Saving Lives And Shaping Communities -The story of Compassion International Ghana

In nearly 10 years of its operations in Ghana, Compassion International Ghana has made and continues to make huge financial commitments that are mending and shaping lives in some of the poorest communities in Ghana.

The financial commitments total US$3.882 million or (GH₵15,024 million).

At the heart of these interventions is the desire of Compassion International Ghana to help develop the human resource potential of some of the poorest children in Ghana.

Compassion Ghana currently provides holistic child development, child advocacy and child protection to over 52,000 children in the five regions -Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Volta and Ashanti Regions.

 
Heart surgeries
There is saying that 'a healthy people is a healthy nation,' and the relevance of this saying comes into sharp focus when the health of children is in the equation. No doubt, children are fragile and often susceptible to curable diseases like malaria, not to mention life-threatening conditions like hole-in-heart.'

It is the speed with which Compassion Ghana deals with these life-threatening conditions that stands it out as the leading authority in holistic child development in Ghana.

Compassion's guiding principle is that 'a child's life must be saved first, before the child can be developed. In short, a physically and spiritually imbalanced child cannot reap the full benefits of any development intervention, no matter how well intended the intervention is.

 
From 2007 up to date, a total of 23 children were supported to undergo major medical care, amounting to $218,614.48.

The breakdown is as follows;
20 hole-in-heart surgeries, = $187,999.87
1 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia therapy,  = $12,475.20

1 Correction for Osteogenesis Imperfecta with multiple pathological fractures, = $14,007.00

1 correction of genital deformity = $4,132.42
In the last fiscal year (FY 14), a total of five major surgeries (4 hole-in-heart surgeries and 1 Osteogenesis Imperfecta) were undertaken at the cost of $57,839.00.

But for this timely intervention by sponsors and donors, these precious souls from the poorest families would have lost their lives. It takes up to GH₵50,000 for a hole-in-heart surgery to done in Ghana.

The question is, how many of such parents can afford this fee? In some critical cases, Compassion Ghana went the extra mile to fly four of the children to the MIOT Hospital in India for emergency medical treatment, while the other was done at Cardio Centre at Korle-bu.

 
Computer Resource Centres
As a rule of thumb, a country needs to educate and equip its children and youth to face the daunting challenges of the job market. This is what motivated Compassion Ghana to start the computer resource project in a bid to bridge the digital divide.  A total of 11 computer resource centres, costing $420,985.84 have been provided to 10 church partners for use by school children in these communities.

Two months ago, two of such well-furnished resource centres with 30 computers each, were provided to the Apam and Nsawan-Adoagyiri communities at a cost of $111,299. The Member of Parliament for   Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Frank Annor Dompreh, who attended the commissioning of Nsawam resource centre, thanked Compassion Ghana for reaching out to the children in his constituency.

One visible outcome of Compassion Ghana's Child Development through Sponsorship (CDSP) is that every poor and needy child of school going age should be in school. Sadly, though several factors combine to deprive some children from going to school. One factor is the lack of shoes or sandals. To address this, last year alone Compassion Ghana distributed over 11,000 pieces of footwear to children to promote school attendance.

A large number of children were unable to go to school regularly because of the stigma associated walking bare-footed.

The purchase of the shoes, together with some playground equipment for the children, cost $91,879.00. As with the computer resource centres, the playground equipment are to ensure the mental and physical development of the children.

 
Water & Sanitation
 
Compassion International Ghana subscribes to the minimum standards for water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH) programme, which are practical expression of the shared beliefs and commitments of development charities, and the common principles, rights and duties governing humanitarian action.

In furtherance of attaining its WASH core standards, a number of water and sanitation related interventions were made in some of the communities Compassion Ghana operates over the years. An amount of $560,852.01 was spent in hygiene training and provision of 11,200 water filters to children and care-givers in 49 communities in the Central, Eastern and Volta Region last year alone.

In the last three years, a total amount of $1,113,179.50 was spent on hygiene education and distribution of over 23,000 water filters to caregivers in children in 92 communities across the country.

An additional amount of $151,258.00 has been secured to provide 3,200 water filters to caregivers in nine communities in the Ashanti Region, thanks mainly to our sponsors and donors.

Fourteen mechanized boreholes with reservoirs were drilled for 14 communities at the cost of $240,521.36 to enhance access to clean drinking water for children and parents in the 49 communities of Central, Eastern and the Volta Regions mentioned earlier.

An additional amount of $52,494.43 was spent over the last few years to provide water reservoirs and or extend pipe-borne water to 19 church partners in 19 communities as part of the WASH project.

Besides, over the last nine years, a relatively minimal investment was made to provide 15 water closet facilities (ranging from 3-seater to 10-seater) in 15 communities for use by children and parents total totaling $143,503.32.

 
Microfinance
 
One of Compassion Africa's strategic objectives is to address the wider context of the poor and needy children it is ministering to.

Compassion Ghana is aware that microfinance for women has been a popular poverty-alleviation strategy among development agencies since the mid-1980s. It has also been considered an effective vehicle for women's empowerment. However, the demands for collateral security from the very poor women, besides the 'killer interest rates' accompanying the loans makes it impossible for them to acquire the loans. Compassion's model has been to grant interest free non-recoverable facilities to caregivers to make them self-sustaining.

The amount goes into training parents in small-scale business skills and financial management, plus seed capital to start. Since 2007, a total amount of $680,245.42 has been disbursed to support caregivers and church partners to enable them provide better care to their children

Last year alone, $124,008 was offered to caregivers in four communities to venture into income-generating projects like, tilapia farming, mango plantation, teak plantation and sewing.

Two other church partners in two communities have also secured funding to the tune of $66,767.00 to set-up leather works and fish farm to support caregivers of the children on the Compassion sponsorship.

Compassion Ghana hopes that the ability of parents to continue to take care of their children and provide for their household needs in future will be attributed to the strong financial foundation they are being given.

  By Amos Safo
*The writer is the Internal Communications Specialist and Brand Champion of Compassion International Ghana, Accra ( [email protected]/[email protected] )