FLOWER is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) registered with the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana, West Africa. FLOWER was born out of the reality that many young women in the rural areas of Ghana are being forced to drop out of school due to a number of factors including:

•   Parents can’t afford fees
•   Extreme difficulty with finding reliable transportation to school
•   Teenage pregnancy
•   Required to work on the family farm or in other small family businesses
•   Ignorance to the value of formal and informal education

The majority of these young women are living in remote villages. This means that they have no medical care, no electricity, limited access to clean water and poor nutrition. When health problems do arise they are forced to visit local herbalists who often make the illness worse rather than better.

Ultimately, when not provided additional opportunities these young women become dependent on others for their survival. This leaves them vulnerable to abuse (sexual, physical and emotional) and chronic health problems. It also gives them little control over when they get married, have children or, even how many children they will have.

With no means to earn a living, overall substandard living standards, and few opportunities for personal growth these women necessarily lack a clear sense of direction in their lives. As a result, a number of women coming from such backgrounds end up in dead-end situations, working as prostitutes or head porters in Accra or caring for multiple children with little resources to improve their lives. 

Without a doubt the circumstances faced by many young rural women in Ghana are dismal and something must be done to create greater opportunities for growth. FLOWER has decided to take up this difficult task and dedicate itself to improving the lives of young rural women around Ghana.

Thus, FLOWER’s primary mission is to empower and assist young women to take charge of their future through the provision of further educational and livelihood training opportunities for 15 – 25 year old girls living in rural areas in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

We envision a future in which young women in Ghana realize their full potential, feel empowered to make decisions about their future and ultimately gain financial independence.

We undertake the following concrete activities to reach our vision:

1.         Creating educational awareness, especially that of the girl-child, among communities through durbars, PLAs and assistance to parents enrolling their wards in school.

2.         Assisting out of school children, especially the dropout girls, to return to the classroom to enhance the achievement of basic education for all by 2015.

3.         To assist in the provision of basic school needs such as uniforms, bags, footwear and meals to needy pupils.

4.         Assisting in training out of school girls and young women to acquire employable skills and self-financing projects in such areas as dressmaking, snail rearing, hairdressing and soap making.

5.         Providing counseling services and career guidance to pupils of first and second cycle institution to enable them to make informed choices about programmes and subjects at each level.

6.         To assist in training and encouraging the formation of Girls Clubs on HIV/AIDS, sanitation and personal hygiene.

7.         To campaign and create awareness among communities and their members about the causes and preventative ways of dealing with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

8.         To educate the masses, especially those in rural communities on the rights of women and children, domestic violence, interstate succession law, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

9.         To help and advocate for assistance to the needy, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the excluded and the vulnerable in society.

10.To collaborate with other local and international NGOs, institutions, corporate bodies and individuals to work in unity towards the achievement of the MDGs.