Two organisations to train women in driving
In Ghana, there are many women who sit behind the wheels daily but barely a handful of them dare to drive commercial vehicles. Interestingly, quite a number of passengers are more comfortable when a woman is behind the wheel.
Though a handful of women are seen behind the wheel of some public transport vehicles in a city like Accra, it is not common to see them driving long distance commercial buses.
According to the United States Department of Transportation fatality analysis report published in February 2016, men typically drive more miles than women and more often engage in risky driving practices, including not using safety belts, driving while impaired by alcohol and speeding.
Initiative by two NGOs
Two non-governmental organisations, the Network of Women in Growth (NEWIG), Ghana, and Empower Foundations (EP), engaged in entrepreneurial capacity building, have launched a project, dubbed: “Young Women in Professional Driving,” aimed at training young women in professional driving with the expectation of getting them in some form of employment.
For a start, 15 young women will undergo an eight-week intensive practical driving and despatch riding training in Accra. They will also undergo a four-week entrepreneurial training, gender and human rights training at NEWIG centre at Tefle, near Sogakofe in the Volta Region.
The project is, however, exclusive to women from the ages 18 to 25, with applicants required to possess at least a senior high school certificate with grades not less than D2, and/or a tertiary education certificate.
Stereotype
Addressing the media in Accra last Wednesday, the Executive Director of, NEWIG, Ms Mawusi Nudekor Awity, said the intervention was to equip the women and do away with gender stereotype in society, noting that women were often discriminated against in picking a career in the technical, engineering and computer science courses.
“Our NEWIG team will work with women’s rights organisations, networks and other groups to ensure that the trained women drivers are empowered to protect their lives and dignity and that of vulnerable members of their family and communities,” she stated.
She said as an organisation that advocated women empowerment, the NEWIG project would empower poor unemployed women to become professional drivers to enable them to have better living standards and live in dignity to address the problem of sex trade among young women that resulted in early pregnancies and illegal abortion.
Ms Awity, therefore, urged interested applicants to get in touch with the organisation on the social media network for application forms and programme brochure in order to complete application forms, and submit recommendation letters and medical forms to the organisation, not later than June 10, 2016.
