WUZDA Ghana

WUZDA Ghana Commemorates Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2023

WUZDA Ghana in collaboration with its girl child empowerment partner, Mundo Cooperante, has commemorated this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, with focus on “breaking the silence around menstrual hygiene and empowering girls through education”.

The theme for World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2023, is “making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030. The overarching goal is to build a world where no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030”, with the hashtag “WeAreCommitted”.

WUZDA Ghana believes that supporting girls and promoting health and menstrual education is an everyday thing, hence the organization’s continuous reminder about menstruation, by providing menstrual hygiene education to girls in communities across Ghana.

Excerpts of a call-to-action document and ‘MHD – 2023’ report by WUZDA Ghana reaffirms the organization’s commitment to ensuring girls are empowered in all areas, including menstruation.

Issues such as the empowerment of girls through education, stigma, myths and taboos, as well as access to menstrual products have been highlighted in the document.

Major issues including lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools continue to hinder the success to the fight against the negative effects of menstruation on education.

Some schools in communities in rural Northern Ghana have dilapidated classroom blocks without toilets and urinals, or broken down or poorly managed toilets and urinals, which expose the girls to infections after use.

Lack of access to clean water by institutions and communities also thwart the efforts of achieving proper sanitation and menstrual hygiene.

WUZDA Ghana has over the years made it a priority to support schools with sanitation and water facilities, for girls to be able to attend and stay in school during menstruation.

Many parents in rural Ghana cannot afford to buy menstrual products for their girls during menstruation, due to their poor economic statuses. This has in many cases affected the education of the children, by reducing the attendance of girls to school.

The ‘MHD – 2023’ document by WUZDA Ghana says “By working with local partners and suppliers, we strive to ensure a consistent supply of safe and reliable menstrual products, removing the financial burden that often prevent girls from attending school regularly”.

The organization has been providing girls in basic schools with reusable menstrual pads and other products, to help them attend and stay in school during menstruation.

This has increased school enrollment and attendance for girls, especially in some basic schools in the Northern and Savannah Regions of Ghana.

The 2023 Menstrual Hygiene Day was commemorated in partnership with Mundo Cooperante.

WUZDA CREATES VSLA GROUP IN ZAAZI COMMUNITY

WUZDA Ghana today introduced the Village Savings and Loans concept to the people of Zaazi a farming community in the Savelugu Municipality. The initiative is aimed at promoting the spirit of savings in the community members and helping raise their livelihood involvement in development.

The Village Savings and Loans scheme provides community members an opportunity to contribute to the development of their areas through the money they contribute. This initiative is made up of three components. The loan fund offers small-scale loans to members with interest, the welfare fund which is aimed at helping members to provide social amenities in their community, and the sanitation fund which is aimed at providing members an opportunity to contribute funds towards the acquisition of household latrines for their homes.

Speaking at the event the chairman of the group Mr. Alhassan Mohammed thanked WUZDA-GHANA for giving them practical training on money saving and proper record keeping and pledged to oversee the activities of the VLSA group is properly done.

Members of the Zaazi VLSA group expressed their appreciation to WUZDA for coming out with this initiative.

Members contribute a minimum of two Ghana cedi a day based on their current financial strength based on their daily income as agreed by all members, The contributions are done at a weekly meeting for a period of twelve months and saved mostly in metal boxes These boxes are kept under lock and key. These contributions will be saved and supervised by representatives chosen by the VSLA members themselves and given as loans when a member needs them for the expansion of their businesses and other trades.

WUZDA Ghana Project Communities Harvesting for 2022 Crop Season

The Farm – Promoting Urban Organic Waste for Food and Livelihood Security (FaPUOWaFLiS) project is being implemented in ten communities in the northern region of Ghana.

Some 101 direct and indirect farms in communities are all engaged mostly in vegetable cultivation with the support of WUZDA Ghana’s drip irrigation technology, which enables the farmers to grow crops in both the rainy and dry seasons.

Following the 2022 crop season, field officers visited Tonjin, Libiga and Zaazei to monitor the harvesting of vegetables on the farms and to document some of the challenges the farmers faced during their work on the farms during the season, to allow for discussions to begin on surmounting them.

Upon the visit, the team realized an innovation at the Libiga farm, where the farmers planted maize alongside the vegetables, to take advantage of the rains this year. The officers found the maize to be in good condition.

At Tonjin, there were a total of 1,224 potatoes planted on 408 ridges, which means the potatoes have enough spacing to be able to breathe and absorb the right amount of water needed for their growth. The crops were at growth stage and stretching their vines all over in the field.

In Zaazei, the field is being used for the cultivation of beans, which is also being harvested. At the time of the team’s visit, 20 bowls of the grains had been harvested and sold Gh¢500.00, as a bowl of the beans cost Gh¢25.00.

The harvesting of the crops is still ongoing on all the FaPUOWaFLiS farms, as the field officers continue their monitoring visits.

One of the key challenges found in the communities by the officers is the farmers’ lack of knowledge about the use of the drip irrigation, which made it unfortunately incumbent for them to be uninstalled.

The other challenge found was the lack of drainage around the farms, which made it easy for flooding to occur, from which some of the crops were taken over by flood waters due to the heavy rains.

The Farm – Promoting Urban Organic Waste for Food and Livelihood Security (FaPUOWaFLiS) project is being funded by Bread for the World.

CONIWAS Celebrates National WASH Week

The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in the water and sanitation sector (CONIWAS), has commemorated the maiden edition of the National WASH Week, across the three zones of Ghana.

The idea, which was put into action, was birthed at the 2021 National MOLE Conference which took place at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, under the theme: “Repositioning the WASH Sector for Emergency Response and Sustainable Development”.

The members of CONIWAS at the conference discussed the need for there to be a platform separate from MOLE, which occurs once a year, to provide another opportunity for more awareness to be created for water and sanitation issues in the country, as well as to provide visibility for members of CONIWAS.

As a result, there was an agreement across the membership for the National WASH Week to be held once every year, in a period preceding the bigger platform for WASH in Ghana; ,MOLE Conference.

At the conference, the major activities agreed to be implemented for the WASH Week celebration were Breakfast Meeting, WASH Awareness creation on radio and television, Townhall meeting, showcasing of WASH Products and services by CONIWAS members, engagement with MMDAs to discuss plans and challenges on WASH, as well as advocacy for better allocations to WASH by governments.

Of these activities, the southern and middle zones of CONIWAS held the Breakfast Meeting and floats to create awareness on WASH and the new initiative of the National WASH Week celebration.

The northern zone, led by the Training Coordinator and M & E Officer for WUZDA Ghana, who doubles as the northern Zonal Coordinator, Ibrahim Abdul Ganiyu and the National Vice Chairperson, Beata Akanyani, expanded the celebration to one that lasted for a week, which gave each day a special activity.

The maiden Ghana WASH Week Celebration was from the 19^th to 23^rd September, 2022, under the theme: “Pursuing Greater Prioritization and Behaviour Change for Sustainable Safe Drinking Water and Environmental Sanitation”.

The week – long activities in the northern zone was kick started with a Breakfast Meeting, where key stakeholders present, discussed key issues and challenges confronting the WASH sector in Ghana, particularly the northern sector.

Key stakeholders including the Northern Regional Minister, the northern regional coordinating director and chiefs from some key communities in and around Tamale were present, and took turns to make suggestions on what could be done to improve the supply of water and to ensure proper sanitation in the northern zone.

The issue of sand winning which affects the quality of water pumped from the Dalun water treatment site was a major part of the discussions at the breakfast meeting.

Chiefs were called on to desist from intervening on behalf of persons who are arrested over sanitation and water related offenses, including those who engage in sand winning close to the Dalun water treatment site.

**Members of CONIWAS walk through major streets of Tamale**

There were also activities including a walk through some major streets of Tamale to campaign for a clean Ghana, as well as television and radio discussions on solving sanitation challenges in homes.

Other activities are town hall meeting where discussions were held on the measures that could be taken to properly punish sanitation offenders, where a call was made for the establishment of a sanitation court in Tamale, with the mandate for prosecuting only sanitation related offenses.

**Town hall meeting as part of the Ghana WASH Week Celebration 202**2

On the sidelines of the town hall meeting, an exhibition of WASH products and services was made by some CONIWAS members, to showcase the various toilet and water technologies they have to the public.

The national WASH Week rounded off with a hygiene promotion exercise in basic schools, where a team from northern zone of CONIWAS visited the Prisons School Complex and the Bambawiya basic school to educate the students and schools authorities about the need for proper hygiene observance, as well as listen to some of the WASH related challenges the schools may be battling.

The Ghana WASH Week celebration as envisaged by members of CONIWAS, has provided another platform for the coalition to engage on the various sanitation issues in Ghana before MOLE Conference.

The maiden celebration of the Ghana WASH Week by CONIWAS was supported by UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, WUZDA Ghana, Global Communities, Afram Plains Development Organization and WaterAid.

WUZDA Ghana Monthly Round up of Major Activities for August

Field Visits on FaPUOWaFLiS Project

The field team on the Farm – Promoting Urban Organic Waste for Food and Livelihood Security (FaPUOWaFLiS) project visited the various communities for monitoring on how the crops were faring since the farmers planted them.

These monitoring visits were carried out by the Program Officer in charge of Agronomy, Mustapha Fuseini and the Drip Technician, Dawuda Sulemana.

Visits to Prisons School Complex and Communities on “The Right to be a Girl”

Program Officer in charge of Gender and WASH Marketing, Sulemana Abdul Karim, M & E Officer, Ibrahim Abdul Ganiyu, Media and Communitions Officer, Shaibu Awudu, together with German Volunteer, Matthias Rauthman, paid visits to the Prisons School Complex in the Sagnarigu Municipality and Dakpemyili in the North East Gonja District of the Savannah Region.

These visits were in preparation for the third phase implementation of the “Right to be a Girl – Policy Prioritization as Factor” project, which starts in September, 2022.

Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly Sanitation Bazaar

WUZDA Ghana, as a partner in development in the Sagnarigu Municipality, was invited by the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly to take part in a sanitation bazaar it has organized for the partners to showcase the varieties and options they have, to help in improving services and to end open defecation in the municipality.

WUZDA Ghana took the opportunity to exhibit the various toilet options it has, in innovation solution, for the benefit of households and institutions’ sanitation improvement.

Vaccine Hesitancy Project Activities in Buipe

The Vaccine hesitancy project, known as the “ProBESPCoD”, is being implemented in communities in the Northern and Savannah Regions. This is being carried out by eight organizations, who are responsible for 2 communities each within the target districts.

WUZDA Ghana, is responsible for the implementation of the activities in Yipala in Buipe and Kotia and Amanja in the Central Gonja District of the Savannah Region.

As part of the activities in August, WUZDA Ghana carried out a data collection exercise, which targeted the health personnel to ascertain the level of hesitancy that still exists in the target communities.

Also, a durbar and meeting with the communities was held for purposes of sensitization and feedback collection on the outcome of the activities implemented so far.

Press Release: RE: International Day of the African Child – IDAC 2022

16th June, 2022

WUZDA Ghana has over the years been championing the course of ensuring all children of school going age get the opportunity to be in school. This, the organization believes is one of the surest ways the country can begin to reduce the harmful effects that accompany child school drop outs.

The International Day of the African Child 2022 calls for advocacy for the child to have access to quality education without barriers.

The theme “Eliminating harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice Since 2013”, puts side by side, the efforts of policy makers and implementers, as well as complimenting agencies such as WUZDA Ghana, to push efforts aimed at making education much better for the African child.

WUZDA Ghana in all our programmes put the interests of the child ahead, because we believe if the rights of the child are protected well enough, the narrative will be changed, with society raising more responsible adults.

Even our various programmatic approaches which seek to empower the woman, put the child as the priority, where we believe the woman’s empowerment helps her to better support the child’s education and health.

Aside our projects which directly focus on improving education and ending child marriage, providing access to safe sanitation services to households and institutions, our vegetable cultivation support project for rural communities known as “FaPUOWaFLiS”, enables households to engage in economically viable farming, which helps improve their nutrition and economic wellbeing, extending mainly to the child.

The following are ways you can join in celebration of the African child and to make a difference in your community:

1. Make a donation to a child facility that is in need.

2. Volunteer at a local school in your community or spend some quality time with some kids, with the little you have.

3. Learn more about the issues of Africa, her history, her various peoples as well as her kids and their challenges, or teach it to others.

Make a difference today!

Happy African Child Day!

Shaibu Awudu

(Media/ Communications Officer)

PRESS RELEASE – International Earth Day 2022 – 22nd April, 2022

By: WUZDA Ghana Communications

What if nature existed not? What if the environment was not conducive enough to house humans? What if humans had extreme difficulty in breathing and living, due to the absence of nature? Is that even possible?

On Earth Day today, WUZDA Ghana needs you to reflect on these questions, which could ‘kill’ mother earth, if you do not check your activities.

You can help build a future where nature and people thrive. It starts with how you treat the environment from today.

Poor sanitation is one of the ways the nature suffers from human activity. According to the Water and Sanitation Programme of Ghana’s website, in Ghana, approximately 19,000 Ghanaians, including 5,100 children under 5, die each year from diarrhea – nearly 90% of which is directly attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

WUZDA Ghana’s “Farm – Promoting Urban Organic Waste for Food and Livelihood Security” project, contributes to saving freshwater and preserving water sources in the rural areas of Northern Ghana, with its usage of drip technology for watering vegetables in some communities.

The project also encourages the use of organic compost for the cultivation of the vegetables, to ensure nature breaths fine.

Through the ‘FaPUOWAFLiS’ project, we protect the Climate, Forests, Freshwater and ensure Food Security.

What are you doing? You can go from zero to planet hero this 2022! “Invest In our Planet“, as the theme for Earth Day – 2022, enjoins you to engage in “tiny actions” such as, source sustainable produce, reuse and upcycle waste, reduce food waste and reconnect with nature.

Take action today! It involves you! Mother earth can either die or survive through your action!

Happy International Earth Day 2022!

Signed

Shaibu Awudu – Media and Communications Officer

WUZDA Ghana on IDSC – 2022; call for Policy and Action as Means to Ending Streetism

The International Day for Street Children – 2022 has once again provided an opportunity for government agencies in charge of child welfare, as well as the CSO, to reflect on efforts being put into ridding the streets of children who go through unimaginable hardships to live.

WUZDA Ghana has over the years taken interest in the welfare of all children and has provided several platforms through which stakeholders can engage and support street – connected children, to live like any other child.

This year’s IDSC, as celebrated every 12^th April, was under the global theme “Stories from the street; building trust, building futures”, out of which WUZDA Ghana had a celebration theme, as ““Needs of the street child, the story so far, pushing for better lives for street – connected children”.

This celebration theme, is supposed to remind all stakeholders, including government agencies in charge of child welfare, about the basic and various needs of the street child, as well as the strategies that could be employed to end the menace of streetism.

The activities for the year’s celebration of the IDSC included radio discussions to remind the public about the societal responsibility to ending streetism.

Radio platforms such as Radio Justice, Radio Tawasul, Radio Tamale and Neesim FM, were used to send out messages of call for participation in discussions about the need for society to know and pay attention to the needs of the street child.

This year, WUZDA Ghana in partnership with Chance for Children and the Consortium for Street Children, as funded by Mundo Cooperante, with data gathered from the previous year’s IDSC, fed 140 street children along the Aboabo market streets and in the Tamale Central market.

The children were elated to have enjoyed hot and well cooked meals with meat and drinks, some for the first time and others for the first time in a long while.

WUZDA Ghana found that some of the children on the streets of Tamale live with their parents; single or both, who do not care about their welfare, which is why the child would go through the streets every day to find what to feed on and get back home very late at night to sleep.

This is why this year’s activities also targeted some parents of the children to begin engaging, to ascertain the reasons behind their pushing responsibility of their children to the streets.

There was a street procession by supposed leaderships of the street children, which ended with the children presenting petitions to the Northern Region’s Department of Children and the Tamale Metropolitan Department of Social Welfare, on their needs as they are made live on the streets.

During the procession, the children wielded placards, some of which read “ Build our stories, build our futures”, “we street kids are going through a lot”, help us, we eat and sleep on the streets”, “street children deserve better”, etc.

On the 12^th, which was used to climax the entire celebration, stakeholders were brought together in a forum, to discuss the various key and actionable approaches that must be employed to reduce the numbers of street children especially beginning from the streets of Tamale.

The stakeholders who were government agencies on child protection and welfare at the forum included the Department of Children, Department of Social Welfare, Department of Gender, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the National Commission on Civic Education, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Police Service.

The other stakeholders included Chance for Children, Fountain of Blessings for Nations, Songtaba Self Help initiative, Sung Foundation, as well as the media.

Stakeholder after stakeholder, took turns and to speak and all called for plans and policies to be put in place by governments to forge a path for all stakeholders to follow, where all activities on streetism could be streamlined, to avoid duplication of efforts and to help achieve concrete results.

The influx of foreign children on the streets of Tamale who are allegedly brought in by older men and women for business, was not left out of the discussion, where the Ghana Immigration Service indicated that there are efforts being made to ensure the phenomenon is curtailed.

Some challenges were outlined, as faced by the government agencies in charge of the welfare and protection of children, mainly being the lack of, or inadequate financial and human resources, to allow for proper implementation and monitoring of the already existing plans and policies on protecting the rights of children, to which end, there would be drastic reduction in the numbers of street children.

The key action plan from this year’s IDSC celebration and especially, the stakeholder engagement is the creation of a platform for continuous engagements and discussions on way forward on how to end streetism.

WUZDA Ghana’s celebration of the International Day for Street Children – 2022, was in partnership with the Consortium for Street Children, Chance for Children, and funded by Mundo Cooperante.

WUZDA Ghana and Partners Round off First Quarter Activities under CEsMASPRED Project

The “Cost – Effective Strategy Influencing Mass Response to COVID – 19 Vaccine” (CEsMASPRED), being implemented by WUZDA Ghana and its local partners under the Alliance for Future Generations (AFG – Ghana), is a project which aims at complementing the various efforts by the government and some private bodies, towards the recording of 100% vaccination of Ghanaians against the COVID – 19 pandemic.

As of 11^th February, 2022, a total of 12,173,367 doses of the COVID – 19 vaccines had been administered across the country. Of this, 4,626,623 (23.1%) of the 20 million of the targeted Ghanaians had been fully vaccinated of the pandemic.

Also, out of the 20 million Ghanaians targeted, 8,532,623 (42.7%) have received at least 1 dose of vaccine, while 91,057 persons have received their first booster dose.

The Cost – Effective Strategy Influencing Mass Response to COVID – 19 Vaccine “CEsMASPRED) project, is contributing in a number of ways, to help in the achievement of the national targets of population to be vaccinated within a period.

The CEsMASPRED’s main objective is to contribute to countering the hesitancy among the populace, regarding the vaccine, as well as break the myths and misconceptions surrounding it, with the provision of information.

Hesitancy among the people regarding the COVID – 19 vaccine, has grown, especially in the rural areas of the Northern Ghana, where many still believe the virus does not even exist, hence, no need for them to be vaccinated.

The “CEsMASPRED” project is being implemented by WUZDA Ghana and 6 other NGOs as implementing partners, in 7 MMDAs across the Northern and Savannah Regions, ie; Tamale Metropolis, Yendi, Savelugu and Sagnarigu Municipalities, Nanton, Central and West Gonja Districts.

Two communities in each MMDA, have been made direct beneficiaries of the eighteen month project, which took off in December, 2021 and will end in May, 2023.

The implementing partners are drawn from the Alliance for Future Generations (AFG – Ghana), to which WUZDA Ghana is a member and hosts the Chair; the highest position in the Alliance.

The IPs include Songtaba, FoRD – Ghana, IMA, WUZDA Ghana, CIWED, CEO and AFORD Foundation.

The activities for the first quarter for each IP, included an inception exercise in each of the communities, baseline data collection, community durbar in each community and a capacity building exercise for the community health volunteers who would be gathering information on the state of vaccination and sending out information from the IP to the residents.

Each implementing partner, is working in two communities in two MMDAs, but has an additional responsibility of being a technical reference to a specific call of a wider area of development.

This additional responsibility, is expected to help the communities in the solutions of some of their long – term developmental challenges.

The 18 – month “Cost – Effective Strategy Influencing Mass Response to COVID – 19 Vaccine – CEsMASPRED” project, is being funded by Difaem.

The project is also in close collaboration with the Ghana Health Service in the respective MMDAs.

Below are photos of the activities from each IP’s in the communities.

WUZDA Ghana’s activities in Buipe Yipala and Kotia and Amanja in Yapei – Central Gonja District>>>

FoRD Ghana’s Activities in Nyoglo and Libiga in the Savelugu Municipality>>>

AFORD Foundation’s Activities in Damongo and Laribanga in the West Gonja Municipality>>>

Songtaba’s Activities in Gnani and Yendi in the Yendi Municipality>>>

IMA’s Activities in Wovogu and Wovoguma in the Sagnarigu Municipality>>>

CEO’s Activities in Changnaayili in the Tamale Metropolis>>>

CIWED’s Activities in Zieng and Tampion in the Nanton District>>>

WUZDA Ghana Provides Cash Credit to Support Rural Women in Income Generation

Women in Bamvim Dohini have been fortunate to have benefited from WUZDA Ghana’s credit support to improve on their various trading activities, under WUZDA Ghana’s Women Income Generation Support, as part of the Livelihood Initiatives programme.

The aim of the credit support, is to help raise the level of income generation by women in rural communities across northern Ghana, through the various economic activities they are engaged in.

Over the past 10 years, WUZDA Ghana has been supporting women in communities in and around Tamale, both in cash and training, to aid them better manage their trading activities.

In December, 2021, the Suglo Nbori Buni Women Group in Bamvim Dohini, which has a membership of 15, was advanced with a total amount of Gh¢16,900 as credit support, which was distributed across, for improvement of their various petty trades.

The women, who are mostly involved in buying and selling of wares and cooked food, were put together in a grouping, to increase their capacities and understanding in group and household management.

This group formation and management is also meant to help WUZDA Ghana in the recovery of the funds advanced to the women.

Officer in charge of Marketing and Credit, Salifu Mahamud, who also encourages the women to join a group of Village Savings and Loans Association in the community to help check the recovery process, has the responsibility of providing periodic business capacity support to the women and to monitor their trading activities for improvements.

The payment of the credit, is done on a weekly basis, as the officer visits and meets with the group, whose members agree on an amount to be paid periodically.

These funds are from a support fund instituted by WUZDA Ghana, meant to be revolving, which growth is monitored annually, with the management of it reviewed within that period if need be.