Fund Sewing Skills for Women in South Africa

Dear Supporters,

In the traditional fishing community of Kokrobite, Ghana, climate change and illegal fishing have taken a heavy toll on local fish stocks. Many families in the community are second, third or even fourth generation fisherman and women, many have never earned a living in any other way, so preparing for change in livelihood and career is a scary prospect for many. From sailing the traditional handmade canoes out to catch fish to drying and selling the fish at market, without healthy fish stocks many families are finding it harder and harder to survive. For the women, who often care for their children, manage a domestic home, and have to work, finding alternative sources of income is critical in this context.

Working with one of GVI’s partner schools in the community, the Divine Home School, we have now set up a second Kokrobite Mums’ Club, creating a safe space for around 50 women as well as reinforcing a community around the school and its students. The women know that the sacrifices they make to raise the funds to send their children to school are acknowledged and rewarded through the club: by sending their children to school, the women get to be part of a project that responds to their own individual needs and personal development. Meeting 3 days per week at GVI’s base, the women are:

• Learning basic computing. Many had never used a computer before and felt both increasingly disenfranchised from modern society and unable to access the broad range of tools and opportunities computers and the internet offer in business and employment.
• Learning English language. The local dialect in Kokrobite is Ga, and while most of the women have conversational English, reading and writing is less common. The women are learning the language skills they need to promote their enterprises to broader markets, create materials, and make sense of the tools available to them online.
• Learning about gender equality. Framed in both a local and global context, the women are completing workshops on what gender equality and disparity mean, how does it affect them, and what needs to change.
• Perhaps most importantly though, the Mums’ Club has created a safe space, just for local women, to talk about their concerns, enjoy each others company, and learn the skills they are most interested in: when setting up the club, GVI interviewed each of the women to establish where their growth areas were, what support would be most beneficial to them, and how they would like the club to be structured. This ground up approach has created a fantastic atmosphere at the club, with monthly social events to celebrate the women’s progress and have a little fun now a regular occurrence.

The basic computing course in particular is having a tremendous impact. The women are able to learn at their own pace, and their abilities are improving much quicker than anticipated. This week, the women typed and printed either their first ever official curriculum vitae or a promotional flier for their small business or enterprise. Many are incredibly proud, and they are already thinking of new and innovative ways of using their new-found-abilities to improve their family’s livelihoods. In addition, by completing the English literacy course and basic computing course at the same time, the two reinforce the pace of learning: using the English keyboard helps the women form and write sentences and by completing the English course the women increase the pace at which they can interpret on-screen computing text and instructions. Win-win!

The popularity of the Mums’ Club and the keenness of the women to attend as many classes as possible has created two challenges: 

The first is that we currently only have 4 computers for the women, at this Mum’s Club as well as GVI’s other Mums’ Club, to work on. This means there are often long waiting times to get on to a computer or that sometimes the women have to share. GVI would like to increase the number of computers to 10, so we need an additional 6 laptops. The laptops cost $300 USD locally, so any donation of $1800 or the equivalent units would be extremely welcome, enabling GVI to expand its Mums’ Clubs projects and to work with more and more local women over the longterm.

The second challenge is that many of the women would like to move on to an intermediate-level computing course once they have completed the basic course. This will require a professional syllabus, supporting materials, and the provision of an accredited certificate upon completion. So if you, or anyone you know, are able to provide this support, get in touch today to help GVI deliver this incredible project and further the international development targets in gender equality driven by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 5. 

Thank you for all your support and be sure to follow this community project

Medassi("thank you")

With Gratitude,

Ghana