P&G ALUMNI FOUNDATION PARTNERS UNITED WAY GHANA TO SUPPORT 50+ WOMEN IN KWAMOSO.
Poverty, unemployment and underemployment are ravaging several communities in Ghana. That is why United Way Ghana is working with its partners to reduce poverty by creating income for disadvantaged youth in these communities through providing short and long-term solutions through the Socio-Economic Empowerment Project.
United Way Ghana partnered with P&G Alumni Foundation to enroll a Socio-Economic Empowerment Project in Kwamoso, a town in the Akuapem North District of the Eastern Region, a farming community with fruits, vegetables, potatoes, cassava, maize, yams, plantains, and yams as the main crops grown. A recent survey conducted in the region revealed a 70% underemployment rate which had resulted in a high rise in rural-urban migration in the region.
The Socio-Economic Empowerment Project provides financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills, literacy education, vocational skills, and business registration to underprivileged community members in the region. The program is in alignment with achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 1- No Poverty, 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities and 17 - Partnership for the Goals.
Through the Socio-Economic Empowerment Project funded by P&G Alumni Foundation, 50+ beneficiaries, particularly single mothers and young women in Kwamoso have received intensive skills training in bread-baking, soap making and beads production. The result of this program is 100% of beneficiaries acquiring vocational skills, creating job opportunities in their communities, and setting up their own micro-businesses. There has also been an improvement in the economic status of 70% of the beneficiaries and a 70% increase in support for involvement in their children's education and literacy programs. Business centers have also been set up in the community which will also serve as training centers for the other community members.
A beneficiary of the program, Madam Mavis shared her experience in these words “I have been married before but because my business collapsed, it affected my marriage so I had to come back to Kwamoso, and when I came back by God's grace United Way Ghana and P&G Alumni came up with this initiative which I decided to join. I have really benefited from this program and I'm still learning more. Within two weeks, I have been able to work to support my child. I am grateful to them. May God bless them”.
Another beneficiary said “I was at Koforidua when I received a call that United way Ghana had brought some work opportunities to Kwamoso so came to be a part of it. I joined the bead- production team, though I realized it was more difficult than the others. I have now perfected the craft, and I am grateful to P&G Alumni and United Way Ghana for creating sustainable jobs for us to benefit from”.