Ghana

Innovation leads to progress

Freedom from Hunger created "Freedom from Hunger Ghana" in the 1980s and helped it become an independent partner organization in the mid-1990s. FFH-Ghana now helps an array of local banks reach out to very poor, rural communities with sustainable microfinance and education services. In Ghana, as in other West African countries, women use their loans to start simple, home-based businesses that increase incomes and help them feed their families. In fact, the most common enterprises involve processing bulk foodstuffs into common meals – a practical choice, as it earns women a daily income and makes the most of their time since they already cook for their families. Education topics for women in Ghana include nutrition, breastfeeding, diarrhea prevention and treatment, immunizations, malaria and family planning.

Credit with Education is truly transforming lives in Ghana. Read the story of Dorcas Aidoo, a long-time Credit with Education member whose life has truly changed.

Impact Study

Ghana is the site of one of Freedom from Hunger’s most important studies on the impact of Credit with Education. In 1999, Freedom from Hunger, along with the Program in International Nutrition at the University of California, Davis, published a multi-year study, using 1993 as a baseline and 1996 as a follow-up, on the effectiveness of the Credit with Education Program in Ghana. Funded mostly by the Thrasher Research Fund and the nutrition division of UNICEF/New York, the study focused on the impact of Credit with Education on increasing women’s economic capacity, health/nutrition practices, and feelings of empowerment within the home and community.

Not only did 90% of the 1996 participants feel their income level had “increased” since their participation in the program but also, positive impacts in mothers’ health and their nutrition practices were seen both in participant and non-participant households within the community. The Credit with Education program was also found to effectively educate mothers on the importance of breastfeeding, and the ways to prevent and successfully treat diarrhea. Although women reported they felt no more empowered within the home, they did report a positive impact in community event participation. Most importantly, the impact study found a reduced vulnerability to the ‘hungry season.’ The proven success of Freedom from Hunger’s Credit with Education program has encouraged the continual implementation and expansion of the program.

Malaria kills over one million people per year, most of them children and pregnant women. Freedom from Hunger has documented that a combination of malaria education and microfinance can help these families in their own self-help efforts to fight malaria.

Because most of the women we reach are unable to read or write, Freedom from Hunger uses participatory learning sessions that build on what the women already know about malaria. With the help of a facilitator, the women perform skits, songs and role-plays to explore new ideas about prevention, symptoms and treatments for malaria. Women also learn how to set aside money to buy insecticide-treated mosquito nets, how to properly hang the nets, when and how to get them retreated and, most importantly, who should sleep under them and when. Because the surplus earnings on the women’s loans support the cost of operating the program, this education is sustainable and can be supported by local credit unions and banks. Learn more about how we fight malaria.

Our Microfinance and Health Protection initiative is also at work in Ghana. Through MAHP, Freedom from Hunger trains local microfinance institutions to offer additional microfinance services that help families deal with malaria, including education on health micro-insurance, special health savings accounts, and health loans. MAHP also links women’s groups with local health clinics to encourage and support early intervention when malaria does strike.

A one-year impact study, funded by GlaxoSmithKline and carried out in partnership with the Noguchi Institute in Accra, Ghana, documented the success of Freedom from Hunger’s malaria education but also underscored the difficulty in securing reliable access to insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). In response, Freedom from Hunger launched a pilot program to train entrepreneurial women to sell the nets in their villages to their neighbors. Our training ensured that the women could teach their clients how to properly hang and use the nets as well. This HealthKeepers program continues today as an independent NGO and is expanding the number of women selling the nets in Ghana.