Forty women in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West Region have benefitted from soap and dettol-making training in the area as means of acquiring skills to improve their livelihoods.
Also, one hundred sewing machines have been distributed to other 100 women as a way of tackling issues of unemployment especially among women in the area.
The training formed part of the Skills Development Initiative formed by Mr Amidu Chinnia Issahaku, the Member of Parliament for the Sissala East constituency with some support from the Second Lady, Mrs Samira Bawumia.
Mr Amidu Chinnia Issahaku, speaking at the event stated that; “During the 2020 election, there were a myriad of issues that I took note of, among them include the unemployment situation in the constituency that needed attention, there are a lot of young people across the constituency who do not have jobs”.
He said, “one of the surest ways to providing jobs is skills development, which I have taken it as a duty to help train the skills of the people so that they have something doing on their own”.
“Aside the equipment given, I have also provided some startup of GH¢2,000 to support these forty women to go into soap making and earn a living out of it” he said.
Mr Issahaku acknowledged the support from the Second Lady towards making the training a reality and assured that she would do more to empower women not only in the Sissala East Constituency but the country as a whole.
He assured his commitment to expand the number of women being supported in the future to cover many other women in the constituency who are interested in the business.
Mr Issahaku said some efforts had been made towards “procuring some machinery in the electrical, and mechanic field and other areas certainly when we get there so that the males would be involved and benefit as well".
A beneficiary, Madam Nuri Gaan Agnes, expressed gratitude to the MP for the intervention, where she learnt soap, Dettol, and sanitizer making for sale and home consumption.
She, however, expressed worry about the high cost of caustic soda and other substance used in the soap making and appealed for more support.