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 first grant, NORSAAC will reach rural, unemployed youth through two complementary strategies: a vocational and life skills training focused on bicycle maintenance and life skills, financial literacy and business management training for young women to help encourage them into non-traditional areas of work and help expand their existing income generation strategies.