Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC)

Northern Ghana is the third poorest region in the country and recent research shows that only 60% of young people under 15 years of age living in the north qualified to enter secondary school. Regional education disparities have health impacts: 23% of young women age 15-19 with no education in Ghana’s Central and Northern regions have begun childbearing compared with 7% in the Western and Greater Accra regions. The Northern Sector Action on Awareness Center (NORSAAC) was founded in 2002 as a gender focused community-based advocacy organisation mobilizing youth to discuss and find ways of addressing sexual and reproductive health issues in schools. Since then, NORSAAC has taken a greater interest in sustainable livelihoods for youth and women, while integrating reproductive health issues and women’s rights and participation.

With EMpower’s second grant, NORSAAC is offering financial literacy training while expanding its vocational training with proven strategies for young men used in the first EMpower grant, and begin integrating mobile phone repair for all youth, an opportunity typically not available to young women to earn an income.