https://www.myjoyonline.com/wdfa-anowah-afriquea-to-train-3000-underprivileged-women/-------https://www.myjoyonline.com/wdfa-anowah-afriquea-to-train-3000-underprivileged-women/
The Women’s Development Foundation (AWF), an NGO, in partnership with Anowah Afrique Limited, has embarked on an ambitious task to train 3,000 underprivileged women.  The beneficiaries will be recruited from the streets of Accra over the next five years.   The plan is to train the women free of charge in industrial sewing, leaving them with skills, employment and a sense of purpose and subsequently, employ them. The programme is part of a five-year strategic plan designed to alleviate poverty and empower the women to be in the position to support others later. So far 150 people have been trained and 60 have graduated.  In an interview, the CEO of Anowah Afrique, Noble Catherine Anowah Coffie, said that the move was to give the vulnerable women hope and to help reduce the rural-urban migration while creating employment. “The Women’s Development Foundation is equipping these women with skills to take them off the street and employ them after. This would not only give them hope but also the north to south migration while creating employment,” she said. WDF and Anowah Afrique Limited, The actual training process, after the women are recruited, sees them undergo a series of basic pre-tests so their efficiency levels can be more easily gauged. These tests include a hand stability test, finger movement, mind observation test and visual accuracy test. From the results of these tests, they are then classed into various efficiency levels with trainers allocated to them. Noble Coffie said “the Women’s Development Foundation has been in existence for the past 10-years and undertakes projects to empower women and alleviate poverty.” “We understand that some of these women cannot even get money to come to the company hence we provide buses to ferry them to the premises, on this last project we picked people from Amasaman and beyond, Madina, Tema New Town and Ashaiman.” WDF and Anowah Afrique Limited, She added “we need support, up until now we’ve been funding the programme ourselves and it hasn’t been easy. It costs ¢3,000 to train one person, and at the moment, WDF plans to train and employ over 300 vulnerable women.” She stated that a partnership would help ensure the sustainability of the project. Noble Coffie mentioned the organization was seeking collaborations with the YEA and like-minded NGO’S whose projects and mandates are in line with WDF’s to come on board. Anowah Afrique Ltd. is a garment manufacturing company located in Tema Free Zones enclave with the capacity of over 2,500. In full swing, the company employs over 3,000 people. It has a 30-day training programme, from morning until evening each day, designed to equip economically disadvantaged women with requisite skills and to make them sustainable. “When they first walked in, they didn’t even know how to operate the machine, but by the time they leave, they’re fully efficient in sewing all manners of things. “But beyond the skillset, they pick up another impact of the programme is the work ethic and camaraderie they develop among themselves. That’s the real impact of the programme,” she added. Currently, WDF is preparing for its follow up training programmes while looking for other organisations with which it can partner for its empowerment causes. “To continue to do more for these women, we need support from the government and partnerships from other organizations. We are also calling on MPS, Assemblymen and women who want to help the vulnerable women in their communities to partner with us so they can be trained,” she said. The coordinator of the Skills Development Training said WDF recruited vulnerable women aged between 18 and 25 years, regardless of tribe or language. “These women come from all parts of Ghana and we place no restrictions to language. We bring in multilingual Ghanaian experts, translators and expats from India and Bangladesh to train them in each,” she said.

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