COVID-19 STATEMENT
The Covid-19 crisis is bringing about huge change to all of our lives, to our work here at ATE and the charity sector, whose role as society’s lifeline is now more vital than ever. With coronavirus being a truly global pandemic, we remain extremely concerned about the people of Lawra Municipal in Upper West, Ghana, where the impact of the crisis continues to exacerbate the extreme poverty that many live in. We remain agile, using creative ways to continue our work remotely where necessary; particularly to ensure the most vulnerable people we support have access to food, healthcare and other essential basic needs. Read about our Rebuild Campaign here – aiming to respond to urgent need, recover the damage, and rebuild for the future.
Transforming communities through empowerment
We work to reduce poverty in Lawra, rural Ghana, where the majority rely on subsistence farming and food is scarce for months at a time.
What we’ve been up to
Special Needs Awareness Programme
Hunger and isolation during Covid has been a major problem for our SNAP families, but we are now so pleased to be helping them to recover by restarting our monthly workshops for all three groups, and a twice weekly Play Scheme at our reopened Inclusion Centre.
Small Business Development Programme
Following the difficult times brought by Covid, our innovative Integrated Training Plan for small businesses is back up and running, including the incredibly powerful mentoring process, and is more important than ever. Six of our fantastic VocATE apprentices will also be starting their own businesses early this year!
Access to Education Programme
It is fantastic to see many of the children of Lawra now back in school after long closures – we continue our advocacy work to help every child back to the classroom. We are also supporting eight girls from Biro JHS to go to Senior High School, the first ever girls from this school to attend SHS – an incredibly exciting step!
Meet the team
Looking after our fantastic staff, particularly during this difficult period, remains our priority. We’ve ensured all staff have hygiene packs to make sure that they are as safe as possible whilst at work, and have regular full team meetings to check in.
Our Impact
Provide 1000+ free
school meals per day
Helped 160+
disabled children
Provided over 100
business grants
How we work
We’re implementing a strategy of integrated programmes to tackle the cycle of poverty, which reach a broad cross-section of the community in defined rural areas. We call this strategy our ‘Hub Model’.
Our latest posts
To celebrate being alive for 10,000 days, the amazing Robbie Lesiak has cycled 350km from Halifax to Edinburgh. He’s raised an incredible £1464 for ATE and we are SO grateful. Thank you Robbie, you’re a hero 🚴♂️
You can still sponsor Robbie here: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=RobbieLesiak&pageUrl=1
It's #smallcharityweek2021 - from14th-19th June!
As a super small but mighty and impactful charity, we're proud to have supported 2,000+ children to access education, 100+ small business owners, and hundreds of disabled children and families, as well as many members of the wider community in Lawra, Ghana.
Small Charity Week celebrates and raises awareness of the vital work of small charities, like ours, which make an invaluable contribution to communities in the UK and around the world.
Amid the pressures of the pandemic and cuts to UK Aid, it has never been more vital to stand up for the small charity sector. On the Working Group for the Small International Development Charities Network (SIDCN) is ATE's Programme and Development Manager, Leela Shanti. SIDCN is a coalition of small charities working overseas, which have come together to amplify the voice of our sector and the communities we serve.
We are #smallbutmighty and can achieve the incredible things that we do to improve lives in Lawra because of the support you provide. Thank you for supporting small charities like ATE!
To find out more about Small Charity Week see: www.smallcharityweek.com/
It's the end of term for our students, which brings with it an ATE end of term tradition - eggs!
All of the students at our seven schools enjoyed this nutritious (and well-deserved!) treat with their lunch today. Yum! 🥚😋
Healthy nutrition, Happy faces...well deserved treat.
Good nutrition for a healthy mindset
🥚😋
Eggcellent gift to end a term.
Where does your donation go?
84p of every pound donated goes directly towards our project costs in Ghana, and the rest goes on making sure the charity runs effectively so that all that can happen. We are financially transparent and carefully monitor and evaluate our work to ensure that the money you donate is used in the best way possible.