Fund Sewing Skills for Women in South Africa

Dear Supporters,

Like NGOs everywhere, we have had to adapt to some difficult circumstances during 2020, with the team working extremely hard to ensure our impact is sustained while safely reacting to and navigating through the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a hub that is deeply embedded in our community, the safety of the women and girls of Kokrobite – and supporting them as best we can through the lockdowns and other pandemic pressures – has been our highest priority. Fortunately with support we have been able to successfully continue our important work in menstrual and womens’/family health. 

Here is what we have been up to…

As our donors and supporters will be aware, we run a program of menstrual health education and distribution of sanitary products for female students at our local partner schools in Kokrobite. The program allows for all girls of 11 years plus to participate in educational workshops to discuss reproductive and menstrual health and to be offered advice and guidance on safe and hygienic good practice. In addition, each school is provided with sanitary pads, sanitized wipes and other resources to distribute to female students as and when they experience their monthly reproductive cycles. However, with schools shut due to the global pandemic, female students have been at home, often being supported by family members who have seen their employment and income opportunities reduced by the pandemic, and so many of the girls have been unable to access the sanitary resources they need. 

In response, we have utilised donations to purchase and distribute sanitary products to the girls directly to their homes. Working with teachers from our partner schools, the sanitary products were purchased and distributed door-to-door, with each female student being provided with a 3-month supply to safely meet all their needs. In addition, our team has been able to work with our partner schools to provide advice and guidance on the sanitization and protective measures the girls can take to minimise the chances of contracting COVID-19 and generally staying safe and healthy until their schools can reopen. With some schools unable to reopen until January 2021, our team will continue to monitor those girls who need support and will continue to replenish their sanitary supplies as required.

In order to support our partner schools to reopen in a safe and responsible manner following the pandemic, and to help provide improved health and medical care to all students in the community in future, we have also worked to accelerate the delivery of a first aid and hygiene training program for teachers from the local community. With access to emergency medical care very limited in the local community, major hospitals and medical facilities can take several hours to access, putting lives at risk due to the delay in those all important first medical responses.

By taking advantage of the school closures and subsequent availability of local teachers, and utilising a £4000 GBP grant, we worked fulltime over a 6 week period through August and September to deliver a bespoke 5 day course to 20 local educators. While maintaining safe distances, working with groups of no more than 5, and implementing strict sanitation measures, we were able to complete this important training whilst absolutely minimising the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Ghana was able to complete this important training whilst absolutely minimising the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Ghana was able to complete this important training whilst absolutely minimising the risk of exposure to COVID-19. 

The course was centred around Emergency First Response principles, training attendees on emergency primary care/CPR, secondary care/first aid, and children’s health and first aid. The course combined different learning approaches, practical, and written examinations, with every attendee demonstrating they had learned the full theoretical knowledge and practical skills being taught: all 20 educators met the full requirements to become qualified emergency responders, thus passing the course and earning a formal certification.

As well as ensuring that hundreds of local female students had access to appropriate sanitary products during the lockdown, we have been able to train 20 teachers and educators to provide critical first aid and medical care to the thousands of children who will return to schools in Kokrobite from January 2021. The impact this has on the ability of schools and the wider community to provide illness and injury care to children cannot be over-exaggerated: 4 partner schools have transitioned from having zero first aid trained teachers to having at least 4 formally qualified first aiders on-duty at any one time. 

We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone along with all the donors and contributors that made these projects possible!

With Gratitude,

Ghana Communtiy 

Dear Supporters,

Early 2020 has arrived! No longer a local mum’s club, the Ghana women’s economic empowerment project has expanded to enjoy a wonderful variety of Kokrobite’s diverse residents. From fisherwomen to street vendors, preachers, business owners and housekeepers, all have come to learn and enjoy a new curriculum of classes and workshops in the company of their fellow women. 

Having initiated a community mobilisation effort, staff and volunteers have brought onboard 90 participants over the first few months of 2020. Many of these women have few career options and very little in the way of earning capacity. Even for those who have received an education it can be incredibly difficult to create lasting, meaningful progression through life. For some their family, their household and Kokrobite is all they will have ever known. 

In order to address some of the short-term financial issues, new vocational workshops have been implemented to give the ladies a chance to practice or learn a potential career skill. So far the women have covered a number of recipes for catering and street vending which can supply a quick source of income and the possibility of a future business. Being unable to read let alone access books or the internet means that many women have few opportunities to learn new cooking techniques, especially when it comes to baked goods like breads and cakes. We have had an excited response to these workshops as learning more specialist recipes translates to having a good day selling on the high street. Further vocational classes have been teaching the first building blocks of jewellery making and beading work. West Africa of course has a history of using these handcraft skills to create intricate heritage products and the women have taken quickly to forming 3D shapes and complex patterns. 

To ensure that our ladies are making sustainable progress and to address the limited education they have received, volunteers have been delivering English and IT lessons covering everything from simple spelling to Excel spreadsheets. Being an anglophone country means an inability to read and write in English drastically reduces most economic opportunities, whilst having an understanding of technology and how to harness the power of computing or the connections of the internet is giving the women a great advantage in Ghana’s future economy. It is our hope to further these classes by initiating practical and theoretical business lessons, mixed with financial planning and money management in order to develop the skills required for embarking upon small enterprise and entrepreneurship.

After the success and popularity of the vocational workshops we are very much looking to expand their capacity with an increase in skills offerings and to provide nationally recognised accreditation for the women who complete the program. We would love to provide courses for a wider variety of professions potentially including textile work and garment construction, catering and food handling, events decoration and management, beautician and hairdressing work or the creation of local wellbeing products such as skin oils, creams and soaps. To provide this knowledge we will need funding to supply local teachers, with the necessary specialist equipment or materials, who could then operate from our new workshop space in our compound. Donations to provide metallic cookery surfaces, sewing machines, clothing production supplies, hair training manikins and hygiene equipment would be tremendously beneficial in providing the skills needed for employment to those who cannot afford lengthy internships or technical schooling. These types of professions address those who have been unable to receive a suitable education and are in desperate need of experience and practical learning. 

Further funding would be much welcomed for computing equipment for the IT courses. Several more robust laptops with up-to-date programs and permanent internet availability would further increase our student capacity. Whilst access to professional print facilities with quality papers and lamination would be exceptionally useful for the ladies as they create labels and advertisements for their businesses. 

Looking to the post-COVID-19 Ghanaian economy our local ladies will be feeling the financial strains more than ever and will be needing all the education and practice they can receive. Maintaining a safe learning environment will mean greatly reducing our capacity, yet none the less scaled down lessons will be pushing forward in enhancing employability, financial stability and long term educational development and gender equality.

Thank you to all our generous donors for your continued support.

With Gratitude,

Ghana Communtiy

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