On April 19, 2018, Women’s Health to Wealth whose motto is “Boa me ma Me boa wo” donated eleven PET carts to young men and women whose inability to walk has limited their mobility and consequently their efficiency. The recipients made up of made up of five women and seven men included 4 students two of whom are in university, 3 tailors and 1 shoe maker among others .
WHW objective in providing the carts is to enhance the mobility of the recipients so that they can go about their daily work without having to crawl on the ground or depend on others to move them around.
WHW is extremely grateful to the Americares organization in Connecticut USA that supplied the carts to WHW. WHW has and continues to make donations of these carts to the Nsawam Orthopaedic Centre that provides rehabilitation services for people who are unable to walk for various reasons so that they can move about.
(See pictures of recipients after donation and picture of cart)
SoCCs “Hemaa” -The Queen of SoCCs
by Lord M. Nixon
Meet Agnes Nti, one of the very first women to benefit from health screenings and the SoCCs small loans scheme in the Bantama Market. She sells condiments and a variety of food items. Aggie has proved her mettle and is therefore seen as a leader amongst her peers who affectionately call her “SoCCs Hemaa” ( literally translated as SoCCs Queen) in the Bantama Market. She is a four time beneficiary of the small loan scheme under the SoCCs project.
On a routine tour of the market in March, she invited me to her shop for a brief conversation. After about 4 minutes of conversation, I noticed she was offloading various food items ranging from canned tomato paste to shea butter into a new shop next to her own. I asked if she was helping a friend offload her goods, she smiled and told me that was her new shop. The conversation then got very interesting as she started to explain how the loans had gradually helped her expand her business, create a healthy savings account and allow her to be more financially independent as she does not borrow from loan sharks anymore.
To me, this is a very progressive woman who understands the SoCCs program and has made positive use of the knowledge and skills she has acquired from the program. Furthermore, she is serving as a positive role model for the women in the Bantama community as most of her peers hold her in high regard.
Empower Change Matrix Activity
From the period of 18th to 29th July, 2016, empower change matrices were conducted for the women of Krobo and the Bantama market. This activity not only helped the women realize what they were gaining from the program but it also helped WHW know where there was significant progress and where there was not and it helped immensely in planning future activities.
On the 10th of October, 2016, a WomenStrong representative (Julia Nethero) visited WHW to learn more about the organization and its activities.
During this period, she visited Krobo and Wawase where she interacted with some of the women in the SoCCs program. She got to know from the women the benefits, changes and overall developments the program has brought about in their lives. The women were also happy to interact with her as they had not met any member from the consortium before.
Conflict Resolution through SoCCs
The Wawase SoCCs community in the Afigya Kwabre district has a current membership of 38 women managed by the SoCCs program officers and Madam Doris Asamoah and Madam Abenaa Donkor, elected leaders of the group.
On the 20th of November, 2016 during the community’s monthly a report was received on an existing misunderstanding between Madam Doris and Madam Abenaa which had translated into poorly organized meetings and inconsistent clean-ups. The program officer opened a platform for both leaders to express their concerns after listening to both leader’s concerns and the opinions of the other members on the issue, the program officer offered his advice and suggested that the leaders let go of the issue, both leaders accepted the advice, apologized to each other and promised to work in harmony for the benefit community.
During the following month’s business meeting, the program officer noticed both leaders were seated together, joyfully chatting and also, on enquiring, the program officer also found out that the preparatory meeting prior to undertaking a clean-up exercise which was brought to a halt during the period of conflict has been commenced. Below is a group photo taken after the issue had been settled.
First clean-up exercise in the Aduamoa Community
As mentioned before, all communities in the SoCCs program participated in clean-up activities in their respective communities.
What sets the first clean-up exercise of the Aduamoa group (consisting of 19 women) apart from the rest is the commitment they showed towards the activity and the amount of work they were able to do in just one day.
Political Talk with the SoCCs women of the Bantama Community
2016 is the year Ghana will elect a new president. As such, it is important for every Ghanaian, including our women, to understand the various processes that occur during this period as well as what to look out for from aspiring presidential and parliamentary candidates. Thus, on the 28th of September 2016, a political talk was organized and facilitated by the SoCCs program officers and the executive director of WHW. A total of 54 women attended this meeting.
Health Talk with the SoCCs women of the Bantama Community
The SoCCs program in 2016 had a special persistence and promotion of good health and sanitation amongst its participating communities. For the Bantama community, this was even more important as the women stated that, aside from the regular clean-up exercises, they would also like to have regular visits from a variety of health personnel to give them advice on diet, dental health etc. As such, a health talk is organized every other month and the first talk was done on the 29th of March, 2016.
[PHOTOS] Health Screening Santasi Market
[PHOTOS] Health Screening at Atia Kotei
