Kantamanto women mark Earth Month

Women traders at Kantamanto marked this year’s Earth Month with a health walk in Accra to highlight their role in circular fashion and call for greater environmental responsibility and healthier living.

The event, organised by the Kantamanto Women’s Association (KWA) in partnership with The Or Foundation, brought together hundreds of women and supporters for the “Kantamanto Walk to the Park,” which began at Kantamanto Market and ended at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park.

Held as part of this year's Earth Month activities, the walk focused on environmental protection, personal wellbeing and the role of women in advancing circular fashion through the reuse, repair, restoration and resale of clothing.

Addressing the participants, the Vice President of the association, Mary Sarkodie, said the gathering was held in honour of Mother Earth, which she described as the common source of life, nourishment, and survival for all people.

She said women, especially those in Kantamanto, understood that connection deeply because their everyday work reflected the same qualities associated with the earth, including nurturing, renewal and endurance.

According to her, the women of Kantamanto gave new life to discarded clothing every day, noting that nothing was ever truly wasted in their hands because they mended, remade and restored items that might otherwise have been thrown away.

She stated that although such work was often quiet, it remained powerful and transformative, adding that the women’s efforts represented a practical and daily form of environmental care.

The Vice President noted that Earth Month served as a reminder that caring for the planet was not always expressed through grand gestures, but often through consistent, everyday acts of responsibility and care.

She explained that the health walk was not only about protecting the planet, but also about caring for the women themselves stressing that just as the earth needed rest and protection, women also needed to care for their bodies, health and peace of mind.

The President of the Association, Vida Inkoom, in an interview with the media, called on the women to keep their surroundings clean and desist from littering, stressing that environmental responsibility must begin within their homes, workplaces and trading spaces.

She said waste should no longer be seen merely as something to be discarded, but rather as a resource that could be managed properly and turned to a useful purpose.

The President urged the women to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste they generate as part of their daily lives and commercial activities, as well as desist from the use of single-use plastics.

She also called on the women to come together to promote the circular economy, stressing that unity and shared commitment were essential to building a more sustainable and responsible market culture.

According to her, the association was well placed to help women better appreciate their role not only as traders, but also as active contributors to environmental protection and social transformation.

She highlighted that the work of Kantamanto women goes beyond the market, contributing significantly to extending the life cycle of garments globally and reducing textile waste, even though this contribution is often overlooked.