The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is a non-governmental, non-sectarian, development-oriented organization established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ADRA Ghana belongs to the worldwide ADRA network, comprising 134 supporting and implementing country offices. ADRA’s mission is to work with people in poverty and distress to create just and positive change through empowering partnerships and responsible action. ADRA is a professional, learning and efficient network that embodies integrity and transparency. The agency reaches across boundaries empowering and speaking out for the at-risk and forgotten to achieve measurable, documented and durable changes in lives and society.
ADRA Ghana emerged in 1985 from a successful emergency relief program implemented by Seventh-day Adventist Welfare Services (SAWS) in 1983 in response to a situation of acute food shortage in Ghana. The agency has worked in all the 10 regions of Ghana since its inception (and still works in all the regions).
The core sectors of ADRA Ghana includes Food Security; Health; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); Economic Development; Environment; Education; and Emergency Management. ADRA is unique in its ability to work in remote areas around the country and under very difficult conditions, with many of our projects being implemented in rural communities and remote localities. The agency has the distinct competency to adopt and adapt innovative strategies due to our technical capacity and engagement with fellow development and humanitarian organizations and donors combined with our local knowledge, grassroots network, and skill in community mobilization.
ADRA Ghana has received various forms of donor support from USAID, UNDP, Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), UNHCR, European Commission, GLOBAL FUND; Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) among others to implement specific interventions for targeted beneficiaries in targeted communities.
ADRA Ghana is implementing the livelihood and self-reliance project under the UNHCR funding for Ivorian refugees in Ghana. The agency seeks to bridge the gaps in providing access to basic services through the implementation of livelihood activities essential to providing the most conducive living conditions for refugees and asylum seekers in the three camps hosting Ivorians (Ampain, Egyeikrom, Fetentaa) as well as in Krisan camp. Under the project, approximately, 500 households will be supported to undertake productive economic activities to enhance their livelihoods to enable them take control of their lives.
Since the 2011 influx of Ivorians into Ghana, many refugees have depended largely on WFP’s food rations in order to meet their basic food requirements at the camps. With the upcoming cessation of food rations in October 2015, there is looming food insecurity at the camps which has called for livelihood interventions. ADRA Ghana is supporting the PoCs in undertaking livelihood activities that will ensure food availability, food access and food utilization on a sustainable basis. Over 440 PoCs are currently receiving various forms of support in agricultural production, apprenticeship skills training, and business entrepreneurship. There is the potential for increased food crop production, agro processing, livestock and poultry production, petty trading and provision of services that will culminate in improved food security and increased incomes at the camps.
ADRA Ghana is collaborating with key stakeholders including the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana Standards Board, Municipal and District Assemblies and the Ghana Refugee Board (GRB), in the provision of training in good agronomy practices, certification for skills trainees and certification for soap production, business management services among others to the refugee population in Ghana.
ADRA Ghana is working tirelessly in achieving the overall objective of the project thus; to strengthen livelihood support to PoC to gradually reduce dependency on humanitarian aid and assistance; with a view to increasing the economic capacity of 500 refugee households/individual (approximately 2,500 people) in the four camps – Ampain, Egyeikrom, Krisan and Fetentaa by December 2015.