SIHELI Gender Study Report
Gender Equity in Early Childhood Care and Development: Insights from the SIHELI Project in Northern Ghana
Associates for Change, December 2025
This qualitative study examined gender dynamics around childcare in five Nanton District communities — Chahiyili, Gushei, Kparigulanyili, and Zaali — through 10 focus group discussions with 42 parents (24 men, 18 women), conducted in Dagbani in October 2025.
The findings show that gender roles are shaped from early childhood. Boys and girls are steered into separate household chores, play activities, and trade skills, with boys typically prioritized for schooling and resources like bicycles while girls’ education is often sacrificed for domestic or farm work. Men’s roles in childcare remain narrowly defined around providing, protecting, and disciplining, while direct nurturing care — bathing, feeding, cooking for children — is stigmatized as “women’s work” and can draw ridicule from the community.
Several interlocking barriers keep men from greater involvement: norms passed down from their own fathers, fear of causing jealousy in polygynous households, concern that helping once will create a lasting obligation, and traditional beliefs that closeness to children invites misfortune. Practical pressures — farm labor and poverty — compound these cultural barriers.
Despite this, the study found real pathways for change. Women encourage male involvement through respect, reciprocal support, and calm private communication. The SIHELI learning centers themselves have become a turning point: by framing men’s participation as teaching and cultural preservation rather than domestic work, they offer a socially respected way for fathers to engage closely with children. Parents also reported that teaching at the centers revived their own connection to indigenous songs, dances, and storytelling traditions they’d let fade.
The report recommends that early childhood programs intentionally design father-inclusive activities rather than assuming generic “parental involvement” will reach men, that community sensitization address the root beliefs behind these norms rather than just symptoms, that women’s existing strategies as change agents be supported, and that programs track participation by gender to measure whether attitudes are genuinely shifting.
SIHELI Health Assessment Report
This report covers a health screening of roughly 150 children across five SIHELI communities — Moya, Chahiyili, Kparigulanyili, Gushei, and Zali — conducted between October 20–25, 2025 by Associates for Change alongside Ghana Education Service and Ghana Health Service teams. The goal was to identify disabilities, sensory impairments, and health conditions that could affect children’s learning, covering three areas: general pediatric health, vision, and hearing.
Most children were found to be in good general health, though the screening surfaced a meaningful number of conditions needing follow-up. On the pediatric side, the team identified four children with physical disabilities or limb weakness, two confirmed cases of epilepsy, twenty cases of respiratory infection, and eight cases of anaemia. Vision screening found generally normal acuity, with one notable case of nystagmus linked to a neurological concern and referred for specialist care, alongside widespread mild allergic eye irritation affecting about half the children.
Hearing emerged as the area of greatest concern — 27 children were flagged for possible hearing problems requiring further testing, with causes ranging from simple earwax blockage to ear infections to potential central processing issues. One child was referred for speech therapy as a result. Notably, some children showed multiple overlapping conditions, underscoring the need for integrated rather than siloed care — a challenge made harder by the near-total absence of local specialists in neurology, audiology, and developmental pediatrics, meaning families must travel to Tamale Teaching Hospital for follow-up.
The report recommends prioritizing specialist referrals with logistical and financial support for families, training caregivers and volunteer teachers to recognize early warning signs, formally sharing findings with district health and education authorities to inform planning, and adapting SIHELI’s teaching methods to better support children with sensory or physical needs.