Happier childhoods and brighter futures

Every year, we celebrate thousands of children who defy the odds and achieve remarkable change - a powerful reminder of their resilience, potential, and the transformative impact of opportunity. One of the children we're celebrating this year is Ramatu. Raised in a poor household by a single parent, Ramatu was 15 when she was rescued from child labour, thousands of miles from home. Sleeping on the streets of Ghana’s capital city, she was highly vulnerable to abuse. Once returned home, she came back to school and was placed in a class two-years below her age because of missed time. Undeterred and undefeated, last year Ramatu, aged 16, scored the highest exam results not only in her school but in her entire district. You can read what she’s doing now in the attached document.

Together you with, our community of global supporters, so far in 2025 our programmes have touched the lives of 29,653 people in northern Ghana – including 26,145 children like Ramatu.

The rains have finally arrived in these 60 rural communities we’re working in, after 6 long months of dry season and hunger. Historically, we see lots of absences in school whilst children are helping their families on the farm – planting seeds, caring for livestock and fetching water – but thanks to your support, AfriKids’ campaigning about the importance of education and our support of the poorest families is enabling children to stay in school and continue learning – giving hope for a future without poverty.

With your help, AfriKids field staff delivered many activities over the quarter, including:

• Support for girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) continued in our after-school Clubs, serving over 1,200 girls. We were delighted to support eight of these students to advance to senior high school, receiving essential supplies for the new term. Aged 16, this is a time when many girls drop out of school as they are not obliged to continue education but the Clubs are inspiring girls to pursue their education and pave the way for a more prosperous future.

• Outreach efforts included radio campaigns on the Radio, reaching over 10,000 listeners with the message to prioritise their children safety’s and invest in their education. These featured female role models and focused on breaking gender stereotypes in science, with inspiring messages like, “Science is not just for boys – it’s for dreamers, doers and problem solvers.”

• We held a STEM Girls’ Clinic in Builsa South district, engaging 521 girls and 27 boys in inspiring sessions led by female professionals, including Dr. Sandra Atindana, whose personal story of being an orphan resonated strongly with students. The clinic encouraged open dialogue on academic and personal challenges, prompting 18 girls to seek further support.

• In addition, 782 women were supported with business training and microfinance to enhance their incomes through our Family Livelihoods Programme. In supporting mothers to add to their family income, we give families the means to send their children to school instead of child labour and prevent girls from being married where they are vulnerable to abuse. One of the key successes of this work in Q1 was launching a new partnership with social enterprise, ORGIIS Ghana. They export Sorghum, a hardy, drought-resistant cereal grain that is used in food, beverages and animal feed around the world. 754 groups of women in our Family Livelihoods Programme are expected to be trained on how to cultivate and pick Sorghum to be used in this international value chain. If you drink Guiness then you may soon be drinking the same produce they’ve picked! These are all mothers of children who we have identified as high risk of dropping out of school due to poverty, and the value chain presents a major opportunity to stabilise and increase their income.

• 62 teachers received training on how to deliver inclusive and engaging lessons.

All of this work would not be possible without the backing of our community around the world. We hope you will stay on this journey with us and unlock the power of thousands more children so they can thrive.

We recently launched a new programme called Community Champions where you can team up with a community and you will help all of their children to be safe and go to school. It's a chance for you to dive deeper into the special culture of rural life in Ghana and learn from their sense of community and hope. If you'd like to find out how you, your family or your company can become a Community Champion, please email martha@afrikids.org. 

Finally, for those of you who travel to London, we are holding an event on Wednesday 17^th September in central London and we would be thrilled if you could join us. Please get in touch with Martha at AfriKids (martha@afrikids.org) for more information or with any questions you may have about the impact we have made together.

M’pusiah as they in Fra Fra, the local language in northern Ghana – thank you so much for being on this exciting journey with us. We can’t wait to change more lives with you.

• Ramatus_Journey.pdf (PDF)