Geography: Ghana
Founded: 2008
Address:133 ½ East Franklin Street, Suite 104
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
About A Ban Against Neglect
A Ban Against Neglect (ABAB) is a non-profit in Accra, Ghana working to empower street girls while cleaning up the environment. The main form of safe, clean drinking water in Ghana is sachet bags, bags that are like sandwich-sized plastic bags filled with water. Since there is no formal waste collection, over 40 tons of these bags are thrown into the streets every day. Every night, over 30,000 youth fall asleep on those same streets. Over one third of these youth are young mother's and their babies. Gender-based discrimination, lack of family support, financial stability and marketable skills make these street girls some of the most vulnerable in Ghana and contributes to the growth in second-generation street children.
ABAN fights the neglect facing both the girls and the environment. They provide the girls with shelter, seamstress training, Business, English, Math, and Life Skills Education, and the means to save, matching their individual savings upon graduation. Through seamstress training, the girls learn a marketable skill by sewing recycled sachet bags into unique, handmade products. Recognizing that every girl has a unique and personal dream, ABAN provides the financial boost and personal assistance needed for these girls to transition from a life in the streets to a respectable standing in society.