Ghana

WOMANKIND has been working with women in Ghana since 1989. Early on we concentrated on microfinance in the north; more recently we funded a long-standing programme to reduce violence against women across the country, through community-based action teams (COMBATs).

We are currently supporting our partners to:

Work with communities to reduce some traditional practices that make women more susceptible to HIV
Build a new generation of activists through education on women's human rights and leadership skills
Give women 'infected with and affected by' HIV and AIDS legal support and advice
Encourage women to participate in peace-building and conflict-resolution efforts following the December 2008 national elections
Lobby the Ghanaian government for affirmative-action policies to enable more women to participate in both local and national elections.

Making a difference

Our partners in Ghana are seeing real changes:

Many women have said that the programme has improved their relationships with their husbands, who are less violent towards them

Members of the police and judiciary who have been trained by our partners say they are now less likely to blame women suffering from domestic violence, where once they would have believed they had brought it on themselves

WOMANKIND’s partners in Ghana have been significant members of the National Coalition on Domestic Violence which, after years of lobbying, succeeded in pressurising the Government to pass the Domestic Violence Act in May 2007. The Coalition is now working closely with the Ministry for Women and Children (MOWAC) to implement the Act.

Last updated: 15 December 2008