Women with disabilities trained in beads making

More than 40 Women with disabilities in the Upper East Region have been trained in beads making to enable them engage in meaningful employment.

The women from the Bolgatanga Municipality and Bongo District benefitted from the training organized by the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Upper East Regional Chapter, with funding from the Donsk Handicap Forbund in Denmark.

Mr David Awine Aniah, the Project Officer, Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Upper East Regional Chapter, noted that the project was part of the organization’s livelihood empowerment programme against poverty.

He said it was being piloted in two districts, the Bolgatanga Municipal and Bongo District, to provide employable skills and knowledge to the women to enable them to engage in productive ventures.

Apart from the training programme, the Regional Chapter was supporting the beneficiary women with tools and startups to begin the production of quality beads to improve their livelihoods.

He explained that being a woman had already made them vulnerable and being disabled worsened their plight and there was the need for a collective effort to find sustainable jobs to enable them to live dignified lives.

He said the organization would work with the various municipal and district management Committees of the disabled fund to ensure that as part of their package they were supported to establish and expand their businesses.

He said the beneficiary women would further be linked to some institutions and market avenues and urged them not to allow their disability to hinder their progress.

“Instead of begging for alms on the street, endeavour to engage in sustainable economic ventures to improve upon your livelihood, he told them.

This, he said, would contribute to a reduction in poverty and accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms Happy Sarbbah, the Quality Control Training Facilitator, Krobodan Beads Limited, Koforidua-Nkuranki, who facilitated the training of the women, said the women were trained to use both traditional and modernized threading to make the beads.

Ms Sarbbah noted that the beads industry was lucrative and urged the trainees to put the skills acquired into good use to help reduce poverty.

She said beads were being patronized both locally and internationally and there was the need to increase production and take advantage of the good market.

Madam Abigail Anaba, one of the beneficiaries from Balungu-Nabiisi in the Bongo District, expressed gratitude to the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled and the donors and pledged to extend the knowledge to her colleagues to make a greater impact.

Ms Belinda Amish, another beneficiary from Sokabisi in the Bolgatanga Municipality, noted that the skills gained would help her establish a viable business that would prevent her from depending on others for support.