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World Vision Ghana (WVG) has been adjudged the Best CSR NGO in Ghana and the CSR Award for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Partnership on the Unlock Literacy Programme, by the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability (CSR) West Africa.
The Centre for CSR West Africa’s annual awards event is a joint collaboration between the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI, Ghana Chamber of Commerce, corporate organizations, JICA and some key government Ministries including the Ministry for Energy) to recognize reputable organizations that make significant contributions towards the attainment of the SDGs.
According to the organisers, close to 100 companies submitted entries for the award and World Vision’s entries emerged as one of the outstanding organizations.
World Vision Ghana was awarded CSR NGO of the year, for implementing Livelihood Improvement and Family Empowerment (LIFE) programmes that birthed 290 new savings for transformation groups comprising 4293 females and 1840 males and caring for 15394 children.
For implementing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes, benefiting 85,200 people, in 77 communities, which have been certified for open defecation, plus 56,492 people, who gained access to improved household sanitation facilities.
The award was also in recognition of WVG’s implementation of Health, Environment and Wellness (HEAL) to increase the protection of 1 million most vulnerable girls and boys Reading Improvement and Skills Enhancement (RISE) technical programme and other projects.
The CSR award for SDG partnership was in recognition of WVG’s Unlock Literacy project, as a contribution to the voluntary national review of the sustainable development goals in Ghana, via the Ghana CSOs platform on SGDs.
The model subscribes to the early-exit bilingual literacy approach which believes that children learn to read fast and better when they start learning to read in their mother language. The reading skills acquired in the mother language help children to learn a second language faster.
The Unlock Literacy project model also empowers children at the early grade level with reading competencies needed for critical thinking on local issues and taking sustainable actions on community issues.
Within the last three years, the Unlock Literacy project has reached 32,000 children in 217 schools and in 180 communities in the country.
The project is reaching 1650 teachers and 780 community volunteers who are supporting 305 after-school reading clubs. So far, 254,000 copies of 250 titles of supplementary readers have been printed and distributed to 271 community book banks.
The Board Chair, Baafour Out-Boateng and Vice, Dr. Mary Amoako-Coleman received the awards on behalf of WVG. The Board Chair gave a cultivating speech which revolved around WVG’s offerings to donors on “3Ts” – Trust, Technical Capacity and Track Record, in line with the local resource mobilization drive.
The Ghana CSR Excellence Awards (GHANACEA) recognized WVG’s programmes’ impact on lives, livelihoods, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene and contributions to national development.
Previously, World Vision Ghana was recognized by the Ghanaian government for its immense contributions to the fight against COVID-19 at the 2023 National Awards Ceremony.
In 2021, World Vision Ghana won the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development Award through its “Unlock Literacy Project,” which promotes a holistic approach to the development of literacy focusing on critical thinking, a core competency for sustainability, and the Millennium Excellence Award for Urban and Rural Development organized by the Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF).
In addition, World Vision Ghana also won the “Best HR Management in the NGO Sector Award” for the second year running at the 2021 and 2023 Awards.
It also won the “Most Outstanding Non-Profit Organization Response to COVID-19” Award and was a finalist in the category of “Best Organization in HR Information Systems Award,” having previously won this in 2019.
