African Assistance Plan
African Assistance Plan is a Christian organization working in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation and micro-finance, particularly in the Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions. Established in 1986 and firmly grounded in the principles of Christianity, AAP works from a ministry outreach approach to provide uniforms, books and scholarships to needy school children and construct school buildings. In the area of health, they provide preventative health education and medical care, immunizations and food supplements. They also provide water well drilling, and micro-finance loans. Furthermore, they have established a leadership college in Sunyani and radio ministry with various FM stations across the country.
Sunyani, Brong Ahafo Region http://www.africaassistanceplan.org/
Afrikids
AfriKids is a Child Rights organization working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the Upper East Region. With origins tracing back to 1997, they became a registered charity in 2005. Their work includes foster homes, schools and street child centres and initiatives that tackle complex cultural issues including child trafficking, child labour and the spirit child phenomenon. They work with the local people to uncover their needs and attempt to provide sustainability for their programs through the ownership and operation of a number of businesses including a medical centre, an eco-lodge and several ethical trade programs.
Bolgatanga/Sirigu, Upper East Region
AwaaWaa2
AwaaWaa2 is a registered charity set up to provide specialist services to children and young people with communication disabilities and their families. The service started shortly after 2005, addressing the need within Ghana to provide speech and language therapy services to children with such disabilities. Through early intervention in the form of language groups, outreach services, assessments, reviews and individual therapy AwaaWaa2 seeks to alter the effects of these disabilities and provide an opportunity for children to succeed in school and their communities.
Accra, Greater Accra Region
Challenging Heights
Challenging Heights rescues and helps provide education for children who have returned from slavery and the worst forms of child labor. Founded by a survivor of child trafficking and child labor, its mission is to ensure a secured, protected and dignified future and life for children and youth by promoting their rights, education and health. Established in 2007, it also supports at-risk and poor families and communities to ensure that children are protected from slavery and the worst forms of child labor through education. This organization also helps families improve their income levels to ensure school attendance of returned children and to enable fishing communities and home communities reject the sale and exploitation of children, especially in the Central and Volta Regions.
Winneba, Central Region
http://www.challengingheights.org/index.html
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)
CHRAJ is a quasi-governmental (autonomous) organization that focuses on human rights and freedoms (both macro and micro) as well as administrative justice through public education and investigation of human rights abuses. Furthermore, CHRAJ acts as an anti-corruption agency and investigates cases of abuse of public office and unjust treatment by the government and its officers. CHRAJ is described as a quasi- judicial institution in the Ghanaian Constitution. The Commission has branches in the ten regional capitals and ninety- nine district offices across Ghana.
Accra, Takoradi, and Tamale
http://www.ghana-anticorruption.org/chraj
National Council on Persons with Disabilities
The National Council on Persons with Disabilities is a government institution that was established in 2006 by the Persons with Disability Act and is an umbrella organization of all disability movements in Ghana. It works under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare with a secretariat in Accra and collaborates with local and international organizations. This organization has the objective to propose, coordinate, monitor and evolve policies, programs and strategies to enable persons with disability to enter and participate in the development of the country.
Accra, Greater Accra Region
NORST – Northern Region Small Towns
NORST is a CIDA funded program focused on increasing access to sustainable water and sanitation services in Northern Ghana to achieve the availability and consumption of sustainable, locally managed, potable water in 30 small towns. This includes capacity building
at the local, district and regional levels to ensure effective delivery and support of potable water and sanitation services.
Tamale, Northern Region
Northern Region Planning and Coordinating Unit
The NRPCU is a government institution that coordinates development activities in the Northern Region by liaising with development partners that operate there. This includes advising development partners on projects and investments, supporting the district planning process of the district assembly and providing policy advice for development in the Northern Region. As well, the NRPCU performs monitoring and evaluation of development projects and programs.
Tamale, Northern Region
Regional Advisory Information and Network System (RAINS)
Established by a group of social development activists in 1996 RAINS operates in the Northern Region with local community members and development partners to improve the quality of life for vulnerable groups, especially women, children and the disabled. Using grassroots institutional capacity building RAINS engages with local and international partners to promote human rights and basic education, create sustainable livelihoods, support natural resource management, reduce child exploitation and provide health education, among others.
Tamale, Northern Region
Rural Media Network (RUMNET)
RUMNET is a non-profit, multi-media, social justice advocacy organization based in Tamale, in the Northern Region. RUMNET was founded in 1996, by a group of journalists, to respond to communities’ desire for self-determination, equity, social justice and participation. RUMNET advocates for the rights of those disadvantaged in the northern regions through journalism and aims to build awareness of local and national development issues through its newspaper 'The Advocate' and other forms of multimedia. RUMNET deems it imperative to support communities in deepening their understanding of the root causes of under-development and identifying their own solutions to overcome them, through participatory development communication and social change.
Tamale, Northern Region
Savannah Integrated Rural Development Aid (SIRDA)
SIRDA a local NGO that was established in 2001 is based in Tamale but works in the Northern, Upper East and Brong Ahafo Regions. Their program areas focus on human rights and governance, food security, girls’ education, water and sanitation and the environment. Currently, they have partnered with NORST (see above) for their water and sanitation project, are very involved with providing micro-finance loans to local community members, and are engaged in a rural agriculture development program which trains farmers. Their mandate is rooted in the belief in creating sustainability and many of their programs are interconnected and interdependent.
Tamale, Northern Region
Shekinah Medical Clinic
Shekinah Medical Clinic is a grassroots organization that aims to provide health and medical services to the homeless, mentally disabled, those suffering from HIV/AIDS and the poor. Aside from providing free consultations, prescriptions, lab tests, and surgeries to anyone in need, the clinic also provides free temporary housing for those who have travelled long distances to seek medical attention, as well as those recovering from surgery. As well there is permanent on site accommodations and support for adults with mental disabilities and patients struggling with HIV/AIDS. Finally, since 1992 a daily food program delivers over two hundred meals to the homeless and destitute in the area.
Tamale, Northern Region
Simli Village Aid
Simli Village Aid is a local chapter of UK Village Aid that was established in 2003 as a social justice organization with the primary aim of aiding communities to mobilize themselves for change. With women and children as primary beneficiaries of its projects, Simli Aid has been working in five districts with about 15 communities in each of the districts in Northern Ghana. They work in the areas of: adult literacy, maternal health, reproductive health education, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS education, human rights and education and democracy support, skills and rural micro-enterprise development, food security, livelihood and social services and agro-forestry and gender and affirmative action.
Tamale, Northern Region
WACAM Association of Communities Affected by Mining
WACAM is a community-based environmental and human rights advocacy group for communities affected by mining and more recently oil and gas. WACAM seeks to protect the environment, local resources and the rights of marginalized communities. This is
accomplished through networking, advocacy, campaigning and representation within a legal framework. WACAM works from a rights-based approach, educating communities about mining legislation and their rights to motivate change. Furthermore, they undertake research and data collection to support communities and petition for policy and structural change. Originally established in Tarkwa, in the Western Region, WACAM now campaigns for communities in several other regions.
Tarkwa, Western Region
West African Primate Conservation Action (WAPCA)
WAPCA is an initiative of several European Zoos, the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations (ZGAP) and its French Partner organization Conservation des Espèces et des Populations Animales (CEPA). The main goal of WAPCA is to effectively preserve endemic primate species in the West-African Upper Guinean Rainforest, which are seriously threatened by extinction. An association of eleven European zoos, conservation organizations and individuals formed WAPCA. It implements conservation activities primarily in Accra and the Western Region of Ghana, and more recently, Ivory Coast. In Ghana, there are both in-situ and ex-situ conservation projects in progress. Accra, Greater Accra and Western Region http://www.wapca.org/index.htm
Widows and Orphans Movement
The Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) is a grassroots NGO located in the Upper East Region of Ghana. It focuses on small-scale projects in local communities surrounding the Bolgatanga area. WOM was established in 1993 to cater to the interests of widows and their children economically, socially, and culturally. WOM in involved in projects ranging from advocacy and policy reform, human rights education, HIV/AIDS prevention, vocational training, income generation, micro-credit loaning and agriculture. WOM also provides support, legal advice and representation for widows and their families, runs a widow’s shelter and pays for orphans schooling fees and living costs.
Bolgatanga, Upper East Region