Training & Co-operatives
Love Ghana support projects which train people in skills like cookery or trading to help them work their way out of poverty . These projects then work like co-operatives where people are either a trainee or earning money as part of a group. Once they are fully trained, people also have the opportunity to set up their own business.
Lolonyo (Love and Friendship)
Lolonyo in Ewe means 'Love and Friendship'. Alberta, who is a teacher and church leader, started the project to help some single mums work their way out of poverty. Since 2011, Love Ghana has provided grants for Alberta to expand the project and to upgrade the cooking equipment.
Alberta trains the single mums to make different bakery products which can be sold in the local market. This has helped the women to feed their families and in doing so, they now have the opportunity to start up their own business in the future.
Nutifafa (Peace)
Nutifafa in Ewe means 'Peace'. Florence is a teacher in the town of Ho. She cares about her community and was moved by the circumstances of many of the women around her who cannot find work and have not money to set up even the smallest of businesses on their own.
She asked Love Ghana to help her set up Nutifafa, a trading project which aims to get unemployed women working so that they can feed and educate their children.
In 2019, Joyce who is part of the project set up a shop in her house where she sells Nutifafa's products. Some other women left the project to set up their own trading business so there is now room for new women to join. The Nutifafa project have plans to expand into making and selling liquid soap products.
Afram Plains Tradings
Bertha lives in a village in the remote Dwarf Islands in the Afram Plains. Bertha and her husband CK live with their children and grandchildren in a cluster of village houses.
Bertha and CK are very aware of the many needs in remote communities in the Afram Plains. A storm can wash away a family's house (including Bertha and CK's home in 2011) or an illness which is easily treated on the mainland can become critical when you live hours away from medical care.
In 2013, Bertha asked Love Ghana to help set up a project to buy different goods in Dzemini and Dokorkrum to trade around her villages. She has involved other women in the village and provided worked for them. Since 2013, the project has been thriving and the profits have been given to help people in her community.
Life is fragile in remote places and caring for the vulnerable members of society is the job of the community, a job Bertha takes seriously.
Mawunyo Fish (Hohoe)
In 2018, Love Ghana gave a grant to help a new project which was set up by local women in Hohoe to sell smoked fish. The aim of the project is to create jobs and use the profits to support themselves, their families, the poor and elderly in their community. It has been wonderful to hear recent updates that the project is continuing to be successful.
Mawunyo Oil (Juapong)
In 2016, Love Ghana provided seed funding to help start Mawunyo Oil Processing project in Juapong. Since then, the co-operative has been profitable and the group are hoping to expand in the future.
Recently, the Mawunyo Oil project have been using their profits to support a girl called Pamela through her secondary school education.
Deladem Fashion Enterprise
Mary has a kiosk in Ho Wotoe where she makes and sells clothes. She provides apprenticeships for vulnerable young women.
Love Ghana has supported this project since 2016 and Mary continues to develop subsidised dressmaking apprenticeships.
Dekawowor (Togetherness)
In 2019, a co-operative project based in the Afram Plains called Dekawowor was set up in 2019. A group from the local church decided to hire a piece of land to grow chillis. Sadly, the first year of growing chillis was not a success because of the extremely dry weather. However, they have not given up and are thankfully going to try again this year.