Advocacy

Youth Alive has a strong commitment to advocacy within our communities. Many of our beneficiaries face strong stigmatisation.

Streetism

"Street" children are seen by many as criminals and worthless. We run campaigns to help educate the communities and foster an environment of understanding and support. As well as public advertising, we run community forums and use local newspapers and radio to discuss the issues. Our children themselves have appeared on radio stations to talk about what life is like for them and answer phone-in questions from the public.

Disability

Sadly there is strong stigmatisation around disability in Ghana: from the extreme views of being "witches" and "spirit" children, who may even be killed, through to being seen only as a worthless burden on the family. Through community outreach forums and education, we try to improve understanding around the facts of disability and improve the general perception. By working with the most immediate members of our beneficiaries' communities, our field workers strive to end the stigma associated around disability and create an environment of support.

FGM

We work, through the Child Protection Network, educating communities not only in the medical dangers of female genital mutilation but also in promoting and emphasising the fact FGM is now illegal, which isn't always known. Our work in Dabo in the Upper West, has been a huge success. According to local health officers, FGM has been abolished and, in fact, the community is now also turning away the many girls that are sent from neighbouring Burkina Faso, where the practice is also illegal.