MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

The achievements of FIDA since its modest beginnings years ago have been considerable and may be summarized as follows:

FIDA-Ghana established the first free legal aid programme in Ghana, long before the state-run legal aid programme was initiated. FIDA's Legal Aid Programme has been so successful that FIDA has become a household name among women.

FIDA-Ghana has forced women's rights issues onto the national agenda and raised awareness among the general populace of these issues.

A Local government capacity building workshop

FIDA-Ghana through its clinics, seminars and workshops has created awareness among a large number of women and the populace of their rights and obligations and has generated among them the will and the courage to stand for their rights.

FIDA-Ghana has through its counselling, assisted many married couples, parents and children to resolve amicably disputes or differences which would otherwise embitter and destabilize their relationship.

FIDA-Ghana has provided a haven for distressed women, mothers and children who previously, did not know where to seek assistance for their legal problems. Now they know that they can come to FIDA in the confident expectation that they will be sympathetically received and advised not only about strictly legal but also other personal problems at virtually no cost to them.

FIDA-Ghana was the organization that first ignited public awareness about the serial killing of innocent Ghanaian women and subsequently collaborated with other agencies to pressurize the law enforcement agencies to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.

FIDA -Ghana also undertook (towards the recent 2000 and 2004 Presidential and Parliamentary elections) a series of advocacy, gender sensitization and awareness creation activities aimed at educating women to understand and effectively participate in the electoral process. The series further encouraged the different political parties to nominate more women parliamentarians and also educated the population to elect more female parliamentarians.

FIDA-Ghana also organized a similar exercise with the 2002 District Level Elections that resulted in an increase participation of women in the District Level elections. Statistics from the National Electoral Commission indicated that nine hundred and eighty three women contested in 2002 as compared to five hundred and forty seven women who contested in 1998. Three hundred and sixty two women won seats to the District Assemblies as compared to one hundred and fifty seven in 1998.Government also responded to calls by FIDA and other NGOs to appoint more women in assemblies through its affirmative policy action of appointing a third of government appointees as women.

Doctors providing medical care to participants at a mobile outreach clinic in Accra

FIDA-Ghana has an ongoing project for building the capacity of community leaders and peer educators into paralegals to know and identify human rights abuses in their communities. This is done by training them in the basic laws and advocacy strategies that enables them to influence behavioral change especially for Adolescents. This is in the wake of the HIV/AIDS pandemic which affects women and Adolescents the most as a result of their vulnerability.

In 1995, FIDA Ghana was chosen as one of the fifty (50) organizations around the world to receive a "Citizens Award" in commemoration of the 50th anniversary celebration of the United Nations. According to sponsors, the award was in "recognition of citizen's initiatives which are examples of success in areas important to the U.N."

CHALLENGES

The key challenges facing the organization are dictated by the following conditions;

• The irregular and non guaranteed inflow of funds for FIDA-Ghana's activities.
• Difficulty in attracting qualified women lawyers to manage FIDA-Ghana's offices outside the big cities and towns.
• Inadequate physical infrastructure to provide reasonable office and accommodation to facilitate FIDA-Ghana's work in the regions and districts.
• The ever increasing clientele of FIDA- Ghana who need the services offered
• Urgent need to strengthen the Kumasi office to enable it offer services for the women and children in the middle belt of Ghana.
• Urgent need to expand the services to other areas especially the Upper East and Upper West Regions
• The mounting desire of development partners to collaborate with FIDA-Ghana in their efforts to empower women and improve the well being of children.

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