HA: Ghana Team ready to begin year in Ghana

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four volunteers The first Humanist Action: Ghana team has officially begun its yearlong service commitment! HA: Ghana volunteers arrived in Baltimore for training on Saturday, spoke at the Baltimore Ethical Society (BES) on Sunday, and will depart for Ghana tomorrow.

After a month of language and culture training, HA: Ghana volunteers will begin collaborating with a Ghanaian women’s rights group, Songtaba, to increase access to education, healthcare, jobs, and adequate nutrition in the Northern Region of Ghana. Even though Ghana overall has achieved success in reducing poverty and increasing literacy, the drought-prone North offers far fewer economic opportunities and experiences poverty and illiteracy rates at double the national average.

In such an environment, accusations of witchcraft are an effective method for ostracizing non-conforming women. Widows, childless or unmarried women, and women who do not fulfill expected gender roles are vulnerable to being branded as witches and forcibly exiled to “witch camps,” where resources are even scarcer and where further mistreatment often occurs. HA: Ghana volunteers will work with Songtaba to improve conditions in the witch camps, empower women to become effective advocates for an end to gender-based violence inside and outside the witch camps, and provide greater access to healthcare and education in the surrounding communities until witchcraft is no longer used as an explanation for tragedy.

ghana womanYou can keep up with the volunteers and the development of the Humanist Action: Ghana in any of the ways below. Pick whichever ones work best for you!

  1. Sponsor an HA: Ghana volunteer to receive quarterly updates about that volunteer’s work. It’s the best way to stay connected to our work and guarantee a regular source of support for impoverished communities!

  1. Sign up to receive the HA: Ghana newsletter for a monthly overview of HA: Ghana activities.

  2. Like the HA: Ghana Facebook page to receive notifications when we post media and related news items.

  3. Follow HA: Ghana on Twitter to see our reactions to world events in real time.

  4. Subscribe to the Foundation Beyond Belief YouTube channel to watch biweekly HA: Ghana vlogs. Check out the first installment below.

 

   

Posted in Humanist Action