New Juaben women PWDs trained in jewellery

Twenty women with disability drawn from the New Juaben South and New Juaben North municipalities in the Eastern Region last Friday successfully graduated after a two-week training in basic jewellery at Nkurakan near Koforidua.

The project, “Pathways to a Sustainable Future” was sponsored by Community Initiative Support Unit (CiSu), through LOS, a Danish organisation engaged in global civil society work and Krobodan, an association of Krobos and Danish.

The beneficiaries, who were presented with certificates, working tools such as pliers, scissors and measuring tape as well as assorted beads and accessories and start-up capital, were taken through both traditional and modern ways of picking and threading of necklaces, bracelets, earring making and methods of coiling.

They also went through single, double and multiple strands of designing, weaving and organising beads before threading.

Income generation

Addressing the beneficiaries, the Administrative Manager of Krobodan Beads Limited, Agnes Nuerkie Oguah, said the training had built the capacity of women with disability for sustainable income generation, to help them reduce dependency on family members, friends and the society in general.

"We have empowered these women to generate their own income to cater for themselves and their families so that they do not go to the street to beg for alms and also not to be exploited by unscrupulous men who will take advantage of their disability," Mrs Oguah stated.

She told the women who had been counselled and also shared their experiences that they should use their hands to earn a living and that under no circumstances should they allow men to exploit them.

Mrs Oguah advised the women not to look down on themselves because of their disability or allow men to deceive them by putting them in the family way only to be abandoned.

Undue advantage

"Don't take advantage of women with disability and maltreat them, show them love and care so that God will richly bless you.”

"Don't lie to them because you want to sleep with them, but rather tell them the truth if you truly want to marry and stay with them as husband and wife. Remember that such women are human beings; just that they have challenges with either their legs or hands," Mrs Oguah told the men.

The Eastern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Samuel Sarpong Boateng, stated that the training was to economically empower marginalised women with disability to get them off the streets.

He encouraged the women with disability to put to good use the knowledge and skills acquired during the two-week training, to improve their livelihoods for the betterment of themselves and their dependents.

Mr Boateng, who is also the Assemblyman for the Suhyen/Mpaem Electoral Area, expressed gratitude to Krobodan Beads Limited for selecting the women from the New Juaben South and New Juaben North municipalities for the training, and further assured them of proper monitoring to see how best they were utilising the start-up kits.

One of the beneficiaries told the Daily Graphic that although they had just completed the training, some of them had already been engaged to earn a living and expressed gratitude to the organisers, especially Krobodan, for the initiative.

Another beneficiary said most often, men took advantage of them but now that they had been empowered to generate their own income, no man would be able to deceive them again.

Writer's email: haruna.wunpini@graphic.com.gh