Educate Girls, Empower Communities!

Through APOKA, CENSUDI strives to close the gender gap in education by improving access to formal education resources for girls and women. We; 

1. Empower our partner communities through awareness campaigns and incentives 
2. Challenge harmful stereotypes and traditional gender roles, deeply ingrained beliefs that limit girls' educational opportunities, including those that prioritize sons' education and view girls' roles primarily as domestic caregivers. Our awareness campaigns and community engagement activities challenge these stereotypes and promote the fact that girls' education benefits both individuals and society. 
3.  Engage government, religious and other bodies to prioritize and invest in girls’ education by implementing policies that address discrimination, support vocational training, and ensure equal access to educational resources 
4. Address poverty as a significant barrier to girls’ education in our partner communities by: 

• providing financial aid/educational scholarships to brilliant and needy children (75% female). Our scholarships, mentorship and life skills training have led to increased enrollment, reduced dropout rates and many successful careers in traditionally male-dominated areas. To date, over 6,000 girls and 1,500 boys have benefited from various CENSUDI scholarships!   
• supporting female artisans and their male counterparts to generate extra income from their artisan crafts and to manage this extra income, prioritizing the continuing education of their daughters.
• encouraging parents and guardians to provide moral, fiscal and mental support for the education of their daughters. 

Women, girls and boy children average over 65% of the population in the communities that CENSUDI works with in Ghana. This is a major reason why we support, promote and defend the health and well-being of women as a major vehicle to strengthen families, communities, and populations overall. Specifically, we; 

1. Improve access to health care by advocating for decentralized expansion of health care coverage and affordability. In addition, we assist women and some men to earn extra income from their artisanal productions and also educate them to prioritize their health needs by allocating some of that extra earned income to this foundational need. It is through this initiative that over 60 % of our female beneficiaries are able to pay for health insurance coverage. 
2. Advocate for an end to activities and practices that negatively affect the health of women and children. These include Violence against Women, Female Genital Cutting and Mutilation, Widowhood Rites, Early Childhood Marriages, and more. 
3. Promote health education by raising awareness about health risks, preventive measures and healthy lifestyles. We educate and motivate women to adopt healthy habits such as eating wholesomely, engaging in regular physical activities, sleeping well and managing stress.  We also encourage and assist women to get regular check-ups and screening, including mammograms, pap tests, etc., because we know that these are very crucial for early detection and prevention of various health conditions. 

CERVICAL HEALTH ADVOCACY - For 2025 and beyond, our focus is on reducing the incidence of cervical cancer in Ghana by increasing cervical screening and HPV vaccination rates.  Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in females in Ghana according to 2023 Local Registry data and the 2022 GLOBOCAN estimates. The World Health Organization also asserts that cervical cancer is considered preventable with nationwide coverage of HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screenings (WHO, 2022). However, Ghana does not have a national HPV vaccination program and screening rates are estimated as low as 16.9%. These   

are convincing reasons why CENSUDI is working with Ghanaians to prevent/reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by promoting basic cervical health practices and policy advocacy.  

The bulk of traditional policies and practices in the communities that CENSUDI works with in Ghana and other parts of Africa lopsidedly discriminate against women and girls. These are the customary and so-called long-established strategies to address: 

• Inheritance, land, matrimonial, all property and human rights;
• Access to and control of every resource imaginable.
• Visibility, voice and participation in decision-making at all levels 

Interestingly and unfortunately, modern policies designed and developed by government entities, professional bodies and other specialized bodies tend to be largely based on the principles of these traditional strategies without considering if they address the concerns and needs of all sections of their populations. 

In line with our mission and under our flagship program CODRIGA, CENSUDI works with communities and organizations to take a second look to: 

• Reduce and eventually eliminate discriminatory policies/practices
• Address inequities/imbalances/access issues during all planning and implementation processes
• Improve power sharing as well as strengthen participation in all decisions/activities by all community members 

Through this initiative, nineteen (19) rural communities in the Upper East Region of Ghana (in the Bolgatanga and Bolgatanga-East, Talensi and Nabdam Districts) are implementing Action Plans and Bye-laws that have: 

• Reduced traditional courtship requirements to 2 visits, 4 guinea fowls, no gin or any other kind of hard liquor
• Cut dowry requirements from 4 to 2 cows.
• Abolished dehumanizing widowhood rites
• Contain land leases from male heads of households giving up to 30% of fertile compound farms to their wives for 20 years, within which time women can pass on the land to their girl children if something prevents them from cultivating      it.
• Established Community-Based Anti-Violence Teams to promote peaceful homes and address gender-based violence issues within their communities.
• Nominated 63 women to participate in the 2010 District Level (Local Council) Elections.