About Us
Vision
A world where the full humanity, dignity and rights of women and girls of all identities and intersectionality are recognized and upheld.
To influence policy, build the capacities of women and girls and gender diverse people, create and facilitate spaces and opportunities for inclusion and meaningful participation, educate and advocate, influence behaviour and change narratives, building partnerships, mobilise and resource and contribute to feminist leadership and movement building
Mission
Values
Creativity and Innovation
In all of our programming, we create room for innovation and creativity not only for ourselves but for the communities we work with, with their needs and aspirations at the center as we collectively create sustainable solutions
Learning, Adaptability and Resilience
As implementing spaces and communities, issues, funding and political climates change, we proactively engage, centering experiences, learnings and perspectives of our team and our partners and strategically apply outcomes to ensure we adequately respond to needs whilst still staying committed to our vision and feminist principles
Diversity and Meaningful Inclusion
At the core of our work is intersectionality. We believe in the rights of women and gender diverse people to advocate and be advocated for, be active participants in interventions that directly or indirectly impact their lives and have equal access to opportunities and relevant spaces
Feminist Leadership
We understand the systemic and deep-rooted nature and impact of patriarchy in believe in harnessing the collective power of the feminist movement for transformational impact. Challenging systemic inequalities that leave women and girls vulnerable and disadvantaged requires intersectional collaborative efforts of individual feminists and organisations. We are committed not only to dismantling patriarchal systems but also to facilitating collective efforts both locally and nationally.
Accountability and Integrity
We prioritise to the communities of women, donors, partners, associates and the feminist movements with and for whom we work. We are firmly committed to operating with integrity, respect, honoring commitments and being guided by core feminist principles
Sisterhood and Collective Care
We believe in collective joy, healing and care facilitated by solidarity and sisterhood. Women of all intersectionality experience joy, success, and struggles presenting in varying degrees. We take initiatives that creates and fosters a communities of women can who support and care for each other physically and emotionally, seek refuge in each and create bonds that allows us to celebrate our diversities whilst creating a world where all women are safe and have dignified livelihoods
Our Story
In 2015, when Abena was posted to Kumasi for her government mandated post-degree national service, she would encounter on her way to work mostly teenage girls working as what we call kayaye (head porters), and mothers with twin babies as young as 6 months old begging for alms on the streets, under the scorching sun. She thought these were girls who should be in school, and mothers who should be home caring for their babies and healing from pregnancy and childbirth.
Drawn by their plight and a passion to help, she went from watching them daily on her way to and back from work, to interreacting with them. Listening to their stories and aspirations, Abena decided to help them and other vulnerable women and girls like them. She Immediately reached out to a woman presenter at a radio station adjacent the court where she worked, and started being a guest on her show to shed light on the socio-cultural norms and practices that put women and girls like them in such in vulnerable situations. From there, she made a Facebook post calling on other equally passionate youth in Kumasi to join her take action and implement interventions to improve the lives of women and girls in Kumasi. Four people volunteered to join and that was how Yebetumi formerly Woman for Girl Initiative was born.
Yebetumi initially focused on mentorship for in-school girls in rural communities. In partnership with the Girls Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service and a group of highly accomplished professional women, the project run several mentorship programs in rural Kumasi, including Akyawkrom and some suburbs of Ejisu. We expanded to include sexual and reproductive health and rights education for both in-school and out of school girls, and women in rural communities and other low-income communities. This meant running consent workshops, menstrual hygiene education, HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer testing and awareness creation, community durbars geared towards sensitization to promote best practices and eliminate stigma amongst others. These interventions were expanded to include the Central and Greater Accra regions.
Since 2015, Yebetumi has in partnership with relevant state and non-state institutions, religious and traditional leaders, and relevant local and international organizations implemented skills training, mentoring, advocacy and behavioural change community-based programs to educate and empower, to ensure inclusivity, equal participation and improve the livelihoods of women and girls.
Gender equality is important because women are humans whose full humanity and dignity surpasses all social cultural beliefs, norms and practices. Women should be given equal opportunities to grow and thrive, be meaningfully included, and be able to lead because we are human beings and it is our right.
— Abena Benewaa, Founder