
Portia Adu-Mensah From Ghana: 'Our Leaders Must Support Grassroots Girls'
This Earth Day, and to coincide with the Leaders’ Summit on Climate, we look to five young female climate leaders who are on the frontlines of climate impacts.
Ghana ranks 138 out of 189 on the Human Development Index (HDI). CARE International works with communities in Ghana to increase food and nutrition security, build resilience to the climate emergency, and help empower women and girls.
CARE Ghana works with communities in 150 districts across the country to increase food and nutrition security and resilience to the climate emergency. CARE International also works to help empower women and girls socially and economically, and respond to crises with life-saving humanitarian assistance.
This Earth Day, and to coincide with the Leaders’ Summit on Climate, we look to five young female climate leaders who are on the frontlines of climate impacts.
“…though I am disabled, I can now speak up and ask questions, demanding answers from elsewhere.”
In Ghana, they call them “market queens”—women traders who have the connections and influence to organize women, adjust market prices, and influence trading patterns in their area. Faced with government shutdowns in local markets to stop the spread of COVID19, these women found ways to organize social distancing and keep the markets open so people could eat.
The COVID-19 pandemic in West Africa is currently exacerbating socio-economic issues, with women bearing the largest burden of caring for their families while also seeking to lead communities in prevention and adaptation.
CARE began operations in Ghana in 1994 by working to educate mining areas about sexual health and the prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Today, CARE Ghana focuses on a participatory approach, working in partnership with local and civil society organisations, the government and the private sector.
In 2021, CARE worked around the world, contributing to saving lives, defeating poverty, and achieving social justice.