Helping The Needy and Vulnerable During COVID-19
Some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ghana now have the key to unlocking the barriers to accessing the resources they need to meet the expectations of their beneficiaries affected by COVID-19.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, resource mobilisation remained a serious challenge for CSOs in the region. This has become more evident in the heart of the global COVID-19 crisis. With some donors suspending their programmes, community-based organisations are seeing their operations and existence threatened.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, WACSI, as part of the Change the Game Academy Programme, has been supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) in West Africa to enhance their local fundraising skills and garner more support from their constituents and supporters as part of their resource mobilisation drive.
Organisations that have benefitted from this course are well equipped to raise vital resources during this pandemic. Given that there is a high likelihood of an economic downturn post-COVID-19 which will have possible effects on CSOs’ direct beneficiaries, beneficiaries of the Local Fundraising and Mobilising Support courses are leveraging on these skills to thrive in this difficult period.
After taking part in the Mobilising Support introductory course (in October 2019) and the perfection course (in February 2020) in Ghana, Amadu Mohammed, Executive Director of Achievers Ghana, shares how his organisation is making use of the skills acquired.
“The mobilising support training has been of great support for my organisation, especially during these abnormal times. Thanks to the skills acquired, we were able to effectively sensitise our communities on the urgency of the situation and convinced them about the need to practice social distancing. Besides, we embarked on an emergency food relief program in the lockdown area of East and North Ayawaso (Accra Municipality). This programme consists of distributing food items to the needy and most vulnerable.
Thanks to the local fundraising course, we took for free on the online platform, we were able to identify and successfully engage key stakeholders to solicit for funds and in-kind donations. Up to 70 needy, old and aged people benefitted from the relief program. Food items such as rice, yams, cooking oil, tomatoes-paste and other ingredients, as well as Veronica buckets, liquid soaps, hand sanitizers, were distributed. Furthermore, a crucial tool we have been able to implement and utilise is our periodic newsletter. Thanks to the online course, we understood the importance of developing and sharing consistently updates on our work with carefully selected stakeholders via regular newsletters.”
The Local Fundraising course gives a broad introduction into all key aspects of local fundraising and provides a solid basis to develop a local fundraising plan. This course is available for free on the Change the Game Academy Online Platform (changethegameacademy.org). In addition to the fundraising course, CSOs can benefit from an online course on Mobilising Support as well as numerous supplementary toolkits and templates. This Mobilising Support course provides CSOs with a broad understanding of all key aspects of grassroots lobbying and advocacy.
