Sarah Boateng is a Special Education Needs and Psychological Perspectives MA 2016 graduate. Sarah’s career journey has been an experience, from starting out as a special education teaching assistant, to moving back to her home country of Ghana to work in a village, then working at the UN in Geneva and other large international development organizations, to ending that career path to run her own NGO organization called IGEA Enterprise, supported by the Obama foundation and The Queens Commonwealth Trust, and additionally working to design entrepreneurial programmes that support social entrepreneurs to increase their social impact.
Here’s how it started:
IGEA Enterprise started as a response to a solo trip I embarked on in 2016. I moved from the UK to live in a village to understand the issues impacting girls in rural communities, especially those that leave school at an early age. In the community, I observed that girls missed 3-5 days of school per month, compared to boys who missed 5-8 days per year, and that the girls’ average school age was 13 years old. Seeing that girls were experiencing what my mum had experienced growing up in Ghana over 50 years ago, I knew that there was something that could be done.
So in 2019, IGEA Enterprise was launched as an organization that wanted to advocate and support girls’ access to quality education at a local level. Our first program was called Menstruate and Educate, with the aim of supporting girls attending school whilst on their period by providing reusable period pads that last for up to two years and developing community workshops. We additionally launched a trial of our new project in Ghana, working with the Girls Juvenile Home to run workshops on life skills and confidence, as well as providing 80 reusable period pad kits.
Today, IGEA enterprise is one of the biggest nonprofit organizations in Ghana with support from big donors because we were able to show real proof-of-impact and that made understanding our vision and mission brief.
What are Your Final words?
I strongly believe other people will invest in your vision and cause when they can see why you are doing it. You must always be clear on your why and the long-term impact, and you must ensure that those you wish to support have a say in the work.
Join Ghana Non-Profit Professionals Network for free: https://bit.ly/3Jh9QrS
Source http://www.ncvoghana.org/
Credit: ncvo ghana
