Empower 600 Women in Ghana with Microcredit Loans

Photographs by Dela Aniwa. See more of his photography here.

In order to help support her family, Adwoa left school at a very young age to assist her father on his vegetable farm. As time went on, the farm struggled to make a profit and Adwoa had to start selling bread and eggs to make ends meet.

Adwoa continued to rely on her bread and egg business and eventually married a local farmer from Bedaabour, a small community in the Ashanti region of Ghana.

“Even after I got married, life was not easy for me. Making ends meet was difficult after I had my second child,” Adwoa said.

After several financial struggles with her husband, she was introduced to the Self-Help International micro-credit program.

"I was very reluctant to take a loan from Self-Help because I have seen how cruelly some financial institutions treat people who take out loans. However, several people assured me that it would be okay,” Adwoa said.

“I also received extra help from Self-Help, such as trainings on proper credit management, and I learned about Self-Help’s extremely lenient financing and repayment methods. I took out my first loan from Self-Help to expand my bread and egg business, and this has been the best decision of my life,” Adwoa added.

Since joining the microcredit program in 2012, Adwoa has seen great success. Due to her commitment to paying back her loans on time, she has been able to access larger sums of money in subsequent loans. With these loans, she has not only sold more bread and eggs, but she has also expanded to selling other groceries.

She has invested some of her profit into her and her husband’s farm, allowing them to expand the crops grow and sell to include corn, okra, and eggplants. Thanks to Adwoa’s enterprising spirit, they also own an old car they use as a taxi to transport people to nearby villages.

Adwoa has also used the profit from her businesses to invest in her family in a number of different ways. Not only has she built a new a home for her family of six, she is choosing to invest in her children’s education as well.

"One thing I am most grateful for is that I am able to provide my daughters with the formal education I was deprived of because of my success with the Self-Help micro-credit program,” Adwoa said. "Self-Help is really a godsend. I do not know where my family and I would be if I had not joined Self-Help.”

Women reinvest 90% of their income back into their family, ensuring that their children are well-fed, clothed, sheltered, and able to get the education they need. Empower more mothers like Adwoa this Mother’s Day by making a gift to the micro-credit program in honor of your mother or grandmother!

Links:

• Take a look at more of Dela's photography.
• Read about our Nicaragua micro-credit program.