A two-day intensive training in soap making has been organized for 40 women drawn from three communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.
The skills training was aimed at equipping the women with employable skills to produce soap to earn a living and make them self-reliant.
The women from Paga, Chiana and the Sirigu community were taking through the making of toilet bar and liquid soaps.
The training, organized by the Presbyterian Health Innovative Project (PHIP), under its “Spread the Gospel for HIV Prevention” project, was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana with support from EMS Germany.
Empowerment
Addressing the media at the end of the training, Akanpaabadai Emmanuel Awonanya, the district’s disease control officer and a stakeholder helping in the women and girls’ empowerment drive of the PHIP, explained that the training was to empower the women economically to be able to earn a decent living.
He said, a lot of women in rural communities in the district were faced with serious financial difficulties, adding the skills training was an intervention to help them acquire skills and knowledge to be able to change their lives.
Mr. Awonanya urged the women to make good use of the knowledge and skills acquired to derive the needed benefit from the training to contribute to the development of the community.
He also called for support from corporate institutions and NGOs to facilitate the sustainability of the training. He disclosed that the women would be put in groups to monitor and ensure that they put the knowledge and skills acquired to proper use for societal growth.
Eradicate poverty
Frederick Mensah, the project officer at the Presbyterian Health Innovative Project, emphasized the importance of the training, saying it was to curb unemployment situations and eradicate poverty from homes.
He also stated that the training was to make the women self-dependent to reduce their level of vulnerability. He said the training would position the beneficiaries and charge them to put the skills and knowledge acquired to use to be able to provide for themselves and children.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to Asaase News commended the Presbyterian Health Innovative Project (PHIP), the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and donors for the initiative, saying the knowledge and skills acquired would go and long way to positively impact their lives.
The Presbyterian Health Innovative Project (PHIP), which is a non-governmental organization based in the Upper East Region, organized a similar skills training in Garu for women, men and the disabled.
