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 lissawallington@afrikids.org

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.