Youth Advocates Ghana (YAG) launched the Educate 1 Child Project in 2013 as a child sponsorship and scholarship programme for orphans and vulnerable children. The project seeks to break the cycle of poverty through educational scholarship programs, youth empowerment and community development initiatives. It seeks to achieve this on the lines of education, health care and child rights advocacy. The organization helps children who are young victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and homelessness, so that they may return to school to get the education that they need to pull themselves out of poverty and become more positive and influential members of their communities. On a yearly basis we provide financial support to pupils and enable them to stay in school or enroll in school. Our support includes school uniforms, lunch, exercise and text books, school bag and shoes, pencils, pens and other fees associated with education. The project currently assists 40 children between the ages of 3-15 years.
How Does the Project Work?
This is not an orphanage home. Rather, through the project, we identify Foster Parents (FP) who agree to foster an orphan child. We train and support the families to also take care of the child. We also endeavor to ensure that our children grow up in a loving family.
Our aim is to give children a home and parent to also call theirs. We believe this will make them live their life without any stigmatization from peers and community members and creating a social bond between them and their environment. We hope by doing this, we can clean our streets of beggars, street children and hawkers.
Selection Criteria:
YAG works hand in hand with community leaders, Ghana Education Service, and social welfare department to identify and enroll children unto the scholarship programme. Through our collaboration with these agencies, they alert us when an orphan/a child needs help and also report cases of street children. The team from YAG then follows up on the children, conduct social enquiry assessment, and make a decision to enroll the child. The team from YAG also does a community survey to fish out vulnerable orphans and street children who also needs our help by adding them to our scholarship program. The demand for the programme is high but budget restraint does not allow us to enroll many children at this time.
Target Group:
Our target groups are both male and female vulnerable orphans and vulnerable street children from the ages of 3 to 15 years. We prioritized children who are victims of domestic violence and children living with HIV/AIDS.
How to Sponsor a Child:
Individuals and families can sign up to sponsor one or more children. As a sponsor, you can decide to sponsor male or female and a specific child. The YAG team will send information on children available for sponsorship. Once a sponsor selects a child, further details including the photo will be sent to the sponsor. The sponsor can exchange letters, photos, and gifts with the child regularly. This is optional and a sponsor can decide to get involved directly with the child or not. This actually allows sponsors to build a long-term relationship with their sponsored children.
Cost of Sponsorship
Monthly: €30; Yearly €360
What are included in the sponsorship?
• Feeding
• Health Insurance (allows the child to get free basic healthcare)
• Child Welfare support (school examination fee, extra classes fee, school supplies, sanitary pads.)
• Books and learning materials
School Academic Year:
The academic year starts at September each year and ends at July/August. There are three terms in each year: First Term (September-December); Second Term (January-April); Third Term (May-July/August).
To request for more information about a child, please email us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
