Amplifying Women's voices through a Livelihood
Women of Ghana’s Ulkpong-Bakonoyiri Community in the Upper West region, gather under their shade tree to tell a story of hope. Hope for their children’s education and food security for their village now that they have a steady income.
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With ActionAid’s support and financial backing, the women living in this remote village have purchased a machine to grind shea nuts and mill their cereals for preparation of food. They have also built a piggery.
“The shea nut machine really helped a lot,” said Achim Felicita, the group’s chairwoman.
"Before we had to walk a lot to do the grinding. The husbands were mad at the distance. Now, five minutes and we are done." "Husbands are so impressed they will help," Felicita added.
Women in Ghana’s Ulkpong-Bakonoyiri Community gather Feb. 3, to discuss how their lives have changed since they set up a piggery and purchased a machine to grind shea nuts.
ActionAid's approach to ending poverty is to strengthen women in their own struggles and help them to unleash their own potential to change the world. This female-backed approach is working, assert the Ulkpong-Bakonoyiri Community’s women. Over time, the group of women have saved up money to continue buying shea nuts, more pigs and additional supplies to keep their business going, as well as a group uniform to enhance group cohesion, said group Treasurer Haruna Asana. But it is the investment they are now able to make in their children, especially girls, that makes the women beam.
Asana explains that because the women now have a source of income, the children are freed from working and participating in time-consuming chores that keep the house running. The extra time has freed them to attend school.
Kids go to school because they have more time," Asana added. "They no longer have to grow food."
With an eye toward education, the women also voted to invest in the community's girls by purchasing 10 bikes for them to travel several miles to and from junior high school in the heat.
"We are more enlightened than before," Asana said. "The whole group meets now to discuss what to do with the money."
