Most women and girls in the slums of Accra, do not often get the necessary support that is required from their families or community to gain an education. Some of these girls who were lucky to find themselves in the classroom are there without a purpose. Probably, there are sent there just to pave way for the parents or family members to have a peace of mind at home and not with the intention to develop a career out of it or to be responsible .

When a family does not have the financial resources to provide quality education to all their children, they prefer to give more education to their boy children. Because most of the women are not educated, they are unable to provide quality education to their daughters. So slum-based women and girls are trapped in a vicious circle, and the education of many girl children is neglected. The girls find it very difficult to get quality basic education. They do not have a positive supportive environment and attention that is required.

After school, in their slum community, there are no safe places where they can gather and learn on their own. Their families often prefer girls to stay home, and don’t support their learning.

Without support for their education at school, at home, or in their neighbourhood, many girls are lacking even basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Many girls and young women in the slums are generally less educated, less healthy, and less free than their male peers. They do not enjoy the basic rights and protections of citizenship, including the right to reach majority age, attend school, access health care services and information, hold certain jobs, stop unwanted sexual advances, or obtain justice for sexual assault and abuse.

Because of their lack of economic opportunity and the social norms disfavouring them, girls and women are often regarded as less worthy of investment or protection from their families, resulting in early marriage and motherhood. Investment in girls’ education, health, protection from violence, and economic opportunity enable girls’ to realise their human rights. For too long, girls in the slums have been kept in the background and that is a fact. And we use religion, tradition and cultural practices as an excuse. They are our girls who will soon grow to become women and they need to be empowered.

            

Our profound appreciation goes to our sponsors above who are helping in making it possible for a slum girl child to have the needed attention and education she deserve to become phenomena. Many profound thanks also goes to individuals like Mrs Matilda Amissah Arthur – the wife of the vice president of Ghana, Alhaji Azumah of 37, Hajia Fuseina of Kasoa, Nana Moses and many more who one way or the other are contributing to the success story of Achievers Ghana. 

With 250 girls and still counting, many girls are there waiting to be helped and come out from their bondage. You can also be part of this wonderful initiation of making a slum girl a productive citizen of their various communities. Your contributions and donations will make this possible. Come and be part of these this noble call and help change and make the life of a slum girl a better one.

DONATE NOW!!!

Meeting and hearing from individual role models that girls can relate to is invaluable in sparking their interest in various careers.

Achievers Ghana had the privileged of meeting Mr. Rob Short, a technician working on kindle devices in USA to interact with our girls.

           

It was really inspirational moment as the girls asked very intriguing  questions which was also met and followed by motivational answers from our visitor.

Surprisingly, both educational and career questions were asked by these young girls. As Mr. Short in his own statement said  ” I was so impressed by the young girls ability and enthusiasm and also how welcoming they are. I thought their questions were thoughtful and addressed important issues”.

This is one of the testimony from Mr. Short which show that a slum girl has the ability and many potentials to lead and contribute meaning to the development of her community and the country at large when giving the needed support and attention.

  

The visitor was entertained with a beautiful and wonderful reading from the Worldreader kindle device by the girls. As reading is now a culture to Achievers Ghana we cannot do without it.

This visit by Mr. Rob Short was made possible by Yolanda Naa of Worldreader Ghana and our profound gratitude goes to her for making this possible. Achievers Ghana  and the girls are so fortunate to host such an inspirational man. The girls were really inspired and will never forget this day. Thank you so much for your wonderful time and we hope to see you some other time again.

 

We believe that one way of making a girl child from the slum community phenomenal is to give her the opportunity to explore, experience, appreciate different environment and cultural backgrounds.

The girls had an exciting opportunity to visit the two great Castles in Ghana, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Many of these girls have never traveled outside the slum communities of Nima and Maamobi.

This was received as a welcome and inspirational news by the girls to see what is beyond their immediate surrounding and to get to know about the great castles and happenings in those castles many years back when the news was broke to them about the intending visit.

They were taking through the dungeons and were told about the historical happenings during the slave trade era.  These girls were touched emotionally. Some could not even make it to certain places out of fear. Some shared tears as they thought of the situations during the time. They put themselves into the situation then.

Some photos of the visit below;

Achievers Ghana in collaboration with Center for Development Initiative (CDI) as part of their core objectives in ensuring the safety and protection of a girl child, organised a community awareness campaign on the theme “End Child Marriage Now – The role of religious and opinion leaders and parents in ending child marriages in our communities”

This campaign which was organised at Maamobi Community Center (CYC) on the 19th of August, 2016 attracted both parents, Imams, opinion leaders as well as children. The main objective of the campaigned is to sensitize stakeholders in our communities in helping to end early and forced marriages.

Child marriage is very common in our various communities. Child marriage is a union in which one or both partners involved are below 18 years.  The effect on girl’s education, health and economic prospect are severe.  The Director of CDI, Mr Alexis gave the introductory remarks explaining the dangers and effects of this social menace. He reiterated his commitment in ensuring an effective collaboration with other organisations in the war against early and forced marriages within our communities.

On his part, The Imam of Maamobi Chamba Community, Imam Hussein Abdul Rahman, in explaining the role of Islamic religion and issues of girl child marriage made the audience to understand that Islam do not encourage early and forced marriage but rather individuals who indulge in such an act do so in the name of tradition and culture and not Islam. He advised parents and guardians to desist from such an act and help their female children to have the needed skills in education to help them face the challenges in the contemporary world.

Video documentary on the consequences of early and forced  marriages were showed to allowed the audience to have a feel on the dangers of putting a girl child into early marriages.

Other activities such as poetry recital and drama on dangers of early and forced marriages by the young girls of Achievers were performed to give more messages to the audience. A drama on the “Plight of a girl Child” caught emotional attention of the audiences as they watch with much attention what is actually happening in our various communities regarding forced marriages.

Alhamdulillah, we are truly blessed to have reached another month in which our good deeds are multiplied manifold. This year 36 of our girls will graduate JHS. If they are to continue their education, we need to be able to support them with scholarships for SHS.

Our goal for Ramadan is to raise Gh¢ 10,000 (Ten Thousand Ghana Cedis). This will provide scholarships for at least 10 of these girls. A generous donor has also committed to match any funds raised by 100%, meaning that if we can get enough donations we could possibly fund a total of 20 scholarships.

Will you help us achieve our Ramadan fundraising goal?

Any amount donated will help. Please be generous. Think about the benefit you can bring to these young and deprived children. Think about the reward you will have with Allah (swt). The Prophet (saws) said: “The best charity is that given in Ramadan. [At-Tirmithi]. We look forward to your support.

Please you can make your DONATION through MTN Mobile Money @ 0544512623

You can also visit any branch of Sahel Sahara Bank in Ghana and make your DONATION and for International transfer through information below:

Account Name: Achievers Ghana Education          Account Number: 1161043243801

Correspondence Bank Name: Ghana International Bank plc. London

Correspondence Bank BIC:     GHIBGB21

                                           May the blessings of Allah (swt) be with you.

Teaching girls in the slums to use technology to advocate, connect and increase awareness of key issues affecting them will constantly help change their well-being for better. It will also inspire, educate and equip a girl child in a slum community with the computer skills.

Achievers Ghana Coding program believes to close the gender gap in technology in the country by giving computer skills to girls in the slums. We have to inspire a slum girl to pursue computer science.

Our vision is to reach gender parity in computer fields. We believe this is paramount to ensure the economic prosperity of slum girls, families and communities across the slums in the country and to equip citizens with the 21st century tools for innovation and social change. More girls exposed to computer science at a younger age will lead to more women working in the technology and engineering fields.

Achievers Ghana Coding program is making an impact in the slums. The program is attracting more individuals and organizations to witness the wonderful things girls are making in the Ghana slums. This week visitors are Mark Naftalin and his lady colleague. They are freelance journalist and usually report to international media. It was interesting and educative as the girls learn how to blog this week. We need your kind support to make this program a success. Donate now!!

 

What a delight it was for the deprived girls in the  Ghana slums when they learnt that, Global Fund for Children (GFC) included Achievers Ghana into their grant sponsorship list. This means more deprived girls will have access to quality education.

GFC is a Global organisation which work to advance the dignity of children worldwide. It’s mission is by making small grant to innovative community based organisations working with many of the world’s most vulnerable children and youth.

Achievers Ghana appreciates and welcomes GFC for this wonderful initiative and will use the grant judiciously to advance the course of deprived girls in the slum communities of Ghana. We say thank you and Akwaba in the life of Achievers Ghana.

Akwaba!  Akwaba!! Akwaba !!! Global Fund for Children.

 

As part of the BBC’s Young, Geeky and Black series looking at black coders, Bola Mosuro travelled to Ghana to meet women and girls being taught to code by a non-profit group, the Achievers Ghana, which aims to bring an education to girls living in slums.

This is a coding class, organised by the Achievers Ghana of Nima. About 80 girls attend in this classroom on the first floor of the local mosque.

Girls being taught HTML and how to make web pages. Achievers also aims to give these girls a voice which they’re expressing through websites and blogs.

Resources are hard to come by – so most of the class is taught on paper. Electricity is also a problem, as there are regular blackouts. There are a couple of laptops, which the girls crowd around to practice their skills.

The mostly Muslim girls come from far and wide to Achievers each day to get training in a number of courses, including coding.

This coding class was originally started with the help of local NGO Tech Needs Girls, founded by several successful female coders. As well as teaching coding, they’ve also brought mentors to meet the girls.

Amadu Mohammed used to work in a bank. Now he runs the Achievers Ghana. It was set up in 2011 by a young girl called Amina. At the age of 12 she was saved from being forced into a child marriage thanks to Amadu, who at the time was giving children in Nima extra lessons.

Nima is one of the largest and poorest districts in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It suffers from inadequate infrastructure and services.

Rasheeda’s grandmother wants her to be educated, but doesn’t have the money to send her to school, so she sees the Achievers club as a gift from God.

A coding class for girls in the slums of Ghana