Empower 600 Women in Ghana with Microcredit Loans

Torrential rainfalls caused the Offin River to spill over its banks near Abompe, Ghana earlier this year.  The flooded river submerged the road linking Asugya to Abompe, the only thoroughfare for local villagers. 

But the extreme weather didn’t stop Linda, a micro-credit loan trainee, from crossing the flooded river in an old, leaky canoe with her 4 month old daughter to attend the Self Help International micro credit meeting in Abompe.

“Linda is very diligent about attending the training sessions Self Help sponsors,” says Benjamin Kusi, project officer of the training program.  Before women are granted micro-credit loans from Self Help they must successfully complete a 6-month training program teaching basic business guidelines  and healthy, day-to-day living strategies.

Traveling through extreme, weather-related conditions to attend these sessions is common, explains Kusi. The woman are so grateful for the opportunity to learn how to improve their lives and provide a better lifestyle for their children.

Linda will graduate from the training program in February, 2012 and will be eligible for a micro-credit loan at that time.

 “It is satisfying to see the confidence and progress these women experience through the training program and financial support from Self Help, “ continues Kusi. “Their lives are literally transformed.”

• report (DOCX)

Young Mother Grateful for a Micro Credit “Legacy.”

Afia, a 22 year-old, single mother, did not know how she was going to support herself and her new “bouncy” baby girl. She was forced to leave a seamstress apprenticeship in the nearby town of Kumasi when she discovered she was pregnant.

After moving back home with her mother to Kyereyaase, a farming community in Ghana, Afia became discouraged with the lack of opportunities. “I became frustrated and confused as a single parent with virtually no support from anyone,” she says.

Help came from a knowledgeable and familiar source.  Afia’s mother, a successful micro credit beneficiary herself, suggested Afia attend a Self Help sponsored training workshop designed to teach Kyereyaase women how to diversify their businesses. The training focused on how to make pastries, meat pie, doughnuts and plantain chips.

Shortly after the training, Afia’s mother decided to give her daughter start-up money with profits from her successful business funded by Self Help. With GH50 ($33), Afia was able to begin preparing and selling pastries in her community. Ten days after starting her business she was able to buy a frying pan and coal pot.

Today Afia spends about $13 a day and receives between $17 and $20 a day, more than a 30% profit!  “Today I am thankful to God and Self-Help for the opportunity given me to enable me to help myself,” says Afia