Safe-Child Advocacy (formerly known as Street Children Project) works with street children in Kumasi, where one third of Ghana's 60,000 street children reside, more than 80% of them female. Girls are vulnerable to sexual assault and exploitation and often left pregnant and struggling alone. SCA is a nonprofit owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi and managed by the sisters of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. SCA engages in multifaceted activities to reintegrate and rehabilitate vulnerable children, including providing access to basic, secondary, and tertiary education. SCA also creates livelihood opportunities for poor families to enable them to perform their child-raising responsibilities, while using part of the income they generate to support its program activities. SCA collaborates with other CSOs, government officials, and institutions to address the problem of child slavery.

Theory of Change

Engaging street children through education and work gives them opportunities to transform their lives, overcome the injustices that keep them in poverty, and help others.

Activities

SCA operates a residential skill training center where street-connected young women learn auxiliary skills. The products they make are sold on the market. These funds are used to support the upkeep, training needs, and operational costs of the organization. SCA also runs a daycare center for babies of young street mothers allowing the mothers to work during the day with less stress. Families, supported by empowerment programs, are educated on child rights, protection, and safeguarding their children from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and trafficking. SCA engages in street-level outreach to educate children on various health and social related issues vital to their development and growth. They provide counseling, value-based talks, literacy and computer literacy classes, as well as basic interaction, games and creative arts activities for the children. SCA staff conducts background investigations to establish contact with the childrens' families and monitor and follow up with the beneficiaries after completion of the rehabilitation plan.

Results

The SCA-operated daycare center generated $10,980 in 2018, which served to support the center and other activities. Each trainee also pays a small fee to cover some of the costs of running the center, which generated over $730 in 2019. As a result of SCA activities, street children become social change agents, participating in the public arena and giving back to society. They become training assistants, daycare workers, field volunteers, and take up leadership positions in their schools.