Rita, Ghana

Rita Korley joined The Hunger Project-Ghana as an animator trainee in 2007. Since completing the training, she has been educating her community on topics such as forced marriage, child labor and domestic violence.

In 2010, Rita decided to focus her efforts on preventing teen pregnancy since, until then, three or four girls each year took their Basic Education Certification Examination (BECE) while pregnant. “I worked with the teachers, sensitizing the school children on the effects and the harms teenage pregnancy can do to them; and the fact that they stand the risk of contracting HIV,” Rita said.

Her efforts worked: only one pregnant teen was recorded taking the education examination in 2012 and none were recorded in 2013.

Rita also identified and assisted four couples in her community who were having a hard time providing for their families, counselling them and giving them directions on how to use birth control. Three of those couples are now practising family planning and have said that it has increased family unity and helped eliminate fights between parents. “For me, seeing this satisfaction on the faces of people as a result of the little I do, gives me self-fulfilment… The Hunger Project has made a real change in my life.”

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