Women’s Hope Foundation has secured funding from ANESVAD organization to implement project on Skin Neglected Tropical Disease (skin-NTDs) to promote and defend the health rights of women and girls living with skin NTDs to ensure that they have access to quality health care and enjoy quality of life in the Kwabre East Municipal, Sekyere East and Pru East Districts Assemblies in Ghana.

Approximately one in three young women in the Bono East region is between the ages of 10 and 24. Many of these young women and girls are at risk or already struggling with the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI), including HIV/AIDS. Although girls and young women tend to be less informed than adults they often have a sense of having unlimited power, feelings of invulnerability and impulsiveness that can lead to reckless behaviour. They are curious and have a natural inclination to experiment. There is conflict between their own emerging values and beliefs and those of their parents and so girls and young women may be trying to demonstrate these differences. The reproductive and sexual health decisions they make today will affect the health and wellbeing of their communities.

One of the important concerns of young women and girls is their sexual relationships. In particular, young women and girls need to know how they can maintain healthy personal relationships. It is important to keep in mind that sex is never 100% ‘safe’, but you can advise sexually active young women and girls on how to make sex as safe as they possibly can.

The high incidence of gender based violence and reproductive health problems have increased because of the COVID-19 crises. Prolonged school closures have also increased the risk of girls dropping out of school.

For this reason, as part of WVL project activities to promote girl child education Women’s Hope Foundation in collaboration with Pru East Educational Directorate embarked on a five days back to school campaign from the 11th to 15th January 2021 to ensure that the return of all  children, particularly girls, to the classroom when schools resume to full session.

The objective was to campaign and dissemination of the ‘Guidelines for Prevention of Pregnancy among School Girls and Facilitation of Re-Entry into School after Childbirth’.

Women and girls in Ghana still face discrimination and inequality in the Ghanaian society due to the socio-cultural, traditional beliefs, socialization, and patriarchal structure. Women and girls in most rural and hard to reach areas remain disadvantaged educationally, economically, politically and culturally. This has resulted in profound economic, social, sexual pressure, and reproductive health problems among them. The systemic male domination and female subordination, socio-cultural and discriminatory institutions and structures restrict women (including the marginalized and the vulnerable) from access to equal opportunities including productive resources, such as land credit, education and training opportunities among other support systems. The systemic gender and social biases in cultural practices also overexpose the girl child especially to abuse including early and forced marriages, sexual violence, denial of education, and cultural servitude. Weak legal frameworks, poor gender policies implementation and monitoring, poor participation, lack of knowledge about women and girls human rights, inadequate legal aid scheme and personnel worsen women and girls access to justice, resources and economic development. These continue to limit progress towards the empowerment of women in Ghana, and results in failure to attain the required gender justice and human development targets. Women are still under represented in all the major sectors of the economy, particularly in the public sector institutions, and other key decision making structures in the local levels.

Evidence abounds that, women and girls are usually powerless and do not have a say in decision making and even on issues affecting them due to patriarchal systems in some communities in the Bono East Region. Most of the leadership and decision-making positions are occupied by men and boys. 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 girls in the families and communities. The decision on when to have sex, when to give birth, and the number of children to have is all decided by men. There is a tendency to always suppress the views of these majority groups in society. Women and girls are usually responsible for domestic duties and so until now. Girls are mostly kept in the homes to assist in domestic assignments rather than being sent to school. Most women cannot master the courage to take charge of their own affairs/business and have access to resources that would enable them to be employed and be integrated into our society and deal with poverty. WHF has learned from previous projects that, most women and girls in rural and hard-to-reach communities in Bono East region remain disadvantaged educationally, economically, politically and culturally and girl-child early and force marriages are also prevalent. According to DOVVSU domestic violence report in 2018, violence against women and girls including rape remained a significant problem in Bono East Region. The legal means for preventing violence against women such as sexual assault in the communities are inadequate to address the sensitive situation in which victims found themselves. Social pressure often causes them to drop charges. For girls and young women in particular lack of education about their reproductive health and rights leave them ignorant and unable to protect themselves against sexual pressure and abuse.

Ghana, on March 12, 2020, joined several African countries that have recorded incidences of the coronavirus pandemic. This crisis has a tendency to exacerbate existing gender inequalities, and the incidence of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV). It is also a fact that when catastrophes like this pandemic strike, women and girls are more likely to shoulder the burden of keeping families and households together. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will affect women either directly or indirectly. All forms of violence and inequalities against women and girls will continue to affect women and girls during this crisis. The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic will increase women's and girl’s physical, psychological, economic, and social pressures.

The above-mentioned problems hinder women's and girls' inclusive voice and decision-making in development issues concerning them in the Bono East region. This means that their interest may not be well-identified and addressed. This also means that women's and girls' special needs will not be adequately taken into account in their families and communities. This will not promote sustainable development and increased access to responsive and transparent delivery of social and economic services for women and girls in the Bono East Region.

For the above reasons, WHF is proposing to lead a team of three (3) Women’s Rights Organizations to implement gender transformative programming to address some gender needs among women and girls such as freedom of decision-making, measures against violence, participation and social inclusion, access to resources and the rights to land and property. This will influence and change real issues about gender inequality such as power relations, access to and control over resources and decision-making in the selected project communities. WHF will collaborate with relevant state Institutions such as District Assembly, NCCE, CHRAJ, DOVVSU, District Health Directorate, Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service to ensure the success of the project. WHF will engage key stakeholders such as Queen mothers, Religious and Opinion leaders, Women group leaders, Girls clubs, market women, PWDs, PLHIVs, Muslim women, and community volunteers in the project activity planning, implementation, and evaluation to achieve project results.

Capacity building training and empowerment of people especiialy young women to serve as advocates on women’s human rights and empowerment issues in their communities is very important. Women’s Hope Foundation in collaboration with the four District Assemblies in Bono East Region of Ghana have trained a total of twenty-six  (26) people such as teachers, students, parents, market women, Muslim women, and Girls club leaders as Women’s Human Rights Advocates to provide human rights education and information in their communities. They have been trained on human rights and leadership strategies, referral pathways, and strategies to combat myths and stigma in their community.

The purpose of the training was to train community advocates to educate and provide information on women's and girls' human rights and leadership in their communities. The trained advocates will play a leadership role in promoting, protecting, and defending their peers from violence and social pressures. They will reach women and girls in their communities and support them to access education, security information, technology, financial resources, health, business, and public services in their communities. They will be tasked to help address social gender norms, perceptions, and attitudes towards women and girls in their communities. They will collect data on human rights violations and report them to District Gender Desk Officers, DOVVSU, NCCE, CHRAJ, and DSW in their districts. They will be engaged to promote and demonstrate regular handwashing and positive hygiene behaviors at home, in schools, workplaces, places of worship and other public places.

As a result of the training 26 participants especially young women acquired new knowledge and skills on gender equality and women’s human rights and empowerment issues and now serving their communities.

The disastrous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is already biting hard in Ghanaian communities. The two main areas driving the bulk of economic activities in Ghana, namely, the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi areas are the very places mainly hit by the virus. Ghana is one of the West Africa Countries in Sub-Saharan African with weak health system and poor economy. It is a fact that, when catastrophes like COVID-19 pandemic strike, women and girls are more likely to shoulder the burden of keeping families and households together. Women and girls in Ghana still face discrimination and inequality in the Ghanaian society and nothing illustrates the burden more amply than the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls due to the underlying ideology of patriarchy and the deeply rooted outmoded socio-cultural practices in our communities. Evidence abounds that, during this crises, all forms of violence and inequalities against women and girls will continue to affect their health, economic and social well-being. Women and girls who will be affected by COVID-19 pandemic will face stigma, isolation, rejection and discrimination due to the way the infection spread. COVID-19 prevention and control measures initiated by Ghana government deemed necessary to control the spread of the disease however, restriction of movement, lockdown, social distancing, and closure of business are increasing economic, health and social impact among women and girls.

WHF on-going work on promoting COVID-19 prevention and control measures to contain the pandemic and mitigate it impact among vulnerable women and girls in the Ashanti region of Ghana where the pandemic has hit hard revealed that, 6 out of every 10 pregnant women interviewed do not attend antenatal clinic due to lockdowns and fear of contracting coronavirus. 6 out of 10 do not use face marks when going out. 4 out of 10 women interviewed do not use or have money to buy sanitizer. 7 out of 10 women are informal workers and do not have alternative livelihood to sustain the lockdown, social distancing and business closures. These revelations came about as result of our Community and Public Health Education engagements, and Focus Groups Discussions (FGDs) with Women Groups, Girls Clubs, Youth Groups/Clubs, and Market Women. This will increase their physical, psychological, economic and social pressures.

It is therefore critical to enhance COVID-19 education and support services to ensure that, vulnerable women and girl’s health, economic and dignity are promoted, protected, respected and advanced during this crises. It is also critical to prepare vulnerable and margenalised women and girls such as poor and rural women, street girls, pregnant women and women with disability to contain and mitigate the economic, health and social impact of the pandemic.

In the year 2018-2019, Women’s Hope Foundation received a grant from STAR-Ghana Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) local governance grant component to increase women and persons with disability voice, inclusion, and participation in local governance within 12 months in Kwabre East Municipal Assembly. The project has increased accountability and responsiveness of government at local and community levels to citizens especially women and Persons with Disability (PWDs) and People living with HIV (PLHIV). The project has increased women, PWDs and PLHIV knowledge, skills, confidence and ability to demand accountability from the duty bearers on the disability common fund and participate in decision-making positions in local governance system in Kwabre East Municipal Assembly.

As part of World Patient Safety Day cerebration, a Patient Safety Champion in Ghana and Executive Director for Women’s Hope Foundation Held a series of activities to mark the day. From 15th September to 16 September 2019. The patient Safety Champion and Women’s Hope Foundation held 2-day radio discussions in two radio stations (Kessben and Alpha radio) on the theme “Patient Safety: a global health priority”.

The topics discussed were focus on Strengthen Patient engagement in healthcare system to minimize preventable health care errors in our healthcare system in Ghana. Discussants were Alex Adusei (Patient Safety Champion – Ghana), Fatao Iddrisu  (Kwanre East Municipal President,  Ghana Blind Union) Dr. Angela Asare (WHF Board Member), and Ibrahim Adjei, (Human Rights Activist).

On the 17th September 2019, a grand durbar was organize to commemorate the World Patient Safety Day at Mamponteng in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Participants were patients, women, youth, healthcare providers, Chiefs, Queen mothers and Kwabre East Municipal Assembly Officials.   A total of 234 people participated in the World Patient Safety Day Cerebration in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. As a result of the mentioned above activities more people have increased awareness to speak up for patient safety in Ghana.

There is increased knowledge among young people on HIV/AIDS, but there is no corresponding behaviour change among most of them. The youth do not perceive personal risk to HIV/AIDS and information received is not personalized and internalized to cause behaviour change. In spite of increase knowledge among youth on HIV, the infection continues to increase hence the need for HIV counselling and testing among key population in the Kwabre East Municipal Assembly. WHF in collaboration with Kwabre East Health Management team were able to conduct HIV counselling and testing for 85 key population to enable them know their HIV status and prevention HIV infection among them. Psychological and post counselling were provided to enhance the activities. A total of 1,154 pieces of both male and female condoms were distributed to the participants during the exercise. As a result of this activity some LGBT community members were tested and counseled on HIV and now know their HIV status and practice safer sex.  The counselling and testing activities have improved most of LGBT people health conditions.