Category: Africa

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Brain Games Begin in South Africa

Photo of father and son watching a recording of their interaction during games

The impact on communication is not an outcome of poverty that is regularly reported. Even in the UK, it is estimated that poorer children are a year behind in terms of language skills than those from wealthier backgrounds.

While limited or aggressive communication at home means that children don’t learn enough oral communication skills and do not develop cognitive skills easily, relationships and behaviour also quickly suffer with the long-term effects clear.

Because of this, our partner in South Africa, New Life, looked to begin a new programme helping improve parent-child communications through the development of a brain game to stimulate intellectual activity, as well as encourage fun and positive conversations.

The basis of the strategy is for the parent and children to play a pick-up-sticks game, with four main outcomes:

  • It sets a goal i.e. there is a specific outcome to be achieved which in turn gives a sense of purpose
  • It prescribes rules i.e. limitations are placed on how to achieve the goal, pushing players to explore different possibilities. This neurochemistry unleashes creativity and fosters creative thinking while helping children to understand life has boundaries
  • It provide a feedback loop i.e. conversations can detail how close players are to achieving their goal, can motivate creativity and encourage everyone to keep playing
  • It allows participation to be voluntary i.e. since everyone freely accepts the goals and rules and can leave at anytime, people understand that they have the right to be involved in making decisions, planning and reviewing an action that might affect them. Having a choice gives them a voice

The scoring of the game is based on eight basic principles of positive communication. The higher the level and number of types of interaction, the better the score.

The games are also videoed and then watched by the parents, children and the therapist who helps the parents and children learn further from the activity.  This guidance in turn strengthens the level of sensitivity shown and the mentalising abilities of the parents so that they can better understand their state of mind and control their own behaviour.

And all these positives are marked on a diagrammatic brain of the child to motivate the parent to add more positive notes during future play and at home.

The International Children’s Trust and New Life have been delighted by the extraordinary success of the programme, and more work is being done to encompass more families and assess whether this initiative can help other programmes we deliver.

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Bird Flu Hits Ghana

Photo of girl adding grain to a container to feed guinea fowl in Ghana

We do not have control over everything that happens.  That certainly seems true with our partners Youth Alive in Ghana.  One of the schools that they work with through our DFID-funded project is Balobia Special School.  Through the support of the Ashworth Trust, the school were able to build a chicken coup to purchase and raise guinea fowl and chickens. The initial purchase of 150 guinea fowl and 150 chickens was providing some excellent nutrition for the children in the school and was part of a programme to encourage their understanding about animal welfare and farming.

Sadly at the beginning of September, we heard that all of the chickens and guinea fowl have died after an outbreak of bird flu that has devastated Ghana.  Families and groups rearing birds is a common enterprise in many African countries, providing a much needed income and as an important source of food.  With bird flu so prevalent in Ghana at the moment, the government have launched a compensation – sadly only for the regions in the south.  With Balobia Special School in the north, it is not eligible for government compensation and so it will take time and, sadly, money to replace the chickens and guinea fowl.

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Field Report: Hearing Stories in Ghana

Photo of children with Youth Alive, Ghana writing in the classroom

I have just returned from the North West region of Ghana, where I have seen first-hand how wonderful supporters like you are changing the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in West Africa.

As always, I return from my field visit with mixed feelings.  The work undertaken by our partner Youth Alive is really making a difference in the lives of children.  These children continue to be an inspiration to me and reminds us all at the International Children’s Trust why we feel so passionately about our work.  Sadly, this inspiration is married with feelings of dismay at the poverty I witnessed, and the heart-breaking stories that many people shared with me on my journey.  My hope does remain knowing that our loyal supporters will continue to feel passionately about helping us to change the lives of impoverished families, and give thousands of innocent children the chance to go to school, stay in school, and enjoy their childhood for as long as possible.

Your Support of Youth Alive

Our close partnership with Youth Alive has allowed them to work across 4 districts and 22 communities of Northern Ghana. They are working to remove obstacles to primary and junior high school attendance. Due to high levels of poverty and hardship in these areas, many parents are simply unaware of the importance of supporting their children in their education.

In this region, one of the main obstacles to attending and performing well at school is a high level of violence at home, in the community and in schools.  Children are regularly subjected to beatings, verbal abuse and forced marriage. They are expected to stay away from school to perform tasks at home or to earn income for the family. This is not deliberate cruelty, but a symptom of the lack of education amongst families and the community. You can help us to change that.

Mary’s Story

Amongst all of the stories that I heard in Ghana, one that I will not forget was told by Mary*.  She was in the first years of junior school when, tragically, her mother died. When her father married again, Mary’s new stepmother put her to work running the house, fetching the family’s water and looking after the small crop of vegetables that supported the family. Mary told me how hard her chores were every day. She was unable to manage them as well as going to school – but she desperately wanted an education.

Eventually, the situation came to a head. Mary and her stepmother argued and her stepmother punished her by refusing to give her any food. Eventually, unable to cope, Mary ran away. Like so many children, she became extremely vulnerable and at serious risk of ending up permanently on the streets, with nothing to call her own and nobody to turn to.

Fortunately, one of Mary’s friends was working with Youth Alive as a peer educator. Mary confided in her friend, who immediately turned to Youth Alive to help. Their staff visited the family, spending time and care negotiating with her parents. They explained the importance of education to them and ensured that Mary could return to a safe and encouraging home.

The result of the work of Youth Alive with this family has been profound. Mary’s father and stepmother have become part of the project. They are learning about good parenting and how important it is for Mary to be supported in school. She now attends school every day. Thanks to the intervention of Youth Alive, Mary has the prospect of a bright future, and her parents now understand why education is so crucial for their daughter, and fully support her in pursuing her goals.

Mary’s story demonstrates what makes the approach of International Children’s Trust and all of our partners so unique. When we work with children in desperate situations of domestic violence, we address the root causes of the problem. In so many cases, parents resort to violence and abuse because they simply do not know any better. We support them and show them that there is another way. We highlight the importance of educating their children to break the poverty cycle, and give them practical help to overcome the barriers to achieve that.

We Need Your Support

This Easter, children throughout the UK enjoyed holidays, treats, gifts and celebrations. There are so many children out there, like Mary, who have nothing to look forward to except for another day of grinding poverty, achingly hard work and the threat of violence and abuse. Mary’s story shows us that it does not have to be this way. Every day, we are making a lasting change to the lives of children across the developing world.

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New Horizons: Reaching Out To Street Girls In Burkina Faso

Photo of a group of girls in Burkina Faso

Keoogo is the only organisation in Ouagadougou, (the capital of Burkina Faso) that works with street girls as well as boys, and with children who are vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and exploitation.

Given the International Children’s Trust’s experience in supporting programmes that significantly change the lives of children who have been involved in and harmed by their often violent experiences – we are delighted to reveal our new collaborative venture studying just what street girls are experiencing in Burkina Faso’s second city Bobo – Dilousi, with Keoogo.

Through this study, we will reveal what the immediate needs of street boys and girls are as well as the more complex background factors that have led them to surviving on the streets. This research will enable the International Children’s Trust and Keoogo to develop effective ways of getting girls and boys back to school (many have never attended in their lives) and give them access to vital services including for girls sexual, maternal and reproductive health so essential for them and those already in young motherhood. With our help, Keoogo will also be able to expand their capacity in delivering psycho-social support, which is so important in achieving family reintegration wherever possible.

The International Children’s Trust will help Keoogo fill a real gap in the support available for all street children in the region. Most services address physical needs, but do not tackle the more complex, emotional and psychological support needs of children who have experienced violence or other abuses on the streets and, for very young children who have nothing and nobody to rely on, this is an important step forward in Burkina Faso.

We are grateful to Comic Relief for providing funds for this initial research phase.

 

Tim, a girl found by Keoogo staff in the suburbs of Ouagadougou under the influence of drugs and clearly not accepted by her peers, who saw her as a troublemaker, is one example of Keoogo’s good social work with these exceptionally fragile and vulnerable children. 6 months after her initial contact with staff, Tim felt able to tell them about what had happened to her. At just 4 years, because she was born out of wedlock, she was given to her grandmother to be raised. At 11 years she had her first sexual encounter and tried to leave her home. The men in her grandmother’s house tied her up and severely beat her to stop her leaving. She nevertheless continued to escape and make sexual contact with older men until at 13 she was given to another relative to deal with her challenging behaviour. This younger grandmother sent Tim to work in the market and there she was initiated into prostitution by a girlfriend. Her relatives dealt with this by tying her up and beating her, but after 2 months she left to join her market friends and lived off prostitution for a year. Her village threatened to kill Tim if she tried to return and her father’s family disowned her. However Keoogo staff helped Tim rehabilitate within a residential care home and traced her mother, and helped mother and daughter re-establish contact. With care and professional counselling she has turned her life around and is now training to be a seamstress and is looking forward to practicing her skills.

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Safeguarding Vulnerable Children in Ghanaian Schools

Photo of children at the start of the school term in Ghana

The International Children’s Trust has learned over many years working to bring vulnerable children, from labour or the streets, into education, that school is not necessarily a safe place. Our partner Youth Alive, based in the Upper East region (the second poorest in the country) of Ghana and a practitioner in rehabilitating young children from the streets into school, also found this to be true. During the course of its work, the organisation found that many establishments allowed violent and humiliating forms of punishment to be practiced, causing their young students to suffer harm – often severe physical and emotional harm – whilst in their care and as a result triggering further school dropout. Together with Youth Alive, The International Children’s Trust is changing this. Thanks to support from the UK’s Department for International Development we are now working closely with teachers, parents and communities to utilise positive disciplinary methods and to assert a safe learning environment for all their students. Through this work we can ensure that once in school a child, from the street or from years of underage employment, can feel assured of support in an environment conducive to his, or her, education and can look forward to a more stable and secure future.

We are proud to have extended further work in northern Ghana, where generations of widespread rural poverty have impacted families badly and Youth Alive, with the support of the International Children’s Trust, continues to protect children from child labour, enforced marriage, community and domestic violence and eventual school dropout. In the communities of Biu, Vunania and Gaani, Youth Alive identified children who desperately needed support to attend school. These poverty-stricken regions, where children have to supplement the family income by working long, gruelling hours, and where there are high levels of violence at home and in the classroom, are where often the only option is to drop out of school.

Thanks to support from generous donors we have also provided educational material, uniforms and school fees, as well as skilled support for families, and we are delighted to reveal that 95% of the children benefitting from this project have been able to stay in school, pursue their studies and forge themselves a path to a brighter future. By ensuring that these children remain in education, we are able to protect them from some of the dangers they fall prey to when out on the streets.

 

Northern Ghana: The facts

  • The Upper East region of Northern Ghana is the 9th poorest of the country’s 10 regions.
  • On average, only one in 5 children attend and/or stay in school beyond grade 5 in Ghana, although figures for the Upper East Region are far worse.
  • Official statistics quote 14% of children in the Upper East aged between 5 and 17 are involved in child labour, although these are likely to be substantially higher in reality.
  • Girls are frequently taken out of school to take care of their siblings or to get married. Boys are also encouraged to drop out to contribute more to the household income.