Out of AfriKids
Pauline Wilson, an independent agent, travelled to Ghana to evalu-ate the success of the work done on our core projects.
Comic Relief funds evaluation of AfriKids’ core projects
In January 2010 Comic Relief offered AfriKids a grant of £20,000 over six months to conduct an independent evaluation of our work with street and working children in northern Ghana. Between April and June we worked with Pauline Wilson, a respected and experienced evaluator to undertake this work. Pauline went out and spent two weeks with a team of four AfriKids Ghana staff to evaluate the impact of our three major core projects for the period 2005—10.
The evaluation covered various areas including relevance, effective-ness, coverage, sustainability and history of AfriKids. The write-up of the evaluation is very positive and credits AfriKids with achieving goals and making effective, valuable changes in rural Ghana.
Here are just a few points pulled from the evaluation:
AfriKids has coordinated well with beneficiaries, families, local opin-ion leaders and district officials
All work carried out to date by AfriKids is relevant The biggest change cited by everyone we met both at village, dis-
trict and regional level is a change in attitudes and practice related to the spirit child phenomenon in Kassena Nankana District
Quotes from Pauline Wilson follow on overleaf.
To view the full evaluation, please follow the link—Comic Relief
August 2010
AfriKids is a Child Rights Organisation working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in a holistic, inclusive and sustainable manner
David and Charles, AfriKids Ghana staff, talk to a beneficiary’s father
The data held by AfriKids shows that 95% of the 160 children covered by [Operation Fresh Start] will successfully com-plete their training and go on to use their skills to earn a living. Pauline Wilson, on Operation Fresh Start
Both agencies are committed to
working towards AfriKids
Ghana’s financial sustainability
and are taking steps together to
ensure this happens. Such an un-
dertaking is rare among develop-
ment agencies and it will be
watched with interest by others.
AfriKids’ contribution has been to
work closely with children that
were working in exploitative con-
ditions and with their families to
ensure that a child is educated
either formally or vocationally.
This has been transformative for
the child.
One man we interviewed claimed
that, ‘It was the songs by the
children that produced a change
in attitude and practice about
treatment of spirit children in this
district.’
While larger public awareness
campaigns were able to build
awareness, it was the smaller
discussions with concoction men
and opinion leaders that were
instrumental in identifying ways
to change the practice.
All quotes from Pauline Wilson’s evaluation report
AfriKids Medical Centre
Out of AfriKids inside stories
As most of you will have read in last month’s newsletter, our
GAS Partnership (Ghana Health Service, AfriKids, Southamp-
ton University NHS Hospitals Trust) is now underway and
making constant improvements to our medical centre.
The second quarter of 2010 is now over and we can report to
you all that it has been a fantastically positive quarter.
We are building new wards in our medical centre and the
building completion is on course for this month. The expan-
sion itself is providing work for over 25 local men and
women. Their daily rate of pay is approximately £5 which is
very competitive. Two days work is enough to insure their
families’ healthcare for a year. One week’s work is enough to
put a child through one year’s primary education.
The construction has been overseen by an expert structural
engineer, making sure we have top quality buildings that are
roofed, plastered and wired.
Madam Valeria, above, works with AfriKids in the medical
centre, having retired from Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
On retirement I decided to join AfriKids because I still had en-
ergy and wanted to continue to use my skills to help patients
for as long as I was able. I find the Medical Centre a reward-
ing place to work... The main reasons for this are the consis-
tent availability of medicines, the availability of a doctor for
outpatient consultations, the availability of a wide range of
laboratory investigations and generally polite staff, receptive
to patient needs.
The new wards will bring with them much needed basic
equipment such as suction and oxygen machines which we
now have to borrow from the theatre when possible. We will
also be able to hang mosquito nets, so avoid our patients de-
veloping malaria whilst in hospital.
We look forward to sending you more pictures as the wards
come together!
Georgie Fienberg is a popular speaker at the Institute of Fundraising
On 6th July, our International Director, Georgie Fienberg, attended the Institute of
Fundraising’s National Convention. The convention, which takes place annually, is
‘put together by fundraisers for fundraisers’ and combines networking events, ses-
sions within specialist areas of fundraising, workshops and debates.
Georgie was invited to speak about AfriKids’ experiences in corporate fundraising,
specifically the AfriKids/Deutsche Bank corporate partnership. The event was a
prime opportunity for Georgie to get AfriKids’ name and methodology out there and
since speaking, Georgie has received a wealth of really positive feedback from a
whole different range of organisations that attended.
Thank you so much for putting together such an informative presentation and for
sharing your gems of knowledge and experience. I left feeling totally inspired.
I really enjoyed your presentation. I found it to be very inspiring and what you’ve achieved with AfriKids as a whole, as well as
your partnership with Deutsche Bank is remarkable.
Congratulations to Georgie on successfully spreading the word of AfriKids and reaching out to others, who will hopefully one
day follow in AfriKids’ footsteps.
The sky’s the limit for fundraising!
There really are no limits to how to raise money for AfriKids—we have runners, swimmers, climb-
ers, trekkers, cyclists and now sky divers! Rakeb Sile (left) is jumping out of a plane to raise money
for one of our projects that she heard about... The School of Night Rabbits. In her own words,
Rakeb describes the cause and why she wants to raise money for AfriKids, I heard about this pro-
ject from a friend of mine who runs DawnAfrica, an amazing fundraising initiative which supports
the work of AfriKids from the UK. She has just been out there to witness the impact of the project
first hand and the stories she brought back inspired me to support. I hope it does the same for you!
The School of Night Rabbits, or Nyongo Sunna as it is said in FraFra, is a night school managed by
two local teachers; Dennis and Gabriel, and held in a school house in Bolgatanga every Tuesday
and Thursday.
The ‘school’ has 80 regular members all of whom are children living or working on the streets. They are
led through an academic syllabus informed by the national curriculum as well as being given lessons on
social issues including healthcare and personal hygiene. The children are given a bucket of water and
soap to wash and a piece of fruit or some money for food at each session. A nurse visits to dress their
sores and assess any medical needs which may require a hospital visit. There are also fun sessions dedi-
cated to sports and games and each child is rewarded with a t-shirt when they have attended regularly
for three months.
You can visit Rakeb’s JustGiving page to read more here.
We hope Rakeb actually enjoys her skydive and everyone at AfriKids appreci-
ates all her fundraising efforts!
Fundraising Our Football Tournament update...
The AfriKids and Greenhouse Charity 5-a-side football was a real
success, raising £8122. We made our record raffle ticket sales of
over £800, thanks to the persuasive Katie Arnold and Lana
Whatley (AfriKids staff).
We had a guest appearance from Lee McQueen, the winner of
the hit TV show, The Apprentice in 2008. Unfortunately his team
did not make it to the final stages, but it meant he was able to
enjoy the BBQ and flowing bottles of beer.
A fantastic night enjoyed by all, so look out for another tourna-
ment next Summer, we hope to see you there!
A Fabulous Fashion Show Do you love fashion, entertainment, Cham-
pagne, canapés and goody bags?!
Then come to our fashion show!
Deutsche Bank are kindly sponsoring this
event that rounds off London Fashion Week
with true glitz and glamour.
Located in the heart of London, One Mayfair
is a breathtaking location that guarantees a
professional yet quirky show. We have Eng-
land rugby stars coming along to model un-
derwear and numerous celebrities lined up to
watch them strut their stuff.
Please contact [email protected]
for your tickets and look out for your official
invitations!
Standard: £75
Includes fashion show, Champagne, canapés
and goody bag
VIP : £90
Includes front row seats, entrance to a top
London night club, fashion show, Champagne,
canapés and goody bag
Discounted group ticket: £70
For groups of five or more. Same as standard.