NORTHERN SECTOR ACTION ON AWARENESS CENTRE

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1 NORTHERN SECTOR ACTION ON AWARENESS CENTRE May Issue: Director s Notebook Featured Article Understanding the Basics of Business Correspondence; the forgotten Necessity NORSAAC Staff Profile o Mohammed Ukasha NORSAAC Projects in Focus o Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights o Livelihood and Skills Advancement o Women Rights and Our Partners and Contributions Events JUN E, 2015 M T W T F S S Coming up... Training of households on Opened SRHR Communication Training of teachers to activate CSE in schools YUWP Training of 175 YUW platform members on feminist leadership and movement building on 13 th June, Public Fora on the effects of climate change on local livelihood on 23 rd June Inter-school based debates on leadership and gender based violence. Director s Issue Notebook 1: October 2013 Issue 5: MAY, 2015 Accept my humble greetings from the month of May and thanks so much for the interest in the work of NORSAAC. We are gradually drifting towards the middle of the year and it looks so soon. I have another opportunity to share with you some key milestones that we have achieved as an organization within the month. We made some strives in both programme and institutional development and we are so excited with the quick results that are emerging. We took a bold decision to visit some communities where we phased out some projects. Key amongst them is Live birth; Smiling Mothers Project which was funded by STAR- Ghana. In the project, we established structures like Community Health Teams (CHTs), Pregnancy Support Groups (PSGs) and Male Maternal Champions (MMC) all as part of efforts to reduce maternal deaths in 24 communities from 4 districts. Our visit to the communities was to determine the state and in fact the viability of the groups six (6) months after the project had ended. It was amazing to see the structures working well and still maintaining close relationship with District Assemblies and Ghana Health Service. The groups have identified traditional authorities as points where updates on their work should be given and also see commendation from the authority as motivation. This is not only uncommon in most projects but also a best practice worth sharing with you so that we can also make provisions to get back to our beneficiaries and examine how they sustain gains made during projects. On the institutional front, I am excited to inform you that we have finalized the restructuring of our finance unit and now using one of the best accounting softwares managed by a well-trained finance manager. On the strategic document, I have just decided to flag the monthly serializing of its content. I shall get back to you on it in subsequent months. Until I come your way in June; I wish all of you a happy belated May Day. Contact Us: Alhassan Mohammed Awal Executive Director P.O Box TL 2425, Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana. Website: info@norsaac.org Tel:

2 FEATURE ARTICLE/STORY Understanding the Basics of Business Correspondence; the forgotten Necessity The concept of evolving capacity does not only apply to people, but also organisations. Indeed, corporate organisations are living beings and evolve in their capacity. Whereas some institutional arrangements are prerequisites of some organisations, it is pardonable for some to do without those arrangements. The inescapable arrangement necessary for all organizations is proper documentation and or system in place to ensure proper maintenance and retrieval of records and data. This is necessary because of the sustenance of the organisation in business. It is with this understanding that I intend to refresh our knowledge on some basics of business correspondence. I would spare you of the data management apo momentarily until subsequent opportunity. There must be proper documentation in the process of procuring items for an organisation in order to have an accountable and transparent business transaction for your organisation and also to make the work of audit teams easy. In business, there has always been a buyer and a seller and there must be exchange of correspondences between the buyer and the seller to show transparency in the business transaction process. The following are the common business correspondences; - Letter of Enquiry: this is a document sent by the buyer to the seller enquiring to know the type of goods the seller offers to the market for sale. In reply to the letter of enquiry, the seller can use any of the following documents; - Catalogue: this is a document sent by the seller to the buyer, which contain pictures of goods or items offered to the market with their prevailing market prices that are subject to change based on market conditions. - Price List: this is another document that can be used by the seller to the buyer in reply to a request, listing all goods offered for sale with their prices that are fixed over time. When the buyer satisfies with the goods offered for sale and willing to transact business, the following documents are used to initiate the business; - Order: After the buyer is satisfied with the price list or catalogue sent to him by the seller, he uses the order to request for some goods to be supplied. The document shows type and number of goods to be supplied and possible date of delivery. Upon receiving the order from the buyer, the seller arranges the items to be bought and raise the following document; - Invoice: this is a document raised by the seller, spelling out all the items bought by the buyer, quantities, unit prices and total amount of these items. When the goods are received and paid by the buyer, the seller then issue a document to complete the business called; - Receipt: this is a document issued by the seller to the buyer acknowledging the amount received from the buyer for the goods bought. The above can be described as the procurement process of every organisation or individual businessmen. Prince Imoro Issah Project Officer

3 NORSAAC Staff Profile Each month we will be profiling a different staff member from the NORSAAC Team. In April, we would like to introduce, Mohammed Ukasha, formerly a Project Officer of NORSAAC, now a Zonal Coordinator following his promotion. Name: Mohammed Ukasha Cell No.: Title/Position: Zonal Coordinator mukasha111@gmail.com Country: Ghana Social: Single Sex: Male Hobbies: Football Qualification: BA (Linguistic & History) Mohammed Ukasha is the new Zonal Coordinator for the Karaga Zone of NORSAAC following the exit of his predecessor. He joined NORSAAC in 2013 as a volunteer and served during the period of national service after he graduated from the University of Ghana, Legon with BA Linguistics and History. His sterling performance as a volunteer was an incentive for management to recruit him as full-time employee of NORSAAC. He was subsequently promoted to this position following an exit of the then substantive Zonal Coordinator, under whom he served. Ukasha s career objective is to contribute to local, regional, and national development by scrutinizing social and economic continental policies in the light of youth employment, poverty, governance, illiteracy rate, gender and health. He s therefore resolute in being part of the solution to challenges facing rural communities and the country at large. He possesses skills in communication, community mobilization and entry, computer (Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point and Internet), data analysis using the Statistical Presentational Systems Software (SPSS) skills and Proposal Writing. NORSAAC Projects in Focus Through advocacy and campaigning, networking and partnership, awareness creation and sensitization, strengthening capacity and community mobilization NORSAAC has witnessed great project success. Since 2002, NORSAAC has worked at the grassroots level to ensure the effective participation of women and vulnerable groups in all activities. Livelihoods and Skills Advancement The Livelihood and Skill Advancement Programme of NORSAAC under the partnership with Empower has made a number of impacts with the graduation of a number of young people on Bicycle and mobile phone repairs. Sustainability measures are integral part of this programme demonstrated by the independence of beneficiaries in their entrepreneurial undertakings. This month, we present a brief of key milestones: Upgrade Training in Motorbike Mechanics NORSAAC over the years have trained lots of young people in bicycle mechanic because bicycle has been the major means of transport in the rural areas hence provided a business and livelihood opportunity for a number of young people unemployed. Currently, the use of motorbikes is trying to phase-out bicycles and as such, the team has strategized to upgrade the bicycle mechanics to motorbikes mechanics in order that the young people would still be in business over time. 12 young people were therefore selected and started intensive training on the 1 st May, These young people would go through one year training to equip them with the capacity to repair motor bikes. Entrepreneurship, Networking, and Credit Management Skills Trainings Between 22 nd and 30 th May, 2015 young people were trained in the Karaga district to improve their knowledge and information in the area of entrepreneurship, networking and credit management. The training sessions brought together a total participation of 138 young people consisting of 118 female and 20 males. Young Women Supported with Startup Capital In Tamale south sub- metro where the Young Urban Women project is implemented, 22 of the women were on the 27 th May, 2015 supported with startup capitals. This is a scale up activity to the initial financial support to about 38 young women. Participants group pictures after the training at Karaga

4 Sexual and Reproductive Health NORSAAC s adopts advocacy, education and service delivery as three strategic approaches to SRHR programme. Women, young adolescents and youth are the primary target of our SRHR programmes in Northern Region. Some highlights of activities for our SRHR programme are: Cross section of stakeholders at the consultative meeting in Karaga District Stakeholders Consultation on SRHR Peer Educators Manual NORSAAC facilitated the stakeholders meeting with Ghana Health Service, Mother and Young Peer Educators in Savelugu/Nanton Municipality and earlier on in the Karaga District to validate Peer Educators Manual. The draft Manual when completed will be used to provide sexuality education targeting non-literates in communities who could not have the opportunity to formal education. Mothers, young peer educators, and health service providers were some of the participants who took part in the consultative meeting. The meeting afforded the Ghana Health Service the opportunity to make valuable input into the manual as well as foster effective collaboration with Mother and Young Peer Educators in order to mainstream the use of the manual in the public health delivery system. The manual is designed with illustrations and animations and make it easy for non-literates in communities to facilitate sexuality and maternal health education and also provided a platform for open discussion and participation in SRHR issues. In this process, NORSAAC is also engaging two other CSOs-RAINS and PPAG, to adapt the manual for their routine SRHR education in communities. Cross section of stakeholders at the consultative meeting in Savelugu/Nanton District Community Sensitizations on Transactional Relationship and Open Discussion on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Organized NORSAAC in collaboration with Ghana SRHR Alliance for young people carried out community sensitization across 4 communities in the Mion District of the northern region. The sensitizations were sponsored by Stop Aids Now! following capacity building and project assessment. Stop Aids Now organized the capacity training for members of the Alliance and subsequently supported activities emanating from the assessment of partner organizations project. The activity brought together community advocacy group members and peer educators, young people, school pupils, traditional, religious and opinion leaders, to enhance their knowledge on key thematic issues such as open discussion on SRH, teenage pregnancy, family planning, transactional sexual relations. The beneficiary communities include Sang, Sambu, Jimle and Nalongni where 800 people reached (210 adult males and 222 adult females, 180 young males and 188 young females) were reached. The beneficiaries increased knowledge on a number of SRHR issues such as teenage pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy leading to unsafe abortion, prevention of unwanted pregnancies (family planning and contraceptives), puberty changes, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. All of the communities pledge to encourage each other and also involve teachers to have open discussion of SRH in their homes and schools. It was observed that consistent and continuous education of the communities would lead to the change of attitudes and promote opened discussion on SRHR among households. Cross section of participants at the sensitization programme in Jimle Opinion leader making a point during the sensitization at Nalongni

5 Women s Rights and The thrust of NORSAAC Women s Rights and Programme is to empower women and young girls politically to have greater socio-economic power in decision making and representation. Focusing on the Local level transmission mechanism to the national level, NORSAAC empowers women and young girls to claim their rights to participation and representation through capacity and resource support. This month, we present some highlights of activities under the Women s Rights and Programme: Review of Youth Friendly Service Provision Held On 26 th May, 2015, a review meeting was held by Young Urban Women (YUW) peer educators and advocacy members with the Beilpela and Vittin Health centres, Metropolitan Health Directorate, the media, Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Tamale south Sub-Metro Assembly and the YUWP male support team. This meeting was to review the impact of the Youth Friendly Service Training conducted for the actors in November, At the meetings, the actors mentioned progress made including; operation of an adolescent corner in Beilpela health centre with the support of YUW, the use of 5 YUW from Vittin to serve as community health volunteers for the Vittin health centre, continuous engagement with young nurses on friendly and ethical service to the public especially young people and the use of YUW radio discussions to educate the public on the mandate of the clinics. Participants mentioned the need for increased efforts in ensuring friendly SRH service provision with suggestion that; the health actors should open up to the media to help them educate the public and to ensure that patient rights to information and quality health must be respected. Participants at the review meeting on youth friendly service provision Workshop on YFP election guideline The Young Female Parliamentarian election guideline workshop was held on the 6 th May, 2015 to get participants fully involved in the development of common election guidelines. This workshop was attended by the 2 regional YFP representatives from the 20 schools and their mentors. At the workshop, participants discussed and resolved on pertinent issues including the modalities for electing YFP members, development of constitution, YPF membership among others YFP members of Islamic secondary school in a group discussion during the training Cross section of participants at the YFP election guideline meeting In-school training on YFP Strategic document On 14 th May, 2015, trainings started for the school level YFP members on the thematic areas of the strategic documents. This is to ensure that the new YFP members deepen their understanding of the document. During the month, YFP members in 15 schools have been engaged. Through the YFP, girls are now eager to stand for and compete for leadership positions than before. For instance, the YFP mentor for Zabzugu SHS said after the launch of YFP that, the girls she came to the launch with both said they will stand for a leadership position because of the inspiration they had at the launch. These girls eventually gave life to this statement and one of them is the Overall Assistant senior prefect of the school. The students mentioned that they want to be trained on issues of human rights; women health, leadership and social activism to enable them work effectively as YFP members.

6 Our Partners and Contributions The success stories of NORSAAC in interventions within our operational areas are possible with the financial and resource support by our partners. The contribution of partners/donors is the life wire of intervention. We present here list of partners and current projects being supported. Partner Name Project Title Intervention Area AXIS Innovative Sexuality Education Project Sexual and Reproductive Health SIMAVI Youth Activism for Enhanced SRHR Sevices and Access (Enhanced SRHR-Project) Sexual and Reproductive Health RFSU Youth Empowerment for Access and Services (YEAS) Sexual and Reproductive Health Ipas Prevention of Unwanted Maternal Death Sexual Reproductive Health UNICEF Let the Girls Smile: Say no to Child Marriage Women s Rights and Actionaid-Ghana Women in Project Women s Right and IBIS in Ghana Boosting Women Participation and Representation in Local Level Election and Beyond Women s Right and IBIS in Ghana Democratic Consolidation and Accountable Programme Women s Right and Norwegian Development Cooperation Notebook Young Urban Women: Life Choice and Livelihood Project Women Rights and EMpower Youth Entrepreneurial and Social Advancement Project Livelihood Issue Editor: Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama Education & Advocacy Officer kabiru@norsaac.org