Over-populated Prisons, re-cycling of crime and the resolve to protect the youth in Ghana
Use sports to create safer society where everyone belongs, prevent crime by tackling social exclusion and re-integrate those who offend.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sport
Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2004
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Few effective tools for personal improvement
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Use sport to build character
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
Lack of open access to local culture, intellectual, and informational resources.
Lack of good parenthood.
Name Your Project
Over-populated Prisons, re-cycling of crime and the resolve to protect the youth in Ghana
Describe Your Idea
Use sports to create safer society where everyone belongs, prevent crime by tackling social exclusion and re-integrate those who offend.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Use sports to create safer society where everyone belongs, prevent crime by tackling social exclusion and re-integrate those who offend.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
ACRO Ghana uses sports and recreation to make society safer by aligning with the youth to solve problems. Providing opportunities through sports for young people living in disadvantaged areas to get involved in recreational activities. Sports, Cultural Music and Dancing are important ingredients of ACRO Ghana’s community based work. The Projects recruit and train adult volunteers from the local community – whom are unemployed or unwaged – to take a leading role in organising training and arranging local matches. This community-led provision in ACRO Ghana’s mind would be an effective way of addressing disaffection and empowering young people to take leadership roles in their communities. Thereby, increasing their life skills and building confidence in adult volunteers to strengthening good community relations.
ACRO Ghana is the only establishment engaging Prisoners in sports, re-integrating ex-offenders through community processes and Sports whilst motivating, empowering the youth in taking active part in community development, channelling their energies and talents to build the future.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
The youth have more free time and energy to invest in Drugs and crime because society does not show much concern of what they do. Communicable diseases in prisons and above all, reconciling offenders with the society and the victims of their crimes. It is no doubt that the rate of recidivism in most African countries including Ghana is estimated at 60%. With limited funding to run prisons, even transport for prisoners to return home on release is a problem
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
ACRO Ghana use sports, Football in particular to develop skills of life. This we believe, creates the needed platform and atmostphere to address the issues raised earlier on. At the same time member employers get to know the youth better which facilitates on the job training to reduce boredom and crime. When immediate school leavers are engaged in the construction of Kids playgrounds, “AgriCare” (farming),cultural music and dance in their communities it brings self esteem to further develope their talents. The foregone programmes are also to assign responsibility to the youth as well as finding job placement for re-settled ex-offenders. The cultural music provide entertainment in communities where there are even no electricty since most intruments used do well without electric power.
Unemployed school leavers are assigned to help kids in doing home works in the communities. This help to boost their moral to gain self confidence. This engagements help in further studies through reading and working with the school kids.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
Attaining projects that are truly sustainable is our final goal. The idea is that in the future all our programmes could be self supporting or interdependent between one another. This emphasises the importance of the AgriCare projects: if these are well executed, they can be a source of income generating job opportunities for the youth and for ex-convicts.
ACRO Ghana believes that to promote growth in sectors such as agriculture has direct poverty reduction effects. In addition, social protection is now being promoted for the safety net it can provide both to those engaged in productive activity, and to those who (because of sickness, old age and ‘caring’ commitments) cannot easily engage. Rural growth can be achieved through agricultural development, economic diversification into non-natural resource based and employment intensive activities. Programme activity therefore, focuses on the policy measures to realise the above conditions for economic growth which includes the poor and take the target groups from crime and drugs.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
ACRO Ghana create conditions (employment and recreation facilities) for an inclusive, harmonious society and take care of one another.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
Working mainly with volunteers, ACRO-Ghana has established 15 sporting clubs, 1 Theatre Group and 1 Kids Playground. These groups have organised numerous Community Sports and sensitisation activities within their communities.
http://www.streetfootballworld.org/Projects/acroghana/p_news/project_news
ACRO-Ghana has also participated in global events such as the Global Peace Games and Run for a Healthy world (New year Run)
http://www.humanraceday.org/runforahealthyworld/runlocations.html
We have established strong links with Dormaa FM and Gifts FM, key opinion leaders in communities and the directorate of Prisons, Ministers of State responsible to advocate for the use of sports as a mechanism for social integration and development. Please also
http://www.sportanddev.org/en/organisations/ngos/acro-ghana.htm. We have donated sports items and sanitary materials to let convicts feel that, they are loved not for their crimes but to return to family and community to help develop them
How many people have you served directly?
The community Sports, focuses on football, volleyball, for both sexes and “Ampe”, traditional game of particular interest to girls and women which is gradually dying out. We have 15 communities, average of 900 people each, having 10 teams of men and women. Through using a community-based and community-led model, ACRO Ghana football projects can benefit the local community in the following ways:
bring together different groups to engage in something positive, which takes co-operation and willingness to learn.This can help to break down social barriers that exit within a community. Provide something constructive for young people to do. This will help prevent the anti-social and offending behaviour, which has such a negative impact on a community. In the early stages of the children’s development, we teach them values such as belonging, participating and sharing. Besides, providing playgrounds and encouraging physical activity, it aims at eradicating the prevalence of childhood obesity.
How many people have you served indirectly?
Indirectly,4 Prisons namely Sunyani, Nsawan, Borstal (juvenal) and Cape Coast and the entire Ghanaian community has been served. In all there are about 4,000 inmates. Like the Community Sports they also have their Prison Activity Units with the help of the Prisons Authorities to organise their training and matches. With the communtity processes and the sports clubs the gounds are being prepared to integrate them. We envisage also that, in the near future ACRO Community Sports Clubs could get access to Prisons and play competetive sports with them. This would raise more Prisoner awareness for re-integration in the society which stigmatise them.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
AgriCare is a locally based integrated programme to cultivate the land at the community level. This programme is designed to take hold of ex-convicts and the unemployed. Since we operate mainly in farming areas, the best and first venture we believe in, is to go into farming to raise the needed capital for other things if any. In this programme land is acquired for cultivation by those club members and ex-offenders who are willing to go into farming.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
One barrier is transportation to visit communities in the rural areas. Thougth we use unwaged volunteers, there are also professional graduate teachers who do not have much time to wait for commercial vehicles which do not operate on time schedule and by that, they sometimes return very late from trek to prepare for school the next day.
Another is adequate sports kits to meet the rate of expansions. Internet connectivity is big problem hindering fast communication and information.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The project is financed in kind with voluntary work and funds from the founders. The few years of ACRO Ghana’s operations has seen a close link with key players in the area of operation. ACRO Ghana is in close collaboration with the Prisons, Social welfare Department, Police and the Labour Office in the region to co-ordinate, and collaborate to reform those who offend to reduce crime.
Despite these collaborations however, ACRO-Ghana (like other NGOs) are unable to solicit for financial resources from relevant government agencies to help achieve the target objectives. That is why external funding is urgently required. With external funding however, we will work to attract wider local partners to support project activities.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
currency US Dollars, Budget Jan. 2008-Dec.2009
1 Principal project manager 37617
2. Bookkeeper and Office Assistant 5643
3. Teachers / Coaches 14400
Administration
1. Office rent 3360
2. Office supplies / copying 2400
3. Computers / IT 2000
4. Internet 3600
5. Communication / postage 3600
6. Other farm implements 2950
7. Cutlasses 4550
8. Bank / currency charges 480
9. Audit & Monitoring / Evaluation 4000
11. Fax 250
12. Office Furniture 1000
13. Electricity 720
14. Maintenance 3900
1. Transportation 7900
2. Accommodation, Guest House 1800
1. Balls (Footballs & Volleyballs) 5700
2. Clothing (Jerseys) 9500
3. Kids Playgrounds 8000
4. Bicycles for Kids and youngsters 1800
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The project will target the Dormaa District of Ghana and 4 out of the 48 prison establishments in Ghana. The chosen ones are those with sports facilities, such as football fields, volleyball pitches and keep fit centres. Dormaa District has a population of over 160,000. The District has a low education turn out. Over 43% of the people have not attained any formal education and only about 1% have Tertiary education. About 67% of the District’s population falls within the ages of 12-48.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
ACRO Ghana rely heavily on faming to support its other projects. Our main fear is lack of timely adequate rains and post harvest losses. There are not much technology of storage during a bumper harvest. Where markets forces determine prices of farm produce there is likelihood of low prices, resulting in loses even when there have been good yield in a particular year.
Another problem is proposal write ups to win donors trust and confidence.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
The purpose of ACRO Ghana is to create conditions for an inclusive society and take care of one another. This is the way we used to live while I was growing up as a young boy in our village. The result was harmony and patriotism. Of course, with time passing by things could not be done the same way; however, we could not deviate from practices that are useful and vehicle good values.
Due to population and poverty increase, we are fleeing from our responsibilities and most often we expect some one else to perform. This has brought disaffection and created tensions between friendly relationships.
My focus is to use sports to highlight the need for us to get involved actively in our community affairs to improve our standard of living and live happily. To highlight the importance of having playgrounds for children. Mother Theresa said that “we can do no great things, only small things with great Love”. In this project, we want children to learn that they are loved and not neglected and that they also belong to the society their parents live in
Another target is to use sports to slow down the rapid increase in prisons numbers. The people's passion for football, supports the use of sports as a platform in every community to inform them of their civic rights and responsibilities. President John F. Kennedy once said “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. This philosophy ought to be taught to the people and not to distance from the society.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
A graduate of the Institute of Professional Studies, (IPS) Legon Ghana, where I achieved a specialisation in accounting in 1986. From 1987 to 1994, I worked in Agogo Hospital and Dormaa Rural Health.
In Switzerland, I worked in Handicap’s Peoples Home, UNICEF, BNS Group AG, and Revistag Treuhand (Accounting firm) as a client Accountant. I worked also for the city of Biel, at the Tax Administration Department.
ACRO Ghana was founded in 2004, and I had since been working as the project manager
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
ACRO Ghana was informed by one Tyler Ahn.
We are motivated for the fact that we have the opportunity to publically informed interested groups of the work we are doing in rural Dormaa in Ghana. Additionally we hope to attract volunteers with various expertise in the area of Sports, Agricultural Developments, IT and kids playgrounds. When are lucky to get volunteers, it encourages us that, we are not alone in our quest for livelihoods in our own backyards.
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Sport and Development.
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