Access to very basic healthcare can increase or decrease a family’s and a child’s vulnerability. It may seem a far leap but providing community based education on all health topics from malaria to nutrition to hypertension can decrease a child’s likelihood of ending up in orphanages. Our community nurses give everything from roadside talks to formal seminars on a variety of health topics.  We also do community health screenings, and send our nurses out to individually assist those families in any of our programs.

Sadly a primary cause of children ending up in orphanages is unwanted pregnancies. In the majority world most women do not have control over their sexual lives and unwanted pregnancies are common, yes even in older and married women. Often the mother cannot afford the cost of an additional child and this increase in financial burden puts all the mothers children at a higher risk of ending up in an orphanage.

AYR works to stop this by providing free, no-questions-asked, family planning services to any female that requests the assistance. We work directly with Ghana Health Services in that all the care is provided in existing infrastructure with trained nurses at GHS facilities and we simply cover the cost. This ensures the stability of the existing infrastructure, the health of the female, and the limited interference from an outside NGO, all while providing vital female healthcare and stopping unwanted pregnancies.