ActionAid began operating in Ghana in 1990. Our key focus areas are education, water, health and livelihoods.
Ghana was the first black nation to gain independence – in 1957. About the same size as Britain, Ghana is home to 22 million people. Seventy per cent of Ghana’s people depend on subsistence farming to survive. Droughts and floods are common, and many families regularly experience severe food shortages.
Child sponsorship in Ghana
Sponsor a child in GhanaSchool girls like Stella Abanga (13, pictured right) feel proud to be sponsored and help raise funds for their community, as well as improving their reading and writing skills. Few girls stay on to higher education in Ghana, but money from sponsorships is helping girls develop into leaders.
ActionAid works with communities to establish informal education centres where children can gain basic literacy and numeracy skills. Classes are organised to fit around children’s other duties. We are helping parents to repair and improve state primary school buildings, and we support teacher training and provide much-needed teaching materials.
Health and development in Ghana
ActionAid’s adult literacy programme, Reflect, has proved far more successful than conventional approaches. With ActionAid’s support, many communities have dug wells and installed handpumps, giving access to safe drinking water.
ActionAid is supporting the Ministry of Health in its efforts to improve rural services. We are educating traditional birth attendants and the community in matters of basic health, hygiene and sanitation. We train farmers in agricultural techniques, run a seed credit programme, and provide savings and credit facilities to enable women to invest in small businesses to increase family incomes.
How you can help
When you sponsor a child in Ghana, you'll be providing the resources for real, long-term change. You'll get two letters a year from the child you sponsor, and updates from the country programme to tell you how the money you are spending is changing the community your child lives in.
