CORD Ghana Empowers 1,500 Women with Motorkings for Shea Nut Business in Sissala East
The Center for Optimal Rural Development (CORD Ghana), a Nandom-based non-governmental organisation, has handed over motorkings to women cooperative group in Chinchan and four other communities in the Sissala East Municipality, to support their shea nut business.
The beneficiary communities are Chinchan, Tafiasi, Bujan, Dimajan and Nabugubelle, under the Shea Business Empowerment (SHINE) Programme, which CORD Ghana is implementing in partnership with the Global Shea Alliance in Sissala East and Lambussie.
The women, numbering 1,500 in all, made up of 300 members in each of the five groups, received registered motorkings fitted with number plates, raincoats and hand gloves, with one motorking to be kept at Chinchan, the centre of operations. An additional motorking, from the stock, will serve as a reserve at the centre.
The women have been trained in the shea business and the safekeeping of their proceeds. The motorkings are to be used to convey shea nuts from the bush to their homes, replacing the practice of head-loading.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, the Executive Director of CORD Ghana, Mr. Saatir James Kpir-Faatey, said the organisation would expand the project to more communities from next year. He said the items, including the motorkings and the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), were given free of charge, with each group entitled to up to two motorkings, and groups with the highest savings standing to receive an additional one, bringing the total to three per group, depending on members’ commitment and hard work.
He said the PPEs, which include raincoats and hand gloves, with torchlights also added, are meant to protect the women as they go into the bush to harvest shea nuts, and disclosed that the organisation was working to also provide Wellington boots. He added that CORD Ghana was in discussions with a bank to provide interest-free loans to women who need money during the early season, when the price of shea nuts is low, so that they can hold on to their nuts until prices improve. He said the process had not been concluded but was halfway done.
Mr. Kpir-Faatey also said the women were being trained to pick quality nuts, and cautioned them against fighting over the motorkings. He urged them to engage good mechanics to service the machines, and announced that the CORD Ghana team would return in six months, in March, to evaluate how the motorkings and savings schemes were being managed, including checking members’ savings records. He appealed to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and the chiefs present to support the women in other trades, now that the cooperative groups had been formed.
In his address, the MCE, Hon. Adamu Yakubu, said it was the Assembly’s responsibility to form cooperatives, but commended CORD Ghana for coming to their aid. He recalled that this year, together with the President and other key stakeholders, the Assembly launched a project known as the “Shea Park,” in recognition of the importance of the shea tree, whose butter, he said, is used for many purposes, including medicine.
He called on the women’s chiefs present to help put in place strict measures to prevent the destruction of shea trees, noting that changing rainfall patterns in the area were linked to the felling of trees, and urged the gathering to cultivate the habit of tree planting.
The MCE said the Assembly supports women’s groups through its Business Resource Centre (BRC), which trains women in soap-making and other trades, and assured that he and the Member of Parliament were ready to do whatever it takes to bring development to the area. He commended the chiefs in the Sissala area for their cordial relationship with the Assembly over the year, and urged the women to take good care of the motorkings and to educate those who would be using them.
The Chief of Chinchan, Kuoro Ahmed Hor, who graced the occasion, thanked CORD Ghana for the initiative and urged the women to take the cooperative seriously. He said the presence of the MCE at the programme showed that, if the women remained committed and hardworking, the Assembly and the government would come to their aid. He said he was aware of the difficulties women go through to provide for their families, and was happy about any support given to women.
Speaking on behalf of the women, the chairperson of the Dimajan cooperative group, Madam Nanchindee Zakaria Adiza, thanked the MCE and the chiefs for setting aside their schedules to grace the occasion. She also expressed gratitude to CORD Ghana, particularly the Executive Director, Mr. Kpir-Faatey, saying that although he has a small stature, the women would continue to honour and adore him for the intervention he has brought to assist women in the area. She promised, on behalf of all the women’s groups, that they would take very good care of the motorkings, so that on CORD Ghana’s next visit, they would be presented with vehicles in recognition of how well they had maintained the machines.
By Bashiru Nuhu Bapagu |Radford News