NGO equips women, PWDs with skills
Network for Women in Growth (NEWIG), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on women empowerment, in partnership with Coca Cola Foundation, has presented start-up kits and certificates to 70 women and persons with disability in the Asante Akyem South District.
This was after undergoing a three-day intensive skills training in soap making.
The start-up kits were to enable the beneficiaries to be self-reliant and also create job opportunities for others in their communities as part of efforts to reduce unemployment in the country.
Economic empowerment
The initiative formed part of activities under an economic empowerment project for marginalised women in Ghana.
The two-year project, known as the “Economic Inclusion of Marginalised Women Living in Urban Centres”, is aimed at providing skills training and business management support to women, being implemented in the Greater Accra, Western, Ashanti and Northern regions.
The beneficiary communities in the Asante Akyem South District were Kurofa, Morso, Juaso, Konongo and Adomfe, and it was expected that the women would establish businesses that would employ others.
More than 300 women are expected to benefit from this project in the Ashanti Region alone.
Rationale
Speaking at the passing out ceremony of the trainees at Kurofa, the Executive Director of NEWIG, Mawulawoe Awitey, explained that the objective of the project was to economically empower marginalised women living in urban centres to be productive and equip them with income-generating skills to be useful.
She said the women were also taken through financial literacy training to enable them to manage their finances and how to access the resources that were available to support the establishment of their small businesses.
“We have given start-up tools to beneficiaries to go home with something that will serve as a capital for them to build on and grow their businesses,” she said.
Ms Awitey said at the end of the project, some of the women would be selected for an internship programme, where they would be supported with more skills and a grant to establish their own businesses.
The Queenmother of Kurofa, Nana Yaa Ntidwuma, encouraged the newly trained women to put to good use the skills acquired during the training to improve their livelihoods to benefit the entire community through the training of other women, especially the youth.
She expressed gratitude to NEWIG for selecting her community for the training and further assured the organisers of their commitment to ensure the beneficiaries put into use the skills acquired to empower more women in the community.
