In line with its mission of building capacity of women farmers in the country, Agrihouse Foundation has donated wallentin Boots to the Northern Widows Agricultural Foundation (NWAF) to aid the women in their agribusiness activities.
The donation is further in line with the Foundations intention to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, along with the rest of the world on March 8, on the theme, “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equitable Future in COVID-19 World”
The Foundation hopes its gesture will equip the women to continue working hard, even as they strive to grow their economic mainstay in subsistence farming, Shea nut picking and Shea butter processing.
The Widows Foundation is consisted of about 1,000 women from five districts, including, Sagnerigu Municipality, Tamale Metropolis, Tolon district Savelugu Municipality and Kumbungu district.
At a short handover ceremony held at Gumo of the Kumbungu district, the Monitoring and Evaluation Executive, Michael Opuni-Frimpong, who represented the Executive Director Albertana Akyaa Akosa said, Agrihouse was established with the vision of contributing practically to development of the agriculture sector.
He said, Agrihouse has been working with widows in the region for a while and over time, have noticed that having proper footwears to help them go about their activities efficiently, is one major challenge of the women.
“After several meeting with them, we have been thinking of what to do for the women as the farming season approaches. Deliberating with them, they complained about snake bites when they visit their farms, hence the provision of the wallentin boots,” he said.
The Executive Director for NWAF Issah Iddrissu who received the items on behalf the women groups commended Agrihouse for their support, noting that, the protective gears will protect the women from snake bites as they go about their activities on their farms.
According to him, the widows have been striving to make earns meet since their husbands died, and the continued support of Agrihouse would complement their efforts.
The women groups, led by Madam Rahi Fuseini expressed gratitude to Agrihouse for the support and appealed for more, in terms of finances for their petty trading and livestock farming activities.
As part of the donation, Mr. Michael Opuni-Frimpong took the women farmers through a short lecture on record keeping and the need for them to be part of cooperative groups.
He said it was important for them to keep records of their produce or crops cultivated, acreage farmed, and cost of production, in terms of labour and input.
He encouraged them to keep records of their income and financial activities, since it will help them access financial support from VSLA’s, SL’s and Banks, when the need arises.
He urged the women to continue working hard, because Agrihouse was committed to supporting them achieve a list of objectives on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said Agrihouse will return to the communities after the farming season to ascertain the market accessibility, farm produce, their challenges, and help them package and selling the produce.
