Supporting Children in Ghana Through Communication and Connection
CA Zena Simces with the Village of Hope (VoH) staff. The VoH supports widows and single mothers in caring for their children, and offers teenage girls the opportunity to acquire vocational skills. Photo by: Zena Simces
Written by: Abigail Elizabeth Mani
A place of rest and new beginnings for those needing childcare, education, and healthcare, the Village of Hope (VoH) sits on the coast of Gomoa Fetteh, Ghana, with white sands and clear water. The VoH operates seven distinct business units offering specialized services and care for varying needs. However, VoH was struggling with communication issues as each subsidiary, although connected by the same overarching mission, had different goals and communities they served.
Led by Fred Asare, the VoH’s Group Managing Director, the VoH supports widows and single mothers in caring for their children, and offers teenage girls the opportunity to acquire vocational skills that enable them to lead productive and independent lives.
“We’ve always communicated but after this assignment, there is an intentionality to the way we communicate…There’s a clarity on the way forward because we now have a communications strategy,” said Fred.
To address their communication issues, Catalyste+ connected VoH with Catalyste+ Advisor (CA) Zena Simces for an in-person assignment. Together, Zena and the VoH staff developed a communication strategy to establish a better relationship between the subsidiaries and external stakeholders.
Photo by: Zena Simces
A key part of the different training led during the assignment was enhancing VoH’s social media presence. During the training, the infrastructure for a social media presence was built and maintained after the assignment ended. The VoH has seen growth across a variety of their platforms, notably an increase in the number of likes, followers and page visits. Additionally, a new style of messaging was established to better highlight VoH’s mission and values, allowing audiences to better understand the services VoH provides.
Through the assignment, Zena was able to better understand the struggles faced by each business unit, with one main challenge being how far some subsidiaries were from each other. Zena used technology to set up virtual 1-1 sessions, augment learning through virtual calls and set up various 1-1 sessions to ensure all staff benefited from the training.
“The success is bringing all these different groups together, and developing not only a communications strategy for each of the subsidiaries but also a collective one for the Village of Hope overall…It was their plan and their words,” said Zena.
Priscilla Ntim, IT and Communication Manager at the VoH had noted the high levels of collaboration and ideation between the VoH staff and Zena during the training. ‘The way people [VoH team members] were able to voice out, the way people were able to contribute and the way people were able to … say certain things to help the organization and the communications program was phenomenal.”
Three out of the seven subsidiaries are schools, and, following the assignment, the schools now have an improved messaging system to attract new students and engage existing parents. By sitting down with the different VoH subsidiary managers and holding workshops with the children’s caretakers, Zena established tools that could be used to foster better relationships with the children. These new communication tools allowed for stronger connections between the children and their caretakers, allowing them to better thrive and have an opportunity to make a difference in society.
Photo by: Zena Simces
The VoH’s impact has been amplified as a result of the training and is empowered to better communicate with intentionality in mind. The VoH is able to represent themselves and serve their community better as a result of the right messaging and their new communication tools.
“It’s made a difference, and it’s a difference that has been made in the lives of people… in the lives of children, in the lives of young girls who have been picked off the street and have been given training, in the lives of women, in the lives of the youth. We are deeply grateful,” said Fred.
