Afrikids Ghana, a charitable organization based in the Upper East Region, has unveiled a new brand that focuses on improving educational outcomes and leading communities to drive sustainable solutions.
More than 2 decades ago, the organization began as a group mobilizing to support vulnerable kids in communities through the donation of various items. It subsequently morphed into a full-fledged charity organization with a focus on child protection with the operations being a bit informal.
Having officially been registered in 2005, the organization was supported by a movement of volunteers and built on the spirit of volunteerism.
Afrikids operate across Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper East, and Northern Regions often referred to as the 5 regions of Ghana’s North, where statistics point to more than half of the families living in poverty and 1 in 15 children die before their 5th birthday.
The operational zone is also an area, where in the global context, 9 in 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa are unable to comprehend simple text by age 10.
The organization unveils the new brand at a time the Early Grade Reading and Mathematics assessment reveals that just 2% of grade 2 children were able to read and comprehend basic text while 73.2% of pupils were unable to answer a single subtraction question.
With the new brand, the leadership of Afrikids believes that communities must be led to drive self-sufficient and sustainable solutions, improve their mode of engagement, and reach out to the larger population by taking advantage of emerging media platforms to create awareness.
The new phase of Afrikids Ghana, according to the Country Director, David Pwalua comes with a vision of local ownership which has led to the development of a new model known as the RISE UP Model.
With this model, the organization sort to call communities to champion local issues and this means that education is at the core of leading individuals and communities to be self-sufficient and drive far more sustainable goals.
Speaking Wednesday at the new brand launch, Mr. Pwalua explained that it is about time the organizations moved from courting the support of community members for behavior change with goodies to influence participation.
This move and focus on education has led Afrikids to develop a new logo “learn today, lead tomorrow.”
“This new brand resonates perfectly with our vision that makes local communities and project participants the focus of our work, for them to become active players in determining their future.
We believe that as we stick together and remain united, we will be able to achieve more, we will be able to take our activities to scale so that many more children across the length and breadth of Africa will benefit from our interventions and have an improved quality of life.” He stated.
Speaking at the launch of the new Brand of Afrikids, the Paramount Chief of the Sirigu Traditional Area, Naba Atogumdeya Roland Akwara III, commended the organization for its contributions to ending female genital mutilation among other initiatives while pledging the support of traditional rulers.
