Vogonni, (U/W), Aug. 2, GNA – The African Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD), is providing over 500 women across Jirapa Municipality and Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region with economic empowerment skills that can support them and their families.
The economic empowerment skills training is provided through the Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Girls Project (EROP) being implemented by GH Alliance in partnership with AfCHuRSD and WOMEN IN NEED (WIN) with funding from the Dutch Embassy in Ghana.
Madam Bernice Naah, the Executive Director of AfCHuRSD, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview during one of the training sessions held at Vogonni in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, that rural women often suffered the brute of poverty due to the lack of economic empowerment skills.
She noted that as a result these women often suffered lots of abuse owing to their inability to contribute to the economic wellbeing of their families, explaining that the project was therefore aiming at training them in bar/liquid soap making and pastry making to help them better their lots.
She said the leaders of the women groups in the communities were benefiting from the training first and therefore would be expected to share the knowledge with their colleague women in their respective communities to empower them too.
Madam Naah hinted that the women would also be trained on how to add economic value to some of the local resources at their disposal, adding that when they know that, they would be capable of turning things around in their favour, thereby creating economic prosperity for their families.
The Executive Director of AfCHuRSD noted that the women would also be sensitized on credit opportunities and how they could organize themselves to take advantage of these credit facilities to invest in the skills they acquired.
She advised the women to be committed to the training process so that they would understand everything such that they would also be in the position to train their colleagues.
Madam Blandina Choka, a Home Science Teacher and a resource person, pointed out that most of the rural women had little or no formal education, hence the need for them to be trained to gain practical skills that they could depend on to cater for their families.
She said the skills required making liquid/bar soap and pastries were easy but required high concentration from learners, and noted that she was happy with the enthusiasm coupled with lots of questions being asked by the women.
This, according to her was a demonstration that the women were eager to understand the process so they could take advantage to help themselves.
Madam Choka advised the women to practice constantly after the training and that it was the only way they could sharpen their skills and attain perfection before they would think of investing resources on a commercial basis.
Madam Rhoda Nazieng, a participant from Vogonni community, noted that living without any economic skill as a married woman was very challenging as they often face challenges in meeting the health and educational needs of their children.
“With this training, we can also do some economic activity that will enable us to also earn something to support our families”, she said whilst emphasizing that she was aiming at making some daily profit out of the skills she was learning.
“I want to thank AfCHuRSD and its partners for the economic empowerment skills training for myself and my colleague women and also assure them that we will put these skills to good use to the benefit of ourselves and our families”, she said.