In the deprived communities of Wiewa, Bofie and Biema in the Banda District of the Bono Region, many women struggle daily to provide for their children and to meet their families’ basic needs.
With limited job opportunities and few sources of income, many of them depend on subsistent farming, petty trading and the benevolence of relatives to feed their families and meet other basic needs.
However, these sources of income are often unreliable, making it difficult for them to adequately provide for their families.
Renewed hope
To help change the narrative, ActionAid Ghana is sponsoring training for women in vocational skills to improve their living conditions.
Through the sponsorship arrangement, the Italian friends provide funds to ActionAid Ghana to support development activities and livelihood interventions in the communities.
Recently, seven mothers of ActionAid Ghana-sponsored children were presented with start-up tools, equipment and materials to start their soap-making businesses.
The beneficiaries are mothers of children enrolled in the ActionAid Child Sponsorship Scheme, under which selected children from the communities exchange letters with sponsors in Italy.
The support followed the beneficiaries’ successful completion of a soap-making training programme organised by ActionAid Ghana at a cost of GH¢51,400, with funding from the organisation’s Italian partners.
The seven women are among 30 mothers of sponsored children in the Banda and Tain districts who have been trained in vocational skills, including animal rearing.
Address economic barriers
At the presentation at Wiewa last Friday, the Bono Regional Programme Manager of ActionAid Ghana, Kwame Afram Denkyira, said the intervention aimed to address economic barriers faced by women in deprived rural communities.
“This is not only about responding to unemployment.
It is about investing in decent work and creating meaningful economic opportunities for women in deprived rural communities,” he said.
Limited economic activities
The Banda District Coordinating Director, Adams Amoako, told the Daily Graphic that the intervention could have a far-reaching effect on households and the wider district, saying that when women earned income, they were more likely to invest in their children’s education, food and welfare, thereby reducing poverty and vulnerability within families.
Support
The Assistant Administrator of the Ghana Enterprises Agency’s Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of the Banda District Assembly, Patrick Mensah, said the BAC would link the women to its services, including business registration, financial management, record-keeping, marketing, and regular monitoring, and support them in networking with others.
Some beneficiaries said the intervention had brought renewed hope, particularly at a time when many struggled to earn enough to feed their families and support their children’s education.
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