The Director of S.Aid has this to say “From my experience majority of Ghanaians see mental health negatively, there is a stigma and this cuts across people with several backgrounds we need to break this if we want to take better care of ourselves that is why we us practitioners must understand the issues first. This translates into ensuring that S.Aid staff made up of social workers and caregivers, administrative staff are trained and assisted to help street-connected children deal with distress and trauma.
What intervention Strategies?
- Build the capacity of staff on mental health issues
- Empower street-connected children with psychosocial support
- Provide services that will assess children
- Provide care and support to identified children and their caregivers
Mental health is as important to children’s safety and wellbeing as their physical health. S.Aid have started looking at mental health as a core component of care in its programming especially with adolescent girls and young mothers.
We recognize that negative life experiences such as abuse or exposure to abuse can adversely influence a child’s mental health, and that neglected mental health concerns have the potential to cause affect child’s self-efficacy.
There is now a greater awareness of the necessity of holistic mental health services in our programmes post Covid.
What does this mean for Street Girls Aid? As part of our response S.Aid plan to provide more integrated mental health support to the many girls and young mothers in street situations.
]]>- Depend on the streets to live and / or work, either on their own, or with other children or family members; and
- Have a strong connection to public spaces (e.g. streets, markets, parks, bus or train stations) and for whom the street plays a vital role in their everyday lives and identities. This wider group includes children who do not live or work on the street but regularly accompany other children or family members in the streets.
International Day for Street Children (IDSC) is organised by the Consortium for Street Children who are coordinating a global effort to improve the lives of children in street situations. The day is observed on the 12 th of April every year to “recognise the humanity, dignity and defiance of street children in the face of unimaginable hardships”.
This year the organisation joined a group of NPOs working with Street Connected Children in Ghana to observe the day under the Theme” Access” for street children. Two main activities took place on the day. In the morning staffs and beneficiaries of Street Girls Aid stood by major roads in Accra with placards that read
Placards to sensitize the public on the plight of the children on the streets of Ghana. We saw the interest of the public who in several cases stopped to ask questions. In the evening a webinar was held that focused on the theme for the day. The panel was made up of the Director of S.Aid ,an academician from the Centre for Social Policy Studies , University of Ghana ,representative from the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection representatives of NGOs and a former street child.
