Asanko Gold produces document to increase intake of women
Asanko Gold Mines has produced a working document to increase the intake of women at all front in the company to between 15 and 20 per cent in the next five years.
The move is to bridge the gap between the male and female employees.
Document
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The document, which is yet to be signed to make it operational, is to encourage more women into the male-dominated sector. Currently, women form about nine per cent of the total workforce of the company which is above the national average of six per cent across the industry.
The Executive General Manager of Asanko Mines, Mr Charles Amoah, announced this at the official launch of "Botae Pa", a blood donation initiative put together by the Asanko branch of Women in Mining Organisation.
The exercise, which started on October 22 ends on November 12.
Reasons
The initiative is to celebrate the organisation's first anniversary to supply 100 pints of blood to the Saint Martin Hospital, Agroyesum, also in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region.
The 12-hour each day exercise is to offer the opportunity to each worker to donate to assist the hospital which is within its operational area.
Gender diversity
Mr Amoah, one of the donors, said Asanko recognised the benefits of promoting gender diversity across its business, from the board room to the front line and to the broader mining community and within its host communities.
He said as part of Asanko's commitment to diversity, it had published the first Women in Mining Charter in Ghana.
Aim
The Botae Pa initiative, aimed at complementing Asanko's existing corporate social responsibility programmes through the donation of blood to support children in particular and mothers who might need it.
It was also in line with meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Five which is 'achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls’.
"This great initiative by our women and mothers, again has a direct linkage to our overall Asanko Opportunity Cycle Concept which forms an integral part of our corporate social responsibility in promoting gender participation in all aspects of our development.
"As we all know, health is one of the four key pillars of CSR initiative and today's event obviously sits at the core of the health component," Mr Amoah added.
Organiser
The Organising Secretary of Women in Mining, Asanko Chapter, Ms Gloria Bentsil, said the association was to change the perception and establish the point that women were as capable as their male counterparts in the industry.
She said the mining industry was not the preserve of men, adding that what men could do, women could do better.