Responding to Covid-19

Ghana recorded its first cases of the COVID-19 infections in March 2020. RAINS immediately pivoted to respond to pandemic meant to contribute to increasing awareness and compliance to approved protocols as well as protect lives and livelihoods. Through the generous support from our partners and donors we adapted ongoing activities to reflect the new realities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trustees and Management worked closely issue and localize protocols to promote the health and safety of all staff and volunteers including adapting to remote-based working and the use virtual technologies to support programming as well as the sharing of COVID-19 awareness information and addressing misconceptions. And at the same time positioned to respond to the challenges of the burden of the pandemic in communities.

Our several years of experience in WASH, Behavior Change Communication, Systems strengthening and partnerships with state and non-state actors have been brought to bear in our response actions to COVID-19. So far we have reached 637,720 people including children, girls and adults with information and services – Handwashing kits, face masks, sanitizers among others.

‘……the radio campaign RAINS undertook to create awareness about the causes and prevention of the pandemic has been very useful in helping most of our people come out of the myths they held about the pandemic. Local health agents are reporting increase in awareness at the community levels and given that we are one of the few districts in the country outside the big cities where cases have been recorded, the situation could have been worse without the radio campaigns’……District Director of Health Services of the West Mamprusi District, Mr. Mohammed Yakubu

Click for Ghana’s updates on the COVID-19 here: https://www.ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/

Improving Educational Governance and Accountability (IEGA)

The IEGA project was a three-year project implemented between 2011 and 2013. It was supported by Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness (STAR-Ghana) with funding from UKAID (DFID), DANIDA, the EU and USAID. The project generally aimed at strengthening educational governance and management in line with educational decentralised systems to ensure quality education delivery in these 4 districts in Northern Region of Ghana

The project achieved the following;

  • Improved educational governance and accountability mechanisms in 4 deprived districts in Northern Region of Ghana.
  • Improved functioning and performance of the District Education Oversight Committees (DEOCs), District Education for all teams (DEFATs), School Management Committees (SMCs) in the education sector
  • Facilitate the formation of district level CSO platforms in education to engage effectively with district service providers in a concerted manner including facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders
  • Increase media engagement and coverage of education issues in northern region.
  • Strengthen advocacy for improved conditions in the education sub sector in the four districts involving all the various stakeholders including the local people themselves

Implementing Partners

  • School Management Committees (SMCs)
  • Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs)
  • The Media
  • Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the various District
  • Ghana Education Service
  • District Assemblies

Location

Savelugu-Nanton District

Karaga District                      

Gushegu District          West Mamprusi District

Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE)

The CHANGE project was a two-year project implemented by RAINS in partnership with Canada Feed The Children (CFTC) and Farm Radio to simulate smallholder farmers to embrace innovative adoptive measures against climate change to ensure food security and nutrition.

To achieve this result and poverty reduction, the project supported farmers to better adapt to climate variability, weather extremes, and changing agricultural condition by giving farmers access to up-to-date weather forecasts and climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies. This allowed them to make better decisions on the use of new technologies, field preparation and land management.

Over the two-year span, the project reached out to 310 women and 140 men smallholder farmers in five communities in Savelugu Municipal and Nanton District.

As a result of the intervention, beneficiary communities (Kpachelo, Tindang, Langa, Yilikpani and Zoosali) experience an uninterrupted agricultural production bolstering the food security preparedness of households.

The project succeeded in strengthening the resilience of communities in the Savelugu Municipal and Nanton District Assembly through the capacities building of Community-Based Extension Agents who have contributed and continued to support communities to achieve food security.

Through this intervention, communities are well positioned towards achieving global goal 1, 2, 3, 8, 13 and 15 by ensuring the smallholders practice sustainable agriculture while improving their food and nutrition needs and expanding their livelihood.

Key Partners

Canada Feed The Children (CFTC)

Farm Radio

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA)

Municipal/ District Assemblies

Community Based Farmer groups

Community Radio Stations