Happier childhoods and brighter futures

As we look back on the year ended 2023, we are filled with a profound sense of gratitude and pride in the progress we have made, the challenges we have overcome, and the unwavering commitment of everyone involved with AfriKids. You were part of our story in 2023 so thank you.

2023 was another year of significant achievements and learning experiences for AfriKids. We launched the implementation phase of our life-changing programmes for children in 60 more communities across northern Ghana, supported by people like yourselves, marking a major milestone in AfriKids’ history as we branch into communities outside of our “home” territory around Bolgatanga, and begin to test whether our locally-led model can be replicated and scaled up.

Our work in these areas began with community entry, relationship building and baselining work in the latter part of 2022, during which we “co-designed” the programme we will deliver with communities; working with them to adapt our model to their specific challenges and priorities. Now we have moved into the four-year phase of delivering these adapted “interventions” to create change. These major programmes are a holistic blend of AfriKids’ tried and tested interventions to keep children healthy, safe and in school, and for the first time we are testing a “concentrated approach” – applying all of these activities in the same areas (“demonstration districts”) to test their compound effect.

The new districts were selected as some of the lowest ranking in the country’s district league tables (produced by UNICEF), which measure a range of quality of life indicators. 7 in 10 families live in multidimensional poverty and 1 in 4 children are out of school. They are some of the hardest to reach communities geographically, and they are also some of the most challenging contexts in which to affect change.

These new territories come with new experiences for our amazing project staff, many of whom have relocated to serve these communities further away. Every day they overcome obstacles with remarkable resilience; crossing waterlogged areas in makeshift canoes, campaigning for girls’ education in areas where fewer than ten girls are enrolled in entire schools, and empowering disenfranchised women to grow thriving, climate-resilient livelihoods and become active changemakers in their communities (get in touch with us to try their honey!). This “above and beyond, whatever it takes” mentality is the spirit of AfriKids and can be seen across our entire community of staff and supporters.

Outside of Ghana, our fundraisers, operating in the toughest climate we’ve seen for “international development” in many years, are more determined than ever, spreading awareness about why our work ensuring education is so important for a peaceful and sustainable future, and keeping our amazing donors informed about the incredible difference their support makes to children’s lives.

Since our 20th anniversary in 2022, we have been reviewing the archives, the world around us and speaking to staff, supporters and stakeholders to refine our vision for the next twenty years. We look forward to sharing more on this with you in 2024, along with other exciting updates like a refresh of the AfriKids’ brand identity – designed to help amplify our story so we can do more.

I could talk about the many challenges – economic, security, climate – but I think we’re all aware of the many issues impacting the global community at the moment. It’s part of our job to reassure people we will overcome hurdles and prevail in the end. Make no mistake, the work is tough, sometimes crushingly so - but keeping the faith is not.

Every year I marvel at the resilience and determination I see across the AfriKids supporters, staff, the communities we work with, and in particular, the children we support. They convince me every day, that we will - and must - always find a way. Thank you for being a part of the AfriKids family. As ever, looking forward with positivity and courage.

Very best wishes,

Charlie Hay, CEO AfriKids

Our approach in the 60 communities

AfriKids believes in the power of communities. They hold the key to change. We listen to their needs and empower them to make change themselves. That way, we know that the impact we make together will be sustained. Since the very beginning in 2002, our programs have been 100% designed and delivered by local people who understand their communities and are trusted to make effective change.

Our locally-led model recognises that the reasons children’s rights are denied are complex and require holistic, community-led solutions for deep and lasting change. Our Happier Childhoods and Brighter Futures program aims to tackle all of the barriers preventing children from learning. It is shaped around three key themes: “Means, Motive and Opportunity”.

• Ensure Means:With the climate crisis threatening agriculture, alongside the threat of escalating conflict in West Africa, families are relying on children to earn money instead of going to school. AfriKids provides livelihood support to women to tackle the first barrier to children being in school: poverty. This includes business, money and skills training and microfinance to become financially secure. Their confidence grows, they gain power to make decisions and they can send their children to school.
• Build Motive:When communities have long endured poverty, education is often not a priority. We educate communities on the value of school and dangers of child labour and child marriage and ensure that every community member is investing in their children’s education.We also establish clubs for girls to learn about Sexual and Reproductive Health so they can protect themselves from harm. We educate communities on the value of school and dangers of child labour and child marriage and ensure that every community member is investing in their children’s education.
• Create Opportunity:AfriKids works with existing schools and service providers to enhance the accessibility and quality of education for children at all levels of school from Kindergarten to Junior High School. We train teachers to deliver gender-inclusive lessons, build toilets, provide ed-tech and set up STEM clubs for girls to broaden their career prospects. We also support the children most at-risk of dropping out of school with uniforms, schoolbooks and bicycles so they can stay in school.  

Our impact in 2023

Ensuring Means

• 1,255 women supported with skills and microfinance to grow businesses.
• With climate change severely impacting these communities as 70% are farmers, we trained 375 women in how to do climate-smart agriculture and trained 150 women to become beekeepers who protect bees and improve their income selling their honey.
• 96% of women increased their incomes including dressmakers, farmers, bakers, soap-makers and beekeepers.

Building Motive:

• 65,939 community leaders and members were educated on the importance of sending children to school and the dangers of child labour and child marriage.
• AfriKids’ radio and online campaigning to protect child rights reached 1.2m people in Ghana, changing attitudes and endorsing every child’s right to be safe and in school.

Creating Opportunity:

• We worked with 180 government schools to enhance access and quality of education delivery, supporting 33,717 children with an improved education.
• We trained 750 teachers from Kindergarten to Junior High School and 121 healthcare providers. They learn topics such as how to deliver play-based learning that we know is effective for little ones, they learn to make their classrooms playful with colour so they inspire children’s minds, how to discipline their class without the use of corporal punishment and how to deliver engaging and inclusive learning for all genders and abilities.
• Our mobile library visited schools to increase children’s access to reading and literacy. Watch it go village to village on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODpsl9u3t3E
• 2,000 girls attended our STEM Clubs to learn Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. These are subjects that are typically male dominated but they offer high paid careers. We want to see more girls encouraged to pursue these subjects in school so our Clubs provide hands-on learning for girls aged 12-15, the age where many girls in these deprived communities drop out of school to find work or marry. They learn topics such as robotics, science experiments, electrics and how to keep their communities clean and protect their environment from climate change. Watch what some of our conservation heroes have been making in the Clubs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LDSrPyxi_w
• We provided 800+ tablets to improve reading and writing for 3,000 children.
• We supported 2,500 children at risk of dropping out of school with food parcels, schoolbooks, uniforms, shoes and bicycles so that their family could keep them in school and learning.
• 97% of the children identified as the most at-risk of dropping out of school at primary level successfully transitioned to Junior High School.
• More than double the amount of girls are now achieving proficiency in STEM subjects after attending our STEM Clubs and 99% of girls do not agree that STEM careers are only for males, compared to 33% at the start of the project.
• Over three times the amount of teachers are now demonstrating equitable and inclusive teaching practices.

You can find more details of our highlights and challenges in AfriKids’ annual report attached.

Testimonials from people we’ve supported:

“AfriKids showed my community that girls should go to school too. Now I have friends, education and I will be a scientist when I grow up.” - STEM Club Member.

“Some years ago, it was difficult to even get a nurse in some of our communities because all the girls run away from STEM. So the introduction of the STEM courses in our districts will encourage the ladies to do science and thank god some of the ladies may go into nursing trainings and we are expecting them to come out and help their communities” - Mazid, one of the STEM club teachers we trained.

Lamisi dropped out of school due to pregnancy, but with AfriKids’ support she has successfully reintegrated back into school. She said: “I must confess that life has been brought back into my life, as I had given up on everything including education...your sensitization on the importance of supporting one another to school has really been a relief, as most of my classmates who used to despise me are now supporting me in diverse ways.”

Looking ahead

By 2026, AfriKids will have completed our programs in the 60 more communities. Our goal by this time is to have reached:

• 37,000 children across 180 schools will benefit with improved learning outcomes, including 18,277 girls.
• 12,230 families with improved knowledge, attitudes and practices towards education.
• Improved financial security for 1,200 women and their families.

Thank you so much for being on this important journey with us. We look forward to changing lives with you every day. Please if you have any questions or would like to discuss the impact of your support, please contact martha@afrikids.org.

Big smiles from all of us at AfriKids!

Links:

• AfriKids Annual Report 2023
• AfriKids' mobile library visiting villages to improve reading
• See what AfriKids STEM girls have been making!

We would like to thank each and every one of our supporters through GlobalGiving for your commitment and investment in transforming children's lives in northern Ghana with AfriKids this year. 

2023 was a year that bought unimaginable sadness, fear and economic turmoil, felt by so many families across the world. We hope we will never see another year like it. 

It was also the year that the world developed a new malaria vaccine that can be produced at mass scale, providing a ray of hope for Africa where 95% of malaria cases around the world are suffered. In fact, this new vaccine was first approved by Ghana. With inflation at 40% in the country driven by price rises in food, fuel, and fertiliser, the World Bank revealed in June that the cost-of-living crisis is estimated to have pushed 850,000 Ghanaian’s into poverty, joining the six million people already living on less than a dollar a day. An affordable vaccine against malaria - their biggest killer - could dramatically change life in Ghana.

And let’s not forget, it was the year that Google turned fabulously pink and Barbie sparked global conversations on female empowerment and equality for all, a message resonating loud and proud with space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock who worked with AfriKids to give girls in northern Ghana the chance to be the world’s next scientists.

The difference you’ve made

Your donation was so important for us and the thousands of families we supported in 2023. It supported us to reach 78,190 children and community members across northern Ghana throughout the year, including:

• 52,470 people with better healthcare,
• 25,940 people with improved child protection services, and
• 47,838 people with quality education.

The context

Your funding came at a critical time - not only to increase AfriKids’ footprint in northern Ghana but to be there for families at a time when the World Bank estimated that 850,000 Ghanaians were pushed into poverty as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. Many of these families are living in the more marginalised northern regions of Ghana where your funds ensured that the crisis did not affect the chances of children being healthy, safe and in school. Further challenges of climate change and local conflict this year also threatened children’s safety and futures, particularly as 70% of families in the region rely on subsistence farming for their income and to feed their families and your partnership enabled us to help them adapt and mitigate these challenges.

Your impact

Our focus this past year was on expanding AfriKids in three new districts (60 communities) of northern Ghana: Builsa South, Binduri and Mamprugu-Moagduri. We looked at the multiple barriers facing children, in particular the most vulnerable such as girls, children with special needs and children living in extreme poverty. We used our proven three-tiered holistic approach to tackle these barriers at their root: 1. Provide means, 2. Build motive, 3. Create opportunity – all the while keeping the AfriKids’ philosophy of listening to local communities and empowering them to make sustainable changes very much at the heart of our theory of change. Here are some of the highlights of how your funds were used to transform children’s lives:

PROVIDE MEANS

• 756 women received business skills training and microfinance to grow their incomes, including our first 150 beekeepers!
• (OUTCOME): 96% of women in our livelihoods programme increased their net incomes after our support.
• We identified the children most at risk of dropping out of school in 60 rural communities, resulting in 2,500 children being supported with schoolbooks, uniforms and food parcels so their family could keep them in school, as well as shoes and bicycles so they could travel to school.
• (OUTCOME): 97% of the most at-risk children we’re supporting at primary level have successfully transitioned to Junior High School.

BUILD MOTIVE

• Often when costs rise, child and forced marriage also increases. We launched Child Rights Clubs in 60 communities for children, especially girls, to learn about their rights and gain the confidence to fight for what they believe is right, such as their right to choose their futures. They are learning how to protect themselves from forced marriage and early pregnancy - like Monica whose story you can read below. We also provided over 600 reusable sanitary pads to girls who are unable to afford them because these items have incurred huge taxes this past year and girls are missing school as a result (see image attached of girls receiving their sanitary pads). 
• We conducted community events (called Durbars) and radio campaigns to educate communities about the dangers of child marriage and child labour and the benefits of schooling. These messages reached 57,000+ people in Ghana, including key leaders capable of making widespread change for children in their communities, now and in the future.
• (OUTCOME): The town of Uwasi enacted a law that any man who abducts or marries a school girl will be fined one cow - leading the way in the fight for equality for all.

CREATE OPPORTUNITY

• We supported schools and healthcare centres to have the necessary skills and resources to ensure that all children, regardless of their age, gender, abilities and socio-economic status, can receive a quality basic education and can access healthcare.
• Today, 1 in 4 children are out of school in northern Ghana, including 1 in 2 women and girls. We launched evening catch-up classes for 700+ children who are not in school so they could accelerate their learning and transition into formal education and drove mobile libraries around schools and communities to enhance literacy rates. Click here to watch a video of the mobile libraries in action.
• Currently only 35% of teachers are adequately trained so we trained 750 teachers and headteachers across 60 schools to improve children’s learning - all the way from kindergarten to junior high school. For example, kindergarten teachers are taught how to make their classrooms fun as we know this is how little ones learn best. Using paints, songs, decorated walls, toys and educational techniques such as phonics, they are providing improved education for children. They also learn how to eradicate the use of corporal punishment in their classes. After our training, one teacher said: “We used to resort to corporal punishment as a means of correcting children or forcing them to learn. I now understand the effect the use of the cane has on the child’s learning and hence I do not use the cane again.”
• We trained 169 healthcare professionals and ran health screenings for 4,500 children in schools to diagnose complications such as hearing and visual impediments, malaria, and HIV/Aids.
• We worked with headteachers and school committees to install WASH facilities and ramps in their schools so that girls and children with disabilities are able to attend.
• We enhanced the learning opportunities for children in school by provided 800+ tablets to improve reading and writing for 3,000 children, and STEM Clubs for 1,359 girls to boost their opportunities (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths classes). Tablets have proven to enhance literacy and numeracy rates by up to 40% in one year, and after a year in our STEM Club, 99% of girls did not agree that STEM careers are only for males, compared to 33% at the start of the project. You can see the image attached of girls learning robotics in their STEM Club. 
• We provided 1-2-1 physiotherapy support to 292 children with special needs and their families to help them sit and stand. This service is the only one of its kind in northern Ghana, where children with disabilities are still seen by some traditional communities as ‘spirit children’ and can be neglected, abused and even killed because they are feared to bring bad luck to a community. These clinics are supporting children to live a full life. We were also proud to open our 5^th physiotherapy clinic in one of our new districts after our survey found that 80% of children with special needs and their families were facing abuse due to their conditions.

Looking ahead, we are using lessons from our work last year in the new districts to inform and refine our model to focus on the most high-impact, sustainable solutions. Going forward, we see more emphasis on ensuring that children are learning as the best investment to break the cycle of poverty, as well as using our position as the leading NGO for children in the region to influence policy changes that can make transformational change for all children across Ghana. As we’re testing our model in new environments, thanks to your support, we are growing the evidence of what works and what doesn’t work, which will be a powerful tool to build support for change. We also know the importance of collaboration to deliver solutions at scale and we’re excited to grow our partnerships with the likes of UNICEF, WaterAid, USAID as well as local governments and leaders in 2024.

 Monica's story

Last year, Barbie took over our screens championing the message that women can achieve anything. Each day, strong women across the world defy gender constraints and prove this in their communities. AfriKids is working with the next generation of girls in northern Ghana to fearlessly pursue their dreams and break barriers. One of these girls is Monica.

Last year Monica, pictured below, was abducted for forced marriage. She is 14 years old. 

She was taken with her friend, Erica, from their village in Mamprugu-Moagduri, one of AfriKids’ three new districts. Earlier in the year, AfriKids launched a Child Rights Club* in Monica’s school and her and Erica were two of our first members. Through activities such as drama, dance and quizzes, they accessed stigma-free learning about the dangers of forced marriage and young pregnancy, and how to protect themselves from gender-based violence. 

Forced marriage often increases when the cost-of-living rises, when families have to make unimaginable decisions to survive. Education and community awareness are essential for protecting girls during these times. After all, children whose mothers have no education are 15 times more likely to be married before their 15th birthday. Yet, today 1 in 3 girls are not in school.

Monica’s abductors took her and Erica to another village but on the journey Erica managed to escape. Having got away, she ran straight to her AfriKids Child Rights Clubs to get help. As a group, the Club members marched to the Chief, the most influential figure in their community, for his support. After two days in the abductor’s home, Monica was rescued with AfriKids’ help. She is now back with her family going through counselling and back in school with Erica. We’re continuing to support her - and hundreds of other vulnerable girls like her - with uniforms, schoolbooks and food packages to help them stay in school. We are also giving them reusable sanitary pads free of charge as these items have been classified as luxury goods and incurred huge taxes this year, making them unaffordable for many girls and resulting in missed school days.

Having settled back into school, Monica tells us that she wants to be Police Officer, saying “I want to fight for justice for girls like me”.

Children seen and heard to be standing up for their rights is a powerful sign of change. As a result of our Child Rights clubs, there was a 90% increase in girls’ enrolment in primary school.

M'pusiah - Thank you 

We’re really excited about our plans for the coming year and hope that you will continue to join us to bring even more smiles to little faces. 

Sincerest thanks and big smiles from everyone at AfriKids.