Fifteen widows and orphaned young women have completed a one-year training course in cloth weaving at Pusu Namongo in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region.
The training, jointly sponsored by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), ActionAid Ghana, both non-governmental organisations, and the Church of Pentecost, equipped the beneficiaries with the requisite skills to earn decent incomes to meet their basic needs and help reduce poverty in their respective families and communities.
Since the year 2000, the WOM and its partners have on the average trained 10 vulnerable women every year to acquire skills in cloth weaving to produce the type of material used to sew smocks, known in the Frafra language as "mortan".
Graduation
Speaking at the ceremony during which the beneficiaries were presented with certificates, the Project Officer of WOM, Mr Badumah Hegelar, emphasised that, "Creating alternative sustainable livelihood opportunities for the vulnerable and the excluded provides a sure pathway out of poverty."
He said it went beyond providing tangible assets such as animals and logistics but alternative income and livelihood programme which included training, logistics and technical support designed to guarantee a long-term sustainable income generation venture.
Mr Hegelar expressed optimism that the graduands would serve as role models and agents of change by extending their skills to other women, and appealed to district assemblies in the Upper East Region to play strategic roles to roll out similar livelihood programmes and also incorporate them in their medium- term development plans.
Bold step
The Programme Officer for ActionAid Ghana at Zebilla in the Bawku West District, Madam Juliet Adams, commended the graduands and noted that they had taken a bold step towards securing their future and that of their children.
She, however, expressed regret that early child marriage was a challenge to the development of girls in most communities, and pledged on behalf of ActionAid to partner WOM to address some of the challenges facing women and young girls in the region.
The District Pastor for the Bolgatanga Estates of the Church of Pentecost, Pastor Godwin Nana Ofori, said the church believed in the holistic development of its members, hence its resolve to partner organisations to roll out programmes to support the vulnerable in the region.
Beneficiary
One of the beneficiaries, Madam Esther Akurugu, expressed gratitude to the WOM and its partners for the training, saying they learnt a lot including how to handle customers and look out for business opportunities during their one-year course.
She said they would work hard to justify the huge investment made in them and also support other vulnerable women in their respective communities.
