Dery Donates To Women's Group

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lawra/Nandom Constituency in the Upper West Region, Mr Ambrose Dery, has donated GHC1000 to Songtaayog women’s group, an umbrella body of all the women groups in the Lawra Traditional Area.

The MP has in addition disbursed as much as GHC16,450 from his share of the common fund to cater for the school fees and other needs of needy students from the constituency.

A special aide to the MP, Mr Paschal Gyireh, made this known on behalf of the MP in Lawra. He was speaking at a durbar to mark this year’s annual general meeting of the Songtaayog women’s group at Lawra in the Lawra District of the Upper West Region.

It was on the theme: “Empowerment of Women, a Key to Poverty Reduction” Mr Dery told the gathering that apart from education, one of his priorities was to play a key role in the empowerment of more women in the area.

This, he said, would enhance the capacities of the women to enter into very productive ventures which would eventually impact positively on their living standards.

He said the development of the Lawra/ Nandom Constituency, and for that matter the Lawra District, was the responsibility of all and therefore with the required support “We could all contribute to propel the development of our area”.

The Chairperson of the Songtaayog Womens Group, Madam Alice Koyiri, expressed her appreciation to the MP for the gesture, stressing that “We the women of the Songtaayog women’s group will like to specifically acknowledge the support and assistance given to this group, both in kind and in cash, by our honourable Member of Parliament, Mr Ambrose Dery”.

She said the group would use the money as seed money for the credit union scheme, which she said Mr Dery had been very instrumental in its establishment.

She further appealed to the Lawra District Assembly and other natives of the area to support the group to be able to nurture the credit union they had just started to yield more dividends.

Madam Koyiri also appealed to the government to introduce more poverty reduction interventions to alleviate the poverty levels confronting women in society.

On some of the problems facing women in the area, Madam Koyiri called on the district assembly to see to the speedy completion of the renovation works on the Lawra market.

She also appealed to the assembly to improve the water situation in the area, pointing out that the new overhead tank could not supply water to meet the demands of the populace.

“We also appeal to the government to extend the school feeding programme to cover more schools in the district”.Madam Koyiri said this would entice many students and parents to attend or send their children to school.

For his part, the Chief of Lawra, Naa Puowelle Karbo III, advised the women to continue to be each other’s keeper, saying “You must help raise more funds to support your programmes and activities”.