Tamale, June 20, GNA – Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme) has announced a call for proposals for its Sustainability and Legacy Fund grants.
The overall objective of the grants is to strengthen the capacity of small and grassroots organisations to bring about sustainable change in the lives of people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, and particularly women with disabilities or mental health conditions.
A statement issued by Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, signed by Lyla Adwan-Kamara, its Team Leader, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said, “We expect the Sustainability and Legacy Fund to go a long way to boost grassroots organisations, and especially those that empower women with disabilities.”
She added that “I encourage disabled people’s organisations and women’s rights groups to apply for this opportunity.”
The statement outlined the grants’ specific objectives, which included “To strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of small and grassroots Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Women Rights Organisations (WROs) and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to enable them to play a greater role in user-led approaches to claiming the rights of people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, and particularly women with disabilities and mental health conditions.”
It is also “To improve the well-being of, and empower people with disabilities, and especially women with disabilities and mental health conditions through interventions implemented by small and grassroots SHGs, WROs and DPOs.”
The statement encouraged eligible SHGs, DPOs, WROs and other civil society organisations working on disability and mental health to apply for the grants from June 14 to July 13, 2022.
The Sustainability and Legacy Fund Grant is Ghana Somubi Dwumadie’s third call for proposals after two successful previous rounds.
The first call for proposal was the COVID-19 Psychosocial Resilience Grant, which enabled people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, as well as health care workers to access psychosocial support and build their resilience to the impact of COVID-19.
The programme’s second call, Evidence and Effectiveness Grants, supported civil society organisations, including DPOs and WROs, to tackle stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions and to advocate their rights.
The statement said, “A key learning from these calls indicates that there is value and power in approaches, which uphold the principle that people with lived experience are best placed to bring about changes in attitudes around disability and mental health, and this learning informs our Sustainability and Legacy Fund.”
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie is a four-year disability project with a specific focus on mental health.
It is funded with UKaid from the UK government and run by an Options-led consortium, which also consists of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Kings College London, Sightsavers International and Tropical Health.
It seeks to promote stronger policies and systems that respect the rights of people with disabilities, including people with mental health disabilities as well as scale-up high quality and accessible mental health services.
It also seeks to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities as well as generate evidence to inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of disability and mental health programmes and interventions.
GNA