At the core of STAR Ghana Foundation’s work is increasing the effectiveness of civil society influence for inclusive development, and access to public services for citizens, particularly women and girls. With funding from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is implementing Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme with an overall goal to contribute to increased access to rights and quality social services for women and girls.
The programme which covers 6 regions, including the 3 regions in northern Ghana, Central, Eastern and Volta regions is intended at increasing the effectiveness of civil society advocacy for women and girls’ political and social rights, particularly rights to inclusive and quality social services and participation in public governance at the national and sub-national levels.
The launch, to take place in Accra in October, introduces the project to key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, FCDO, Parliament, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, CHRAJ, DOVSUU, GREP civil society partners. GREP is primarily targeted at Promoting women and girls’ access to education and health services, Preventing, and responding to gender-based violence and Supporting women’s political participation among other objectives.
Related projects
Message from the Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation on the Occasion of World Mental Health Day
October 10th every year has been declared World Mental Health Day, to help raise public awareness of mental health concerns globally and to motivate society to support mental health.
This theme for this year’s commemoration “Make Mental Health and Wellbeing for All a Global Priority” is a wake-up call for us in Ghana.
While significant progress has been made particularly with the enactment of enabling regulatory and policy frameworks and the setting up of institutions and systems, a lot more still remains to be done if we call ourselves a nation that prioritises mental health. According to the WHO (2021), only 2.8% of mentally ill persons in Ghana are able to access treatment, with most mental health patients unable to receive professional care. Relative to the WHO benchmark of one psychiatrist/100,000 population, Ghana’s psychiatrist to population ratio is 0.058 per 100,000 population, and 0.065 psychologists per 100,000 population. In addition, infrastructural constraints, lack of sustainable funding for mental health services and continuing stigmatisation of mental health issues are critical challenges that must be addressed to achieve our vision of Health for All.
We call on all stakeholders, including government, Parliament, the private sector, civil society, traditional and religious authorities, and the media to work together to ensure sustainable access to quality mental health services for all Ghanaians. We need to increase investments in mental health care. We need to fight stigmatisation. We need to strengthen institutions and agencies charged with delivering inclusive quality mental health services.
There can be NO HEALTH WITHOUT MENTAL HEALTH!!
About STAR-Ghana Foundation:
STAR-Ghana Foundation is a centre for active citizenship and philanthropy. It emerged from a 10-year multi-donor funded programme with the mandate of providing support to strengthen civil society activism and enable citizens to engage with the state to ensure accountable, transparent, and responsive governance at local and national levels. The vision of the Foundation is a well-informed civil society able to contribute to transformational change around key challenges of poverty, inequality, and inclusion for all citizens. Its mission is to increase the effectiveness of citizens’ influence for change that advances democracy, accountability, and social inclusion.
Under the health sector portfolio, forty (40) projects were supported between 2010 and till date. Projects focused on health sector budget advocacy, tackling accountability in health insurance, strengthening community participation in the monitoring of healthcare delivery, including access to maternal healthcare, promotion of mental healthcare and policy advocacy, including on covid-19 and access to healthcare. Projects directly reached 4,778,603 citizens (including media reach).
The Foundation also contributed to the passage of the Legislative Instrument (LI), in 2020 to operationalize the Mental Health Act; Budgetary allocation by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly for mental health for the first time in its 2013-2017 Medium Term Development Plan; and the launch of the National guidelines for Traditional and Faith-Based Healers in Mental Health to complement implementation of the mental health act. STAR-Ghana also carried out a research and documented evidence on COVID-19 and implications on maternal healthcare and family planning services to inform policy planning.
University of Ghana students pay learning visit to STAR-Ghana Foundation
A cohort of Master of Arts students at the Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS) of the University of Ghana, Legon have paid a study visit to STAR-Ghana Foundation. The visit was aimed at helping the students access practical experiences of organizations involved in social policy advocacy.
The Executive Director, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu received the students, who were led by their Coordinator, Dr Kojo Opoku, a Research Fellow. STAR-Ghana Foundation has collaborated with CSPS on research, particularly on social protection mechanisms in social services delivery.
The coordinator, Dr Kojo Opoku said “I know that STAR-Ghana is very interested in social issues like inequalities, gender equality and social inclusion, which are of interest to our of Social Policy Studies programs, and so if you’re looking for a Civil Society Organization to learn from, then STAR-Ghana is the institution of choice for our students”.
The Programmes Manager for STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi took the group through a detailed presentation of the Foundation’s work in promoting gender and social inclusion, and social policy advocacy.
The students took turns to make further enquiries on how STAR-Ghana Foundation influences social policy through its work, the kind of impacts achieved, and what informs the choice of partnerships and the sustainability plan.
“As an MA student, I’ve learnt a lot about the theoretical aspect to Social Policy, but today I have come to understand how STAR-Ghana puts this into practice and its influence in national policies and issues bothering on local communities” a student intimated.
“It’s been good, I have heard of STAR-Ghana, but I did not really know what they do, but my visit today has taught me what STAR-Ghana does at community to national level, how they are impacting the lives of people and policy”, another said.
The coordinator, Dr Kojo Opoku on his part, added in excitement “I can say that the experience has been wonderful, the motive was for my students, but coming here, I have greatly benefited from the insights from the presentation and discussion”
GFC: Classroom Project Volunteer shares how he is contributing with his human resource.
“A couple of months ago,” recalls Stephen Kwame Coffie, a 24-year old electrician based in Kumasi, “I saw it on TV that a building had collapsed on school children at Jamara and the Multimedia group was undertaking a campaign to mobilize resources to build a new school block for the community.”
When Stephen heard that the Multimedia was soliciting for support to build a classroom block for the children of Jamara, he felt inspired to make a contribution.
“I decided that since I am a certified electrician, I will support the initiative with my skills. So I called the designated number and pledged to do the electrical installation of the classroom block, free of charge, provided they supply the necessary materials I need,” he says.
“I decided that since I am a certified electrician, I will support the initiative with my skills.”
For Stephen, the fact that children-the future leaders of the country- have to be deprived of the opportunity of having descent classrooms to learn is disheartening. He believes that Multimedia Group’s Classroom project at Jamara is essential, not only for the people of Jamara, but for the entire nation since a good educational foundation for children could prevent deviant behaviours which are inimical to the wellbeing of society.
“Today, we hear of rampant criminal activities like armed robbery; I believe it’s because such people did not get good foundations when they were children. There are many of them who would not have ended up as criminals if we, as a nation had given them good foundations in education,” he states, “And an armed robber from one community is a threat to all of us, he is not going to rob only the people of his community, if ever. I believe that my modest contribution to the Multimedia Classroom project at Jamara, will help build a peaceful society.”
The Classroom Project at Jamara is one of the piloted interventions under the Giving for Change (GfC) local philanthropy initiative being undertaken by STAR-Ghana Foundation and partners, including the Multimedia Group. The Jamara project is about 50 percent complete, having delayed due to certain challenges, notably a fatigue for giving on the part of audiences to the campaign. As a result, the Multimedia group is building on the resources-including Stephen’s offer- to complete the classroom project as a corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Since Stephen learnt of the project about 10 months ago, he has sustained his interest and he is constantly in touch with the project manager as he awaits to fulfill his promise. Whenever he gets the green light, he anticipates to travel to Jamara and spend about three days with an apprentice, to do the electrical installations.
A graduate of Opportunity Industrialization Centre (OIC) in Kumasi, Stephen is one of several examples of young people who volunteered in their communities during the pilot of Giving for Change (GfC). Through his keen interest in the Multimedia Classroom project, Stephen continues to champion giving for community development.
“It is my hope that those of us who have the resources, be it money or skills, would be intentional about giving to support community projects. Even if it’s 1 Cedi you have it makes a difference. Nothing is too small,” he says.