A Graduation Pathway, Not a Handout
Our four programmes are sequenced as an integrated system: each stage builds on the last, moving families from survival to economic independence. You do not just donate. You fund a system designed to make itself unnecessary. Launching 2026 in Nabdam District.
“The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.”— Proverbs 22:9 (NLT)
Our Theory of Change
Each stage addresses a precondition for the next. Health comes first because a malnourished child cannot learn and a sick widow cannot attend training. Education breaks the intergenerational cycle for children while savings groups build the capital base widows need. Vocational training comes last because training without capital and market linkages produces certificates, not businesses. The stages run in parallel across different groups, but each one depends on the foundations laid before it.
Survival
Health, nutrition, and WASH. The foundation everything else depends on.
Community Health & Nutrition programme
Protection
Every child safe and in school, every family free from crisis.
Education Access programme
Empowerment
Financial literacy, pooled savings, and the capital base to launch a business.
Village Savings & Loan Associations
Capability
Market-validated skills with confirmed buyers. Income, not dependency.
Vocational Skills programme
The Four Stages in Detail
Each programme includes the outcome metrics we will track. We believe funders deserve to know not just what we do, but what changes because we do it.
Stage 1: Community Health & Nutrition
Health is the foundation everything else stands on. With only 12% sanitation coverage and the highest maternal mortality ratio in Ghana (465 per 100,000), no vocational training or savings group will work if participants are sick or malnourished. During the lean season (May to August), 83% of Nabdam households drop to just 2 meals per day. We partner with Ghana Health Service CHPS zones to train Community Health Volunteers, conduct quarterly health outreach with referral pathways, and support lean-season food security through kitchen gardens and community grain banks.
What We Deliver
- Community Health Volunteer training
- Quarterly health outreach with referral pathways
- Lean-season kitchen gardens & grain banks
- Child protection & women's rights awareness
What We Measure
- % of enrolled households maintaining 3 meals/day during lean season
- Referral completion rate from outreach to CHPS facility
- Reduction in preventable illness among enrolled children
Stage 2: Education Access for Vulnerable Children
Ghana's Free SHS policy covers tuition, so school fees are no longer the primary barrier. The real barriers are distance (some children bicycle 3+ hours each way), school supplies, girls' menstrual hygiene, and hunger. In Nabdam, children face an under-5 mortality rate of 72 per 1,000 live births (5.37x higher than Greater Accra) and 27% are malnourished. We serve all vulnerable children, not orphans alone, addressing the barriers that actually keep them out of school.
What We Deliver
- School supplies & bags for vulnerable children
- Menstrual hygiene kits for adolescent girls
- Quarterly mentorship circles of 10 peer groups
- Attendance & wellbeing tracking per child
What We Measure
- School attendance rate vs. district average
- % of enrolled girls maintaining attendance through menstrual cycles
- Grade progression rate for supported children
Stage 3: Village Savings & Loan Associations
A gold-standard randomized trial (Karlan et al., 2017) across 561 village clusters found VSLAs produce a 34.5% increase in total savings and 24% increase in monthly business profits. In a region where 90% of women have no secured land rights, VSLAs are the financial foundation that makes vocational training graduates into business owners. Widows pool weekly savings, access low-interest loans, and build the capital base needed to launch enterprises after skills training.
What We Deliver
- 34.5% increase in savings (RCT evidence)
- 24% increase in business profits
- Financial literacy training
- 42% of women obtained at least one loan
What We Measure
- % of members maintaining savings 12 months after first cycle
- Average loan repayment rate per group
- % of groups self-sustaining after Ramah support ends
Stage 4: Vocational Skills for Widows
In a district with no technical or vocational school for 84 communities and where youth face a 91 to 92% probability of vulnerable employment (the highest in Ghana), we launch with two flagship trades that form a single integrated value chain: shea butter processing and soap making. Training without market linkages does not create businesses. Every graduate is paired with VSLA start-up capital and confirmed buyer relationships before training begins. The goal is not a certificate; it is a functioning business within 6 months of graduation.
What We Deliver
- Two flagship trades forming one shea-to-soap value chain
- VSLA start-up capital for every graduate
- Confirmed buyer linkages before training begins
- Business mentorship through local churches
What We Measure
- % of graduates operating a business 12 months post-training
- Average monthly income increase vs. pre-enrolment baseline
- % of graduates who transition off programme support within 24 months
The Shea-to-Soap Value Chain
We launch with two trades that form a single integrated value chain. Shea butter processed in the morning becomes the base oil for soap made that afternoon. The margin that would otherwise leave Nabdam as raw nuts stays in the district, distributed across two cohorts of widows who buy from each other.
Shea Butter Processing
Nabdam's oldest skill, connected to a $2.6B global market
Women in Nabdam have processed shea for generations. We train cooperatives in semi-mechanised methods that nearly double extraction rates compared to traditional processing, pair them with GRATIS Foundation equipment manufactured locally in Bolgatanga, and connect them to certified aggregators through free Global Shea Alliance membership.
Target Buyers & Partners
- Global Shea Alliance (free cooperative membership)
- Savannah Fruits Company, Tamale
- Shea Network Ghana (WEACT project)
- FairTale Ghana / Mondo (widow-focused cooperative)
Soap & Detergent Making
The fastest verified path to widow income in northern Ghana
IFAD's own Rural Enterprises Programme has documented widows in northern Ghana earning a verified $230-280 monthly within a year of training. Ghana's FDA runs a Progressive Licensing Scheme for cottage industries at roughly $9 per year, and first income arrives two to three weeks after training ends. The primary input is shea butter, which means our Cohort 1 soap makers buy from our Cohort 1 shea processors.
Target Buyers & Partners
- 72 schools in Nabdam District (handwashing soap)
- Bolgatanga Regional Hospital and CHPS compounds
- Hotels and guesthouses in Bolgatanga
- Market women at Bolgatanga Central Market
Beyond Service: Advocacy for Systemic Change
Service alone does not fix systems. Nabdam's poverty is not an accident. It is the result of decades of southern-biased development policy, colonial extraction patterns that concentrated infrastructure in the coast, and chronic underinvestment in the Upper East Region. We deliver programmes and advocate for the structural changes that created this crisis.
Policy Advocacy
Using our ground-level data to push for equitable resource allocation to northern districts. Zero doctors in a district of 40,000+ people is a policy failure, not a funding gap.
Coalition Building
Building formal partnerships with Ghana Health Service, district assemblies, and civil society organisations to amplify impact beyond what any single NGO can achieve.
Evidence & Accountability
Publishing our outcome data openly so that communities, funders, and government can hold us accountable, and so that successful models can be replicated.
Fund the System, Not Just the Moment
Your gift does not just feed a family for a day. It funds a graduation pathway: from health, to education, to savings, to a functioning business. Delivered by a local team that speaks the language and knows every village by name. We launch in 2026.