Women Livelihood Empowerment project launched in Upper East

Women Livelihood Empowerment project dubbed “Sustainable Project in Northern Ghana (SPRING Project), has been launched at the Pelungu Community of the Nabdam District in the Upper East Region.

The 12-month project targeting Female Headed Households (FHH) at the Pelungu community has a goal of increasing household income and well-being of 50 Female-Headed Households (FHH) in the area through enterprise development and Agribusiness.

As part of the project implementation, the project is to facilitate and empower the beneficiaries to go into Shea and Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) processing .To achieve this , the project had procured new Shea processing equipment to help reduce the laborious routine the women go through in processing sheabuter.

Trax Program Support Ghana (Trax Ghana) is implementing the project with funding support from Tools for Self-Reliance, UK Partnership.

Speaking at the launching ceremony at Pelungu on Friday, the Director of Trax Ghana, Mr Vincent Subbey, disclosed that the project would also organise capacity building training programme on Shea and OFSP value chain and training on maintenance of Shea processing equipment.

“Capacity building on OFSP recipes and market opportunities, OFSP demo in two schools with School Feeding Programme, participation in Network meetings, Capacity building on tree growing, Organizational Development, Business Development, Life skills, Strengthening and support for VSLA, Vine multiplication, distribution and cultivation and Farmer exchange visits will also be part of the implementation strategies,” he stressed.

He stated that one of the key implementation strategies is to organize stakeholders conference in Bolgatanga, the Regional capital for the creation of networking and market linkages among the beneficiaries and other major stakeholders.

The Director stated that among the project outcomes is to ensure functional Business group , well maintained Shea processing equipment, quality and quantity production of Shea, access to market and fair trade, household consumption and sales of OFSP products, new and sustainable businesses and improved household income and wellbeing of the women and their families

Trax Ghana, a non-profitable organisation was established in 1989 and works with smallholder farmers to achieve food security and wealth creation. Thematic areas of the NGO include Sustainable Land Management, alternative Livelihoods, youth Education, Commodity Enterprise development, Gender equality & Community Empowerment.

The organization has over the years offered scholarships to a lot of deprived students and empowered the Kambusigo community in the Bongo District with green house project and also compost making

The Queen mother of Pelingu, Pognab Akos Nabil , expressed happiness about the project intervention and expressed optimism that the intervention would contribute to mitigating the women plight .

The Assembly Man for the Pelingu electoral area, Mr Datuogha Francis, thanked the NGO and the funding agency for the support pledged that the District Assembly would complement the efforts of the implementing agency to ensure that the project makes a significant impact in the community.