Description
DURATION: 15 YEAR STRATEGY FOR THE FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN IN ADAKLU-WAYA VILLAGE (VOLTA REGION)
SUBMITTED BY: PRINCE COFFIE AKLAMANU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADAKLU-WAYA RURAL COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (AWRCDO)
P.O.BOX 9334 ACCRA-AIRPORT, GHANA.
TEL: +233-266-380441
E-MAIL: [email protected]
PROJECT PROPOSAL
TITLE: FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN CARE SUPPORT PROJECT 15 YEAR STRATEGY FOR THE FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN IN ADAKLU-WAYA VILLAGE (VOLTA REGION) PRINCE COFFIE AKLAMANU EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADAKLU-WAYA RURAL COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (AWRCDO) P.O.BOX 9334 ACCRA-AIRPORT, GHANA. TEL: +233-266-380441 E-MAIL: [email protected]
DURATION:
SUBMITTED BY:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE.............................................................................2 PROJECT AREA BACKGROUND INFORMATION.......................................................3 INTODUCTION..............................................................................................................3 Project profile location:....................................................................................................4 GOAL..............................................................................................................................4 MISSION.........................................................................................................................5 GUIDING PHILOSOPHY .............................................................................................5 CORE VALUES ARE:....................................................................................................5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM...............................................................................6 JUSTIFICATION:...........................................................................................................7 PROGRAMME DISCRIPTION:.....................................................................................8 PROGRAMME PURPOSE:............................................................................................8 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:...............................................................................................8 Comparisons of studies and child perspectives...............................................................9 Characteristics of child poverty in key domains .........................................................9 LOGICAL FRAMEWORK:-.........................................................................................11 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE.......................................................13 FRAME WORK:...........................................................................................................14
2
PROJECT AREA BACKGROUND INFORMATION
INTODUCTION
The education of the world’s children is high on the global agenda. In the context of education for all COFFIE YOUTH FOCUS (CYF), all children should receive free, good quality education. The reality is that millions of the world’s children are too poor to benefit from the declaration, unless there are special interventions that target their development. Unfortunately, such children do not form a special social category in poverty (Hardship) eradication intervention programs. Thus, their inclusion in the achievement of CYF appears to be a hit-or-miss phenomenon. Recognizing the central role of poverty (Hardship) eradication in wider global agendas and acknowledging the need to reach out to the poorest children with the objective to break the poverty (Hardships) cycle for them, AWRCDO embarked on a programme of education and poverty (Hardship) eradication. The Project aims at solving the problems hidden by the fact that foundling and sensitive children are invisible; yet by the very nature of their situation, they are included among those that are classified as disadvantaged and poor in Ghana. Children are subsumed within the poverty (Hardship) categories most often referred to such as households, communities, people – which means that there is a high tendency to focus on adultrelated poverty (Hardship) while child problems are ignored, partly because children have little power and influence within a group that contains adults. Findings reflect that children in abject problems can be recognized by rather elementary criteria. Top on the list is absence of basic necessities such as shelter, food, clothing and water. Equally important is the ‘human condition’ in terms of physical health and parental care and protection. Schooling is high on the list as a critical criterion in determining who is extremely or modestly a sensitive and disadvantaged child. While there seems to be national consensus among donors, the public sector and civil society that the government has made commendable progress in implementing HEAP (Hardship Elimination Action Plan) as flexibly as possible, it’s evolving nature, due to the participatory and consultative reviews it undergoes regularly, does not address many of
3
the development challenges Disadvantaged children face today. It would take lobbying and advocacy interventions to ensure that the needs and demands of children in abject poverty (Hardship) are met. The UNESCO 2000 study on Children in Abject Poverty (Hardship) in Ghana revealed that: Inadequate health services remain critical challenges for children in abject poverty (Hardship). This is aggravated by the living conditions of children in almost all the districts studied. On a positive note, over three quarters of those who fell sick sought some kind of modern treatment; very few resorted to traditional healers. School-related costs have been the major obstacle for children in abject poverty (Hardship) to access education.
Project profile location:
A d a kl u -W a ya g o ve r nm e n t Go ve rn m en ta l Ru ra l of Co mm un i ti e s (S . 5 9 14 / De ve l o p me n t 64 7 6 ) un d e r Org a ni za ti on th e 1 98 9 . N on Th e
( AW RC DO) is a No n -Go ve rn me n ta l Org an i za ti on re gi ste re d wi th Gh a na Org a ni za ti o n s R e gi stra ti o n sta tu te ,
Or g a n i za ti o n wa s fo rm ed m ai nl y to fo cu s on Ru ra l Co mm un i ty p e op l e d e ve l op me n t in va ri o u s asp e cts fo r sel f- em po we rm e n t E S P E C IL L Y fo r Ch il d re n a n d W om en . The Organization is based in Adaklu-waya Local Council District and Sokpoe District.
GOAL
AWRCDO has a very strong goal of improving the quality of life of the sensitive children and foundlings through providing education, giving care, love and
4
support. Additionally, it promotes empowerment of rural Community people in various areas affecting humanity.
MISSION
To translate the lines of marginalized people especially the ones who have lost the dear ones and have no one to take care of them.
GUIDING PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy and experience of AWRCDO is based on the reality that every human being is a unique individual and that we all have a right to good health and basic needs and should access means to a comfortable life in one way or another.
CORE VALUES ARE:
Equality for all: God made all people equal; our organization is committed to a development process that promotes equality. Rights and dignity for all: AWRCDO believes in and strives to uphold the rights and dignity of all people especially in the rural communities. Stewardship: AWRCDO believes in God to protect the dignity of everybody to exploit the Earthy goods in accordance with God’s Law and individual order. Institutional partnership in development: AWRCDO welcome and respects on going International initiatives and national policies to take care and give support to vulnerable children and disadvantaged people fight poverty, ignorance and diseases such as Malaria, Immunisable diseases and HIV/AIDS. Our activities will be unison and collaboration with other stakeholders.
5
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Due to increasing deaths of people as a result of HIV/AIDS so many children have been left as foundlings with no body to take care of them and giving them support. Most of the children are left with their poor grandparents and some are left homeless hence ending up on streets.
Only 11% of urban births and 3.4% of rural births are registered, meaning that the majority of children are denied this basic right. Approximately 96% of the poor, the majority of whom are women, live in rural areas (2000, 2003). A UNICEF project document (2000) on foundlings and sensitive children indicates that approximately 2.1 million children in Ghana are orphaned and, of these, 80% come from poor families. The child-headed household trend in Ghana is such that rural areas have 79.9%, of which 49.6% are male-headed and 30.3% are female-headed. The trend in urban areas is that of the 20% child-headed households, 10.5% are male-headed whereas 9.6% are female-headed (Ghana Bureau of Statistics, 2000). Children’s sensibility to hardship, adversity and HIV/AIDS is largely contextual but also indicative of the widespread situation in protecting them. Ghana currently has over 2 million orphaned children, the majority of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS (Ghana Poverty Status Report, 2003). The number is expected to rise in the next decade and this will increase the risk of children turning to the streets, and becoming beggars and thieves. The rise in the proportion of child-headed households and child laborers means a rise in percentages of the illiterate, early pregnancies, and related consequences such as infant and maternal mortality rates, increased incidence of those who are infected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS, and drug abuse. While the Government will continue to increase spending on reproductive health services, it will also be losing valuable human resources. The cycle of child poverty will thus be passed on to next
6
generation and become chronic. It is evident that the HIV/AIDS scourge is increasingly taking its toll on those who should otherwise be enjoying childhood in Ghana. A large proportion of deprived children have acquired psychopathological behavior, increasingly becoming involved in crime, drug abuse and violence. Many, too, are sensitive to HIV/AIDS and yet enter the labor market at very young ages, all of which seriously affects their growth and well-being. Children under this category experience extreme hardship, which is compounded household, community and national poverty (Hardship). The 2001/2002 participatory poverty assessment by the Ghana Participatory Poverty Assessment Process (GPPAP) and Save the Children UK studies on child poverty confirmed that children are a sensitive category of the population, and that policy and institutional frameworks are taking longer to cope with changing sources of crisis and adversity. A link between large/polygamous families with hardship, and the high level of household population (six to eight members), increases the difficulty of providing adequate coverage and quality of public services such as education, health and housing for families, especially for children. Poor health reduces the productive capacity of households and limits children’s access to their basic needs. The magnitude and complexity of the problem of child hardship in Ghana is large and growing, and cannot be ignored when designing national development and poverty reduction strategies. Unfortunately, children and young people continue to be marginalized in spite of interventions, especially where assumptions are made that interventions that address adult and household needs are also good for all children, including boys and girls of school-going and non-school-going ages. This partly explains why child hardship is underrepresented in most studies on poverty (Hardship) in Ghana (Save the Children UK, 2003)
JUSTIFICATION:
The rationale for carrying out this study on children in abject hardship in Ghana is based on the problems resulting from the fact that children in hardship are invisible, yet they constitute a disproportionately large section of the (poor) population. Children are subsumed within the most referred to hardship categories: households, communities and people; yet among these they always occupy a position of least power and influence
7
(Save the Children Fund UK, 2003), and focus tends to concentrate on adult-related Hardship. Children are sensitive to shocks and adversities and, consequently, are hardest hit by poverty (Hardship). Given that childhood is the most crucial developmental period in an individual’s lifetime, any damage at this stage can lead to a perpetuation of the cycles of poverty (Hardship), resulting in intergenerational and/or chronic poverty (Hardship). Interventions such as universal primary education, and maternal and childcare mitigate against the monumental odds.
PROGRAMME DISCRIPTION:
This programme is already running in Adaklu-Waya Village (Volta Region) but the children who number up to 200 are living in homes of their guardians and other people who endeavored to give them care. The focus of AWRCDO now is to acquire land and establish a rehabilitation Centre for these children, a home as well as a primary school. In this programme, AWRCDO – also seeks to provide logistics to these children. The reason as to why we are advocating rehabilitation Centre is: the problems we are facing when these children are in other people’s homes. For example the logistics given to them are sometimes taken away from them, they are denied to go to school and when they fall sick medication is not adequate.
PROGRAMME PURPOSE:
The purpose of this programme is to reduce the suffering of the foundlings and sensitive children, build their capacity through giving them love, care, education and simple activities to do so that they become productive in the society.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
1) To improve the quality of life of the Foundlings and Sensitive children by establishing a permanent home, school and health care Centre for them. 2) To train care givers in care giving skills to enable these children get adequate care, love and support 8
3) To provide adequate education to these children to make them good citizens and have a better future through good education right from a tender age 4) To create awareness to the community and the outside world the need to protect and support the sensitive children and the foundlings as well as protecting their rights.
Comparisons of studies and child perspectives
Child poverty (Hardship) can be analyzed both subjectively and objectively. Studies such as the Save the Children UK 2003 study have analyzed child poverty (Hardship) indicators on the basis of how they relate with institutional frameworks through which monitoring would be affected.
Characteristics of child poverty in key domains
Personal, emotional and spiritual well-being
•
Lack of parental guidance, care and love
• Not having the means to get what one wants • Inability to solve daily problems, both as a result of lack of money as well as lack of initiative and innovation that results from financial poverty (Hardship) (‘poverty of the mind’) • Being dependent on others • Lack of religious grounding • Discrimination and deprivation • Alcohol abuse by parents
9
Physical well-being
•
Lack of access to health care
(Medicine, immunization) • Vulnerable to disease, especially HIV/AIDs and malaria
Family and social well-being
•
Lack of one or both parents
• Being forced to live on the street because parents cannot support all/any of children • Family breakdown • Polygamous family • Households with many children and with no use of family planning • Inability to enroll in school or to pursue education on an ongoing basis as a result of school costs, uniform, books, pens, etc. • Lack of protection from abuse, exploitation
Financial and material well-being
• Lack of money, clothing, food, accommodation, material goods such as bicycles, books, bedding, cooking • Lack of land • Lack of skills • Lack of opportunities and sources of income • Child labor exploitation • Lack of access to transport and Communication facilities.
1
Political well-being
•
Lack of freedom of speech
• Living in a war-affected area • Lack of security
Environmental well-being
•
Living in an area susceptible to land
Slides, floods and drought • Lack of clean and safe water • Lack of latrines
LOGICAL FRAMEWORK:Narrative statement Overall goal: Improved quality of life of foundlings & sensitive children Objectively verifiable indicators - improved nutritional status for children - good shelter for the children - good quality selfsustaining education - improved health standards -The project requires a vehicle to pick and deliver Means/sources of verification - Primary health care reports from health workers, health centers and clinics - School reports from teachers and head teachers -Check logbook and mileage register Important assumption -Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
Result 1 Essential logical support.
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish
1
RESULT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
project materials and equipment. -Essential materials for the project need to be procured in good time -Need to equip care givers with skills to give quality care to the children Project plans (annual operational plans) are formulated documented and regularly reviewed Monthly meetings with all the resource, Persons and support staff Progress reports are compiled, documented and circulated on a regular basis e.g. quarterly Regular consultative meetings with all stake holders held at Division sub-county level
-Review repairs and procurement receipts -Review training records and conduct field visits to the parishes Review Reports Produced.
councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s guaranteed
Review minutes of the meetings
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
1
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
DONOR
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MEMBERS
B.O.D
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PROJECT COMMITTEE
CONSULTANT
PROGRAMME OFFICER
PROJECT DIRECTOR LEVEL OF 5 PROJECT INSTRUCTION RESOURCE PERSONS
FINANCIAL CONTROLLER
VOLUNTARY WORKERS
AWRCDO – carries out activities to ensure good life to these children on but some are insufficiently done due to poor funding. These include the following:1. Providing essential logistics to these children like clothes, food, blankets, mosquito nets, utensils, mattresses, etc. 2. Providing scholastic materials like books, pens, pencil, paper 3. Medical examination by our collaborating doctors 4. Visiting the children in their respective schools 5. Providing games equipment to these children like balls, Jersey, nets, etc.
FRAME WORK:
The frame work for this project is as follows. Once implemented the project is targeting 1,000 children of which 800 families will be represented. These will be Foundlings and Sensitive children from poor families. This idea is to provide a happy life to these children and to eradicate poverty (Hardship) from their families indirectly through providing sustainable education to these children. PHASE 1 UNIT DESCRIPTION ACQUISTION OF LAND AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SCHOOL When land is acquired, this phase will also include reconstruction of the school i.e. classrooms, library laboratories, computer rooms as well as equipping it with the facilities like desks, science ASSUMPTION Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers. PROJECTED COST (US $) 476,471
2
3
equipment, and vocation equipment depending on the subject courses to be taught. CONSTRUCTION OF A HOME AND THE PLAY CENTRE This phase will involve construction of a home Centre for the children. The home shall be equipped with all basic equipment and materials required for children day to day activities. CONSTRUCTION OF A HEALTH UNIT -This will offer: General health care to children, mothers and entire community. -Maternity services -Dental and minor surgical operation services.
Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers.
394,118
Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers.
470,588
TOTAL >>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
$1,341,177
doc_928742057.doc
DURATION: 15 YEAR STRATEGY FOR THE FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN IN ADAKLU-WAYA VILLAGE (VOLTA REGION)
SUBMITTED BY: PRINCE COFFIE AKLAMANU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADAKLU-WAYA RURAL COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (AWRCDO)
P.O.BOX 9334 ACCRA-AIRPORT, GHANA.
TEL: +233-266-380441
E-MAIL: [email protected]
PROJECT PROPOSAL
TITLE: FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN CARE SUPPORT PROJECT 15 YEAR STRATEGY FOR THE FOUNDLING AND SENSITIVE CHILDREN IN ADAKLU-WAYA VILLAGE (VOLTA REGION) PRINCE COFFIE AKLAMANU EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADAKLU-WAYA RURAL COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (AWRCDO) P.O.BOX 9334 ACCRA-AIRPORT, GHANA. TEL: +233-266-380441 E-MAIL: [email protected]
DURATION:
SUBMITTED BY:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE.............................................................................2 PROJECT AREA BACKGROUND INFORMATION.......................................................3 INTODUCTION..............................................................................................................3 Project profile location:....................................................................................................4 GOAL..............................................................................................................................4 MISSION.........................................................................................................................5 GUIDING PHILOSOPHY .............................................................................................5 CORE VALUES ARE:....................................................................................................5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM...............................................................................6 JUSTIFICATION:...........................................................................................................7 PROGRAMME DISCRIPTION:.....................................................................................8 PROGRAMME PURPOSE:............................................................................................8 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:...............................................................................................8 Comparisons of studies and child perspectives...............................................................9 Characteristics of child poverty in key domains .........................................................9 LOGICAL FRAMEWORK:-.........................................................................................11 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE.......................................................13 FRAME WORK:...........................................................................................................14
2
PROJECT AREA BACKGROUND INFORMATION
INTODUCTION
The education of the world’s children is high on the global agenda. In the context of education for all COFFIE YOUTH FOCUS (CYF), all children should receive free, good quality education. The reality is that millions of the world’s children are too poor to benefit from the declaration, unless there are special interventions that target their development. Unfortunately, such children do not form a special social category in poverty (Hardship) eradication intervention programs. Thus, their inclusion in the achievement of CYF appears to be a hit-or-miss phenomenon. Recognizing the central role of poverty (Hardship) eradication in wider global agendas and acknowledging the need to reach out to the poorest children with the objective to break the poverty (Hardships) cycle for them, AWRCDO embarked on a programme of education and poverty (Hardship) eradication. The Project aims at solving the problems hidden by the fact that foundling and sensitive children are invisible; yet by the very nature of their situation, they are included among those that are classified as disadvantaged and poor in Ghana. Children are subsumed within the poverty (Hardship) categories most often referred to such as households, communities, people – which means that there is a high tendency to focus on adultrelated poverty (Hardship) while child problems are ignored, partly because children have little power and influence within a group that contains adults. Findings reflect that children in abject problems can be recognized by rather elementary criteria. Top on the list is absence of basic necessities such as shelter, food, clothing and water. Equally important is the ‘human condition’ in terms of physical health and parental care and protection. Schooling is high on the list as a critical criterion in determining who is extremely or modestly a sensitive and disadvantaged child. While there seems to be national consensus among donors, the public sector and civil society that the government has made commendable progress in implementing HEAP (Hardship Elimination Action Plan) as flexibly as possible, it’s evolving nature, due to the participatory and consultative reviews it undergoes regularly, does not address many of
3
the development challenges Disadvantaged children face today. It would take lobbying and advocacy interventions to ensure that the needs and demands of children in abject poverty (Hardship) are met. The UNESCO 2000 study on Children in Abject Poverty (Hardship) in Ghana revealed that: Inadequate health services remain critical challenges for children in abject poverty (Hardship). This is aggravated by the living conditions of children in almost all the districts studied. On a positive note, over three quarters of those who fell sick sought some kind of modern treatment; very few resorted to traditional healers. School-related costs have been the major obstacle for children in abject poverty (Hardship) to access education.
Project profile location:
A d a kl u -W a ya g o ve r nm e n t Go ve rn m en ta l Ru ra l of Co mm un i ti e s (S . 5 9 14 / De ve l o p me n t 64 7 6 ) un d e r Org a ni za ti on th e 1 98 9 . N on Th e
( AW RC DO) is a No n -Go ve rn me n ta l Org an i za ti on re gi ste re d wi th Gh a na Org a ni za ti o n s R e gi stra ti o n sta tu te ,
Or g a n i za ti o n wa s fo rm ed m ai nl y to fo cu s on Ru ra l Co mm un i ty p e op l e d e ve l op me n t in va ri o u s asp e cts fo r sel f- em po we rm e n t E S P E C IL L Y fo r Ch il d re n a n d W om en . The Organization is based in Adaklu-waya Local Council District and Sokpoe District.
GOAL
AWRCDO has a very strong goal of improving the quality of life of the sensitive children and foundlings through providing education, giving care, love and
4
support. Additionally, it promotes empowerment of rural Community people in various areas affecting humanity.
MISSION
To translate the lines of marginalized people especially the ones who have lost the dear ones and have no one to take care of them.
GUIDING PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy and experience of AWRCDO is based on the reality that every human being is a unique individual and that we all have a right to good health and basic needs and should access means to a comfortable life in one way or another.
CORE VALUES ARE:
Equality for all: God made all people equal; our organization is committed to a development process that promotes equality. Rights and dignity for all: AWRCDO believes in and strives to uphold the rights and dignity of all people especially in the rural communities. Stewardship: AWRCDO believes in God to protect the dignity of everybody to exploit the Earthy goods in accordance with God’s Law and individual order. Institutional partnership in development: AWRCDO welcome and respects on going International initiatives and national policies to take care and give support to vulnerable children and disadvantaged people fight poverty, ignorance and diseases such as Malaria, Immunisable diseases and HIV/AIDS. Our activities will be unison and collaboration with other stakeholders.
5
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Due to increasing deaths of people as a result of HIV/AIDS so many children have been left as foundlings with no body to take care of them and giving them support. Most of the children are left with their poor grandparents and some are left homeless hence ending up on streets.
Only 11% of urban births and 3.4% of rural births are registered, meaning that the majority of children are denied this basic right. Approximately 96% of the poor, the majority of whom are women, live in rural areas (2000, 2003). A UNICEF project document (2000) on foundlings and sensitive children indicates that approximately 2.1 million children in Ghana are orphaned and, of these, 80% come from poor families. The child-headed household trend in Ghana is such that rural areas have 79.9%, of which 49.6% are male-headed and 30.3% are female-headed. The trend in urban areas is that of the 20% child-headed households, 10.5% are male-headed whereas 9.6% are female-headed (Ghana Bureau of Statistics, 2000). Children’s sensibility to hardship, adversity and HIV/AIDS is largely contextual but also indicative of the widespread situation in protecting them. Ghana currently has over 2 million orphaned children, the majority of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS (Ghana Poverty Status Report, 2003). The number is expected to rise in the next decade and this will increase the risk of children turning to the streets, and becoming beggars and thieves. The rise in the proportion of child-headed households and child laborers means a rise in percentages of the illiterate, early pregnancies, and related consequences such as infant and maternal mortality rates, increased incidence of those who are infected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS, and drug abuse. While the Government will continue to increase spending on reproductive health services, it will also be losing valuable human resources. The cycle of child poverty will thus be passed on to next
6
generation and become chronic. It is evident that the HIV/AIDS scourge is increasingly taking its toll on those who should otherwise be enjoying childhood in Ghana. A large proportion of deprived children have acquired psychopathological behavior, increasingly becoming involved in crime, drug abuse and violence. Many, too, are sensitive to HIV/AIDS and yet enter the labor market at very young ages, all of which seriously affects their growth and well-being. Children under this category experience extreme hardship, which is compounded household, community and national poverty (Hardship). The 2001/2002 participatory poverty assessment by the Ghana Participatory Poverty Assessment Process (GPPAP) and Save the Children UK studies on child poverty confirmed that children are a sensitive category of the population, and that policy and institutional frameworks are taking longer to cope with changing sources of crisis and adversity. A link between large/polygamous families with hardship, and the high level of household population (six to eight members), increases the difficulty of providing adequate coverage and quality of public services such as education, health and housing for families, especially for children. Poor health reduces the productive capacity of households and limits children’s access to their basic needs. The magnitude and complexity of the problem of child hardship in Ghana is large and growing, and cannot be ignored when designing national development and poverty reduction strategies. Unfortunately, children and young people continue to be marginalized in spite of interventions, especially where assumptions are made that interventions that address adult and household needs are also good for all children, including boys and girls of school-going and non-school-going ages. This partly explains why child hardship is underrepresented in most studies on poverty (Hardship) in Ghana (Save the Children UK, 2003)
JUSTIFICATION:
The rationale for carrying out this study on children in abject hardship in Ghana is based on the problems resulting from the fact that children in hardship are invisible, yet they constitute a disproportionately large section of the (poor) population. Children are subsumed within the most referred to hardship categories: households, communities and people; yet among these they always occupy a position of least power and influence
7
(Save the Children Fund UK, 2003), and focus tends to concentrate on adult-related Hardship. Children are sensitive to shocks and adversities and, consequently, are hardest hit by poverty (Hardship). Given that childhood is the most crucial developmental period in an individual’s lifetime, any damage at this stage can lead to a perpetuation of the cycles of poverty (Hardship), resulting in intergenerational and/or chronic poverty (Hardship). Interventions such as universal primary education, and maternal and childcare mitigate against the monumental odds.
PROGRAMME DISCRIPTION:
This programme is already running in Adaklu-Waya Village (Volta Region) but the children who number up to 200 are living in homes of their guardians and other people who endeavored to give them care. The focus of AWRCDO now is to acquire land and establish a rehabilitation Centre for these children, a home as well as a primary school. In this programme, AWRCDO – also seeks to provide logistics to these children. The reason as to why we are advocating rehabilitation Centre is: the problems we are facing when these children are in other people’s homes. For example the logistics given to them are sometimes taken away from them, they are denied to go to school and when they fall sick medication is not adequate.
PROGRAMME PURPOSE:
The purpose of this programme is to reduce the suffering of the foundlings and sensitive children, build their capacity through giving them love, care, education and simple activities to do so that they become productive in the society.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
1) To improve the quality of life of the Foundlings and Sensitive children by establishing a permanent home, school and health care Centre for them. 2) To train care givers in care giving skills to enable these children get adequate care, love and support 8
3) To provide adequate education to these children to make them good citizens and have a better future through good education right from a tender age 4) To create awareness to the community and the outside world the need to protect and support the sensitive children and the foundlings as well as protecting their rights.
Comparisons of studies and child perspectives
Child poverty (Hardship) can be analyzed both subjectively and objectively. Studies such as the Save the Children UK 2003 study have analyzed child poverty (Hardship) indicators on the basis of how they relate with institutional frameworks through which monitoring would be affected.
Characteristics of child poverty in key domains
Personal, emotional and spiritual well-being
•
Lack of parental guidance, care and love
• Not having the means to get what one wants • Inability to solve daily problems, both as a result of lack of money as well as lack of initiative and innovation that results from financial poverty (Hardship) (‘poverty of the mind’) • Being dependent on others • Lack of religious grounding • Discrimination and deprivation • Alcohol abuse by parents
9
Physical well-being
•
Lack of access to health care
(Medicine, immunization) • Vulnerable to disease, especially HIV/AIDs and malaria
Family and social well-being
•
Lack of one or both parents
• Being forced to live on the street because parents cannot support all/any of children • Family breakdown • Polygamous family • Households with many children and with no use of family planning • Inability to enroll in school or to pursue education on an ongoing basis as a result of school costs, uniform, books, pens, etc. • Lack of protection from abuse, exploitation
Financial and material well-being
• Lack of money, clothing, food, accommodation, material goods such as bicycles, books, bedding, cooking • Lack of land • Lack of skills • Lack of opportunities and sources of income • Child labor exploitation • Lack of access to transport and Communication facilities.
1
Political well-being
•
Lack of freedom of speech
• Living in a war-affected area • Lack of security
Environmental well-being
•
Living in an area susceptible to land
Slides, floods and drought • Lack of clean and safe water • Lack of latrines
LOGICAL FRAMEWORK:Narrative statement Overall goal: Improved quality of life of foundlings & sensitive children Objectively verifiable indicators - improved nutritional status for children - good shelter for the children - good quality selfsustaining education - improved health standards -The project requires a vehicle to pick and deliver Means/sources of verification - Primary health care reports from health workers, health centers and clinics - School reports from teachers and head teachers -Check logbook and mileage register Important assumption -Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
Result 1 Essential logical support.
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish
1
RESULT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
project materials and equipment. -Essential materials for the project need to be procured in good time -Need to equip care givers with skills to give quality care to the children Project plans (annual operational plans) are formulated documented and regularly reviewed Monthly meetings with all the resource, Persons and support staff Progress reports are compiled, documented and circulated on a regular basis e.g. quarterly Regular consultative meetings with all stake holders held at Division sub-county level
-Review repairs and procurement receipts -Review training records and conduct field visits to the parishes Review Reports Produced.
councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s guaranteed
Review minutes of the meetings
-Support from Adaklu-waya Town council, parish councils -support from Donors and other NGO’s or funders guaranteed
1
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
DONOR
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MEMBERS
B.O.D
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PROJECT COMMITTEE
CONSULTANT
PROGRAMME OFFICER
PROJECT DIRECTOR LEVEL OF 5 PROJECT INSTRUCTION RESOURCE PERSONS
FINANCIAL CONTROLLER
VOLUNTARY WORKERS
AWRCDO – carries out activities to ensure good life to these children on but some are insufficiently done due to poor funding. These include the following:1. Providing essential logistics to these children like clothes, food, blankets, mosquito nets, utensils, mattresses, etc. 2. Providing scholastic materials like books, pens, pencil, paper 3. Medical examination by our collaborating doctors 4. Visiting the children in their respective schools 5. Providing games equipment to these children like balls, Jersey, nets, etc.
FRAME WORK:
The frame work for this project is as follows. Once implemented the project is targeting 1,000 children of which 800 families will be represented. These will be Foundlings and Sensitive children from poor families. This idea is to provide a happy life to these children and to eradicate poverty (Hardship) from their families indirectly through providing sustainable education to these children. PHASE 1 UNIT DESCRIPTION ACQUISTION OF LAND AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SCHOOL When land is acquired, this phase will also include reconstruction of the school i.e. classrooms, library laboratories, computer rooms as well as equipping it with the facilities like desks, science ASSUMPTION Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers. PROJECTED COST (US $) 476,471
2
3
equipment, and vocation equipment depending on the subject courses to be taught. CONSTRUCTION OF A HOME AND THE PLAY CENTRE This phase will involve construction of a home Centre for the children. The home shall be equipped with all basic equipment and materials required for children day to day activities. CONSTRUCTION OF A HEALTH UNIT -This will offer: General health care to children, mothers and entire community. -Maternity services -Dental and minor surgical operation services.
Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers.
394,118
Adequate funding from anticipated donors, community and well-wishers.
470,588
TOTAL >>>>>
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$1,341,177
doc_928742057.doc