervised accommodation whilst attending school. More than 15,000 boys and girls will benefit from better managed schools which in turn will raise exam results for all.
For more information please contact Rosie Martin
rosie@african-initiatives.org.uk
Talking Stick Winter 2009/2010
Please see the Winter 2009/10 edition of the Talking Stick. In this most recent issue we give you updates on our programmes in Ghana, Tanzania and here in the UK as well as more information about the ongoing land rights crisis in Tanzania.
News from northern Ghana, June 2010
I have just returned from Bolgatanga, the regional capital of the Upper East Region of Ghana and where we work with our partner the Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC) and thought I would send you an update on their work. CSRC works in both the Upper East and Northern Regions in some of the most marginalised communities in Ghana. Whereas Ghana as a country has experienced sustained economic growth in recent years, the benefits have not been extended to these northern regions; in fact these regions have experienced increased poverty.
Our partner CSRC continues to work in the area of sustainable livelihoods and women's rights. The work on sustainable livelihoods has gone from strength to strength. I had the chance to visit four out of the thirteen communities that we are working in. In the communities where we have been working for the last 3 years the impact of the sustainable livelihoods work is immediately apparent. No one I spoke to was using agrochemicals on their land. All had adopted new organic methods of farming. Villagers testified to using their livestock's manure on fields and composting. Local people were no longer burning their fields after harvest to get rid of the crop residue, but the stalks were now collected, composted and applied to their fields. Best of all, yields have increased. One woman summed it up by saying "By using organic manure its possible to use the same field year after year. If you use agrochemicals you have to use more chemicals year on year and the yield still goes down." Previous to CSRC's intervention, women did not have access to farm land, or if they did it was far from the homestead and infertile. The village members I met now thought it normal for women to be given their own plot of prime land near to home.
CSRC are heavily involved in women's rights work. Previous to my working in Ghana with African Initiatives I would not have rated the country as being particularly harsh in relation to how women are treated. However, women in northern Ghana are some of the most marginalised I have met in over 16 years of working for social justice and international development. They have no right to own property including inheriting property. On the death of a spouse, the woman is expected to marry her brother-in-law and to stay within the family. If not, she is basically evicted and made homeless. Children are under the control of men and are not allowed to leave with her. They have no rights over their own body and cannot decide to use family planning or when to have children. They have no rights over the product of their labour and are expected to farm their husbands land but have no rights over the profits. Women are not allowed to make decisions at household or community levels. Many still undergo female genital mutilation.
Again, I visited both communities in which CSRC had been working for a number of years and those which were new to the organisation and there was a marked difference between the 2 communities. In those where we have been working for up to 3 years, both women and men testified to a massive reduction in domestic violence due to the public education campaigns that CSRC had undertaken. In the new villages domestic violence was still seen a the norm – just a fact of life. In villages where we have been working for some time, women know their rights, they know the law on inheritance and property rights and some are able to put these rights into practice. However, there is still a long way to go for the majority of women; it is one thing knowing what your rights are under the law but another thing entirely putting them into practice.
Best wishes,
Rosie Martin
Go Global
New Volunteering Opportunities for People aged 16-25
African Initiatives is running a new project for volunteers aged 16-25. Go Global will give young volunteers from Bristol and South Gloucestershire the chance to organise a Global Action Day in their local communities.
The project is being funded by youth volunteering charity V. V is an independent charity which aims to inspire a new generation of young volunteers by supporting voluntary organisations across the country to create new, inspiring and diverse opportunities.
African Initiatives will recruit a team of volunteers to plan and run 3 Go Global Community Action Days. These Days will be based around a ‘living’ board game, using the community environment as a structure to base a day of interactive learning. Volunteers will design and deliver workshops relating to global issues that are important to them and their communities. Families and members of the communities will make their way around the ‘board’ through the different workshops, using specially designed “passports” to complete the game. Volunteers will receive 2 training days and participate in 2 planning workshops for each Community Action Day.
Go Global aims to help young people learn about global issues and develop ways to engage their communities. The project will also give volunteers the chance to develop their communication and project management skills, as well as providing an insight into the opportunities in the third sector which can be accessed through volunteering.
For more information on Go Global and how to get involved contact Claire Faithorn at African Initiatives at claire@african-initiatives.org.uk.