RUWA-GHANA is non-profit women’s rights NGO. It was formed in December 2005 in Datoyili, a suburb of Tamale, the capital of the northern region of Ghana. It started with a small group of women agro processors mobilized by Masud Aziz Rauf who was then a Program Office in Maata-N-Tudu also a Women’s Rights NGO. Maata-N-Tudu literally means ‘Women of the North’. Women agro processors from neighboring communities joined the initiative in multitudes. Soon it grew bigger and so together with the women we decide to register it formally as a legal entity. It was registered in August 2006 for the purpose of bringing together rural and urban women in Northern Ghana who have suffered tremendously from inequalities and poverty for long and to improve their situation as well as those of their children.
At its 2018 AGM the women and Board of Trustee members agreed to change the name from Rural and Urban Women’s Association to RUWA-GHANA for two main reasons: the former name was too long and posed inconvenience in bank transaction; the second reason is for the organization to bear the name ‘Ghana’ for national identity.
RUWA-GHANA’s activities have mostly focused on promoting the socio-economic well-being and rights of women and children through sustained advocacy and planned programs aimed at reducing the wide inequalities that exist and work against the development of women and children. The organization has since its inception provided advocacy services in the areas of women’s participation in decision making, women benefiting from Agriculture extension services, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Sexual and Gender Based Violence, Promotion of Nutrition among Women, etc.