WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROJECT FOR 39 COMMUNITIES (PAGE 11)

STORY: Chris Nunoo. Vinvin nrst Jirapa

Poverty, diseases and squalor are retarding efforts by some countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015.
For such countries, including Ghana, the attainment of the MDGs, some of which include reducing poverty and under-five mortality rate, is still possible, but the challenge is formidable
In Ghana, the fight against poverty has been intensified and an integrated poverty alleviation programme, aimed at uplifting the critically (extremely) poor from their predicament is in the offing.
     The programme, known as the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), together with other poverty reduction interventions, is expected to empower the very vulnerable in society, including women, by providing for their basic needs and get them out of poverty.
Another poverty alleviation programme, expected to benefit about two thousand women selected from 39 communities in three districts of the Upper West Region, has kicked off under a a five-year women empowerment project.
Dubbed "Women of the Upper West, ending poverty and upholding rights", the project is meant to improve the economic status of the beneficiaries and their families.
The Project Co-ordinator, Miss Catherine Ammisah, said the beneficiaries had been selected from the Jirapa-Lambussie, Nadwoli and the Lawra districts.
She said they would be given credit facilities through various women groups and explained that the loans would be in two forms namely, soft credit, which would not attract any interest, and hard credit, which would attract some interest.
Miss Amissah also spoke about a number of problems confronting women in the region and said they included poverty, and various forms of discrimination and abuse of the rights of women.
She stressed that the significance of the project in improving the status of women and girls through various forms of training could not be overemphasised.
She noted that 54 women groups had so far been formed in about 24 communities since the project was introduced last August.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mrs Winifred Dy-Yakah, who launched the project, advised the beneficiaries to embrace it with all seriousness as it would empower them economically.
She also commended the district assemblies for assisting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote the interest of women and urged them to regularly monitor the progress of the project.
The Country Director of Concern Universal, an NGO operating in the region, Mr Macduff Phiri, said his outfit was working closely with PRONET North, another NGO, to improve the water and sanitation situation in the area.
He called on all to help create the required atmosphere for women and children in the respective communities and said Concern Universal would help to provide micro-credit, as well as enterprise development support, for the people.
The Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Children of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Annacleta Naab, urged the beneficiaries to work and repay the loans so that others could also benefit.
She also told them not to politicise the project, saying that the project was being sponsored by organisations who were committed to help uplift their living standards.