Georgie Fienberg founded AfriKids 15 years ago after being inspired during a gap year in Ghana. AfriKids now employs 160 local Ghanaian staff and supports thousands of children through programs addressing root causes like education and healthcare access. Rather than dictate solutions, AfriKids works with communities to support existing effective local efforts. The charity also focuses on social enterprises to financially sustain its work in Ghana with a goal of closing its UK office as the Ghanaian operation becomes self-sufficient.

1. 26 C urier
The
W
hen Georgie Fienberg vis-
ited Ghana on a gap year
almost fifteen years ago, she
couldn’t have known the
impact it would have on the rest of her
life. Not just hers, but those of thousands
of children in northern Ghana whose lives
she would touch through the work of the
charity she would create. Now, fifteen
years later, AfriKids is a salvation for many
young people who would otherwise be
living without hope.
Fienberg started AfriKids, a child rights
organisation based in Ghana’s Upper East
Region, in 2002. Inspired by the resource-
fulness of those she met while travelling
around the country, she felt compelled
to do something. Contrary to the images
shown on television of helpless natives,
Fienberg found a creative and determined
people who were making the best out of
difficult circumstances.
Rather than go in and tell them how to do
things, Fienberg worked with local people
to support them in what they were already
doing and knew needed to be done. In the
process, she created an organisation which
now employs 160 local staff in Ghana
with just a small, supporting team of ten
in London.
What distinguishes AfriKids from other
development charities is its approach. It
works to solve the root causes of children
being denied their rights by improving
community support services and ensur-
Ten years and thousands of child
beneficiaries later, we report on a
unique British charity whose aim is
to put itself out of business.
Sylvia Arthur
Civil Society
on the Move
Giving help and hope
to children in need

2. 27N. 24 N.E July August 2011
Our Planet
getting on a bus to go south to Kumasi.
He was really shocked by it. In that case,
they were economic migrants but there
was an undertone of people taking these
children down as well, a mix of trafficking
and economic migration,” says Thornton.
“He went down to Kumasi to follow up
with contacts there, where these children
were ending up in slums at an old, colonial
racecourse. They were living in container
boxes, end to end, huge numbers of peo-
ple in appalling squalor. And he realised
that some of it needed to be dealt with in
a local way but, from a distance of 600
kilometres, it’s a very difficult thing for
local people to do.”
Public-private partnership
In response to this dilemma, AfriKids set
up a number of core projects to tackle the
bigger issues, and joined with partners
already running effective projects to max-
imise the impact of their work. The charity
is also focused on developing major social
enterprises designed to financially sustain
the running of the Ghana operation, while
creating and enhancing local opportunities
and supporting wider economic growth.
“We’ve been working with the Ghana team
to identify, fund and run social enterprises
in Ghana, the largest of these being our
hospital,” says Thornton. “When we took
over the AfriKids Medical Centre, it was
seeing 5,000 patients a year. Now, with a
public-private partnership with the Ghana
Health Service we see 60,000 patients a
year and made £100,000 profit last year.”
Revenue from the medical centre alone
pays for the salaries of three quarters of
AfriKids’ Ghana staff, of which 60 are
healthcare workers at the centre.
Sustainability
The next phase in AfriKids development
is the building of an Eco Lodge. It will
employ 30-50 local people in the tour-
ism industry and generate £180,000
annual profit, enough to fund one third
of AfriKids’ work. This will be achieved
by providing on-the-job training in new
vocations, by providing long-term employ-
ment and by bringing new revenue streams
into the region.
Next year, AfriKids celebrates its tenth
anniversary. The organisation’s ultimate
goal is not to celebrate another ten. It wants
to close its UK office by 2018, as a result
of the Ghana operation becoming self-
sustaining. And if any charity can do it,
it’s AfriKids. “AfriKids Ghana was always
very clear that they wanted our projects to
be sustainable for the beneficiaries. As an
organisation, our Ghana team saw so many
good organisations in their community fall
victim to the vagaries of western funding.
They didn’t want that. They were aware of
some of the limitations of western funding
and they wanted to continue their work in
a locally appropriate way,” says Thornton.
“We’ve defined a very clear goal for our
organisation. This is very much our USP.”
To find out more about AfriKids please visit
www.afrikids.org
ing access to basic education and primary
health care.
“Our mission has always centred on chil-
dren,” says Andy Thornton, Director of
AfriKids UK. “We recognise that, in order
to change the lives of children, you have to
work with all of the surrounding factors. So
we work very inclusively and holistically.”
Tackling child trafficking
AfriKids runs a number of projects. Its
reach ranges from more traditional initia-
tives, including foster homes, schools and
street child centres to ground-breaking
projects which tackle complex cultural
issues including child trafficking, child
labour and the spirit child phenomenon.
Working with the indigenous communities
is key to the success of their work.
The story of how AfriKids recruited its
Ghana Director, Nich Kumah, is typical of
the way in which the organisation engages,
cultivates and retains its staff. Kumah was
a member of a local church group who,
along with two friends, had converted a
public toilet into a home for street children.
It was through his hands-on activism that
he came to the attention of AfriKids, and
it is this appreciation of local knowledge
that has enabled the charity to have such
a big impact.
“Nich was in a lorry park one Sunday when
he saw young, unaccompanied children
AfriKids Ghana Director, Nich Kumah © AfriKids
One of the 60,000 patients receiving care annually at the
AfriKids Medical Centre © AfriKids
AfriKidsMedicalCentre,Ghana©AfriKids