Women’s Hope Foundation seek for technical and financial support for the following projects:

1.                  ADDRESSING YOUNG WOMEN HEALTH AND RIGHTS INCLUDING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

Young women are usually powerless and do not have a say in decision making in Ghanaian societies, not even on issues affecting them. The right to decide and choose is in the hands of the elderly men. As such the men decide education, health and other social issues for the women and children in the families and communities. There is the tendency to always suppress the views of these minor groups in society. This leads to a wide gap between the older men on one hand and the women and children on the other hand, including communication, dialogue and demands.

For girls and young women in particular lack of education about their reproductive health and rights leaves them ignorance and unable to protect themselves against sexual pressure and abuse.  They are often unable to cope with the consequences of unsafe relationships and unhealthy sexual practices, which often lead to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Sex education programmes for young people are not adequately provided. School based programmes, which discuss young people’s sexuality, tend to focus on the negative consequences of unprotected sex. Teachers and parents are also ill equipped to address sexuality and responds to young people’s concerns. The case of school children and school dropouts are more serious because they do not have any access to reproductive health information and education. They lack knowledge on reproductive health as well as security for themselves and their property. They faced assaults and raped. 

Violence against women and children, including rape and domestic violence, remained a significant problem in Ghana. The legal means for preventing violence against women such as sexual assault in the rural and urban areas are inadequate to address the sensitive situation in which victims found themselves and are often plagued with a sense of shame, causing them to abandon legal action.  Young women and girls rarely report incidents of rape or sexual assault. If they do, social pressure often causes them to drop charges before obtaining results. When young girls are victims of domestic violence, trafficking, abandonment, sexual or commercial exploitation, their right to health is violated. There is the need to take measures to protect women and girls against all forms of exploitation.

One important area of our program is to promote the rights and empowerment of women and children in the deprived areas to develop themselves. The socio-political rights as well as reproductive rights as enshrined in the UN conventions, the Ghanaian constitution, and the recently promulgated laws and other international instruments, equal rights are enshrined in legally binding international conventions and information about these rights need to be better disseminated to all groups in the population. There is the need to take measures to protect the women against all forms of exploitation, particularly girls. In addition reproductive health is the key to reducing population and ensuring freedom of choice for all women through the full implementation of Reproductive Rights.

Ghana government has passed a new Domestic Violence ACT to protect the people especially women and children, and this information need to be disseminated to the marginalize people.

The Beijing conference stressed the empowerment of women as one of the central development goals of the 21st century. It adopted a Platform for Affirmative Action, which called for the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the design, implementation and monitoring of all policies and programmes, including development programmes.

The United Nations also exists to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, the equal rights of men and women, and the right of minorities and migrants to live in peace. All human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural — are comprehensive, universal and interdependent. They are the foundations that support human dignity, and any violations of human rights represent an attack on human dignity’s very core. Where fundamental human rights are not protected, States and their peoples are more likely to experience conflict, poverty and injustice.

The purpose of this component is to educate women especially young women and girls on their reproductive health and rights for them to understand their fundamental human rights and gender issues that will enable them protect themselves and avoid pressure and abuses.

SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS COMPONENT:

• Advocate Safe, quality and respectful childbirth in public and private health facilities in Ghana.
  
• Organize forum and seminars on women’s rights including the Domestic Violence Act for young women and girls in schools and communities.
• Hold capacity building training workshop on women’s rights for women groups, queen mothers and agencies working on women issues. 
• Conduct outreach education campaign to disseminate women heath and rights information including HIV/AIDS, Malaria etc.
• Provide HIV friendly services service such as condoms, counselling, HIV testing and lubricants.
  
• Embark on advocacy campaign on women’s right in local radio stations.
• Develop Information, Education and Communication material to educate the target groups.

2.                  SKILLS TRAINING AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT FOR YOUNG WOMEN

Despite the modest positive performance of the Ghanaian macro economy, the socioeconomic development of the country has not reflected in the in the micro situation of the ordinary individual especially women and young people. Poverty is vivid in the lives of the majority of the population. The exclusion of women from education has meant a lack of confidence and experience that would allow women to manage their lives and business and have access to resources that would allow them to create employment, be valued as a labour source and to be fully integrated into the relief of the society’s poverty.

Women and young people lack the power and skills and unable to harness their potentials for job creation and income generating activities without an external support. A few of them engage in petty trading for their livelihood but generally a lack of technical and managerial skills among these women hinder their attempts to create viable businesses.  The majority of Ghanaian women depend on men for their survival and many engage in sex in exchange for money, clothing, food and other favours and many are trapped in unhealthy, violent and exploitative relationships and situations.

WHF believes that advocacy and education on women’s health and right alone does not lead to the total development of women. For them to lead responsible lives and to contribute their quota to the development of the nation, they need to be empowered and equipped them with skills that will help generate income for their living. WHF has deemed it necessary to setup a training center where the women and youth could be train in any skills of their choice. This will help them lead independent, decent and responsible lives.

The purpose of this component is to establish a training centre to train and empower disadvantaged young people in income generating activities to improve their livelihoods and reduce poverty among women.

SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS COMPONENT:

• Train young women in vocation
• Train women in managerial skills
• Conduct of literacy and life planning classes for the beneficiaries
• Operate revolving loans / micro credit scheme

3.                  PROMOTING WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING POSITIONS (GOVERNANCE)

Women empowerment is essential to achieving gender equality and equity and sustainable development. The involvement of women in local governance is very important, because women represent about 52 per cent of Ghana’s population and it is not always expedient for men who are in the minority to take decisions on behalf of women. The district level election which is the local governance in the country has been occasionally won by most of the men and if the current low level of female wining in the district level elections remains, it will take a while before the country achieves equitable participation between women and men in decision-making. This means also that women’s interest will take a longer time to be fully considered. First and foremost, women leaders have to be encouraged and helped to come together and build their capacities and share ideals. There is a need for women to come together to share ideals, deliberate and identify key challenges that constrain women participation and development and find solutions to it. There is also a need to strengthen young women skills in local governance processes and increase their  knowledge and better access to other facilities needed to further enhance women political participation, leadership, gender equality, accountability, peace and security in local governance system.

The purpose of this component is to promote women participation in local governance and develop appropriate strategies for information sharing on what works best for women and also improve the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of their participation in local governance in Ghana.

SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS COMPONENT

• Mobilize women to participate in decision-making  positions in local governance
• Organize capacity building training workshop for women groups and women aspirants
• Disseminate accurate information on women participation in decision making positions in local governance.

4.                  PROMOTING TREATMENT, CARE AND SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS

The overall health status of Ghanaians is improving but due to HIV/AIDS and Malaria disease many individuals are experiencing the devastating effects in their lives. Stories differ and are specific to that individual, including her own particular fears and insecurities. Women‘s low social and economic status, combined with greater biological susceptibility to HIV, put them at increased risk of infection. Poor economic make it difficult for women to access health and social services and compounds their vulnerability. More than 200,000 women are living with HIV/AIDS.

In some communities, the burden of coping with the needs of women living with HIV/AIDS and domestic violence victims falls increasingly on family members who often have limited information, resources; access to the drugs and other necessities. As expenditure for health care services raises for example, legal fees, transportation to hospital several times and hospital bills, families can quickly become impoverished. Victims are therefore abandoned at home to suffer or die without care and support, hidden to avoid stigma and even at times treatable opportunistic infections are neglected.

AIDS and HIV infection have stigma attached to it in Ghana. This is mainly due to community attitude towards sexuality. Since HIV is mainly sexually transmitted and since those with multiple partners are at risk, anybody who becomes infected is seen as immoral and promiscuous, this leads to negative attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. In addition to this, fear that one could become infected through casual contact with an HIV patient, has resulted in the rejecting and isolating the sick person. It is a fact that most of our farmers are women and with our prevalence rate showing that about 63% of the infected are women, we need to protect this group in order to avoid decline in agricultural production in the national economy.

Evidence abounds that, violence against LGBT persons such as economic abuse, physical abuse, and psychological abuse remained significant problem. Discrimination, stigma and violence against members of the Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals and Trans-genders (LGBT) persons are widespread, both within State institutions and in the community at large. In our communities transgender women who are sex workers and transgender men who use drugs often face multiple forms of gender discrimination, and are risk and vulnerability to HIV. The Ghana AIDS Commission reported that, 19,931 new HIV infections occurred in 2018. The country has recorded 334,717 people living with HIV which 170,000 adults with HIV are not on treatment in Ghana. Currently, the LGBT community is most affected by the HIV infection but there is limited empirical data on the current health care climate and its impact on HIV prevention services for them. Ashanti region has the highest HIV prevalence rate in Ghana in 2018.

Most HIV/AIDS related orphans in Ghana are denial education, material resources, skills and knowledge acquisition, often due to the poverty of their custodian, or sheer negligence. This has direct implication for their nutritional statues, which in turn, affects their immune system, mental functioning and, subsequently, their ability to benefit from education for future social and economic mobility. Many orphans are forced to take on adult roles prematurely, for which they lack the necessary experience, preparation and strength to cope, not to mention serious lack of access to resources to play the roles effectively. Many AIDS orphans have tended to be street children.

The purpose of this component is to provide treatment, care and support to PLHIV. Address stigma and discrimination towards People LGBT and LGBT. Advocate for improved policies and laws that protect the rights of PLHIV, LGBT and families affected by HIV/AIDS.

 SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS COMPONENT:

• Provide nutritional, vitamins and Antiretroviral  therapy (ART) support PLHIV to improve their health and living conditions
• Advocate for the access and correct information on HIV/AIDS in order to provide a better support system for the PLHIV and LGBT.
• Conduct home based care support for PLHIV.
• Conduct psychological counseling for PLHIV
• Educate PLHIV and LGBT community on HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis  prevention