Alliance for African Women Initiative (AFAWI) constantly ​welcomes volunteers from all over the world, to help our team with the planning, implementation and coordination of our projects. As a grassroots organization we strongly believe in the combination of intercultural exchange and regional social engagement of local employees, bearing in mind the important requirement of cultural and social understanding, when it comes to a sensitive work that is actually affecting other peoples life.

Volunteering with AFAWI will therefore give you a unique chance to learn and experience grassroots development work in a local Ghanaian NGO. You will be working in rural communities alongside our experienced staff and thus ensure equality and dignity for women and children in Ghana and help building the country from the bottom.  
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Together we can bring out real positive change! 

The AFAWI Empowering Girls Project goal is to promote bridging the gender gap, in particular through promoting girl students the equal opportunity to education in school. The focus is thereby laid on installation of gender segregated sanitation and handwashing facilities, education on hygiene in general, with special focus on female hygiene (in particular during menstruation) and distribution of reusable sanitary pads and menstrual cups. 

AFAWI’s research found that very few female students were using safe and hygienic menstrual management practices and were often using  only toilet roll or used cloth while menstruating and therefore lacked of basic hygiene practices. Further the topic of menstruation was and still is highly stigmatized in the Ghanaian society, which hinders important education and proper handling of the monthly bleeding and additionally often leads to a feeling of shame, especially amongst young girls. As a result a hiding of the menstruation and a monthly absence in school during this time is often observed. Just to mention one example from 2018, when Ghanaian schoolgirls were banned from crossing a river during their menstruation, meanwhile the girls had to cross the river to reach their school. 

AFAWI therefore started with this project with a combination of installation of sanitation facilities, education and distribution of sanitary pads and menstrual cups. Once the girls were properly educated on hygiene in general and menstruation and supplied with sanitary pads or menstrual cups and further gender segregated washroom facilities were upgraded, the adolescent students were able to safely manage their periods with increased comfort and privacy. As a result, the attendance rate of the girls in school improved.

AFAWI further led workshops for both male and female students to improve the understanding of sexual maturation, contraceptive measures, healthy menstrual management and the issues of HIV/AIDS to provoke open discussion.

Our team is currently hosting every two weeks on Friday a workshop in one of our partner schools. This might increase during the year according to the demand and schedule of the school and possible extension of project scope. The remaining days are used for preparations and postprocessing of the workshops in the office and other field work activities.