CIWED CARRIES OUT COVID – 19 COMMUNITY SENSITIZATION EXERCISE IN ZIONG

The Centre for Capacity for the Well – being of the Vulnerable (CIWED) has been engaging members of the Ziong community in the Savelugu Municipality on the need for them to continue observing the COVID – 19 health and safety protocols to prevent infections.
The activity is part of the project, “Promoting Community Based Enhanced Systems Management Preventing Contracting COVID – 19 (ProBESPCoD)”, which is an 18 – month COVID – 19 prevention intervention. The project is being implemented in five MMDAs across the northern region, by seven NGOs who form the Alliance for Future Generations (AFG – Ghana) as implementing partners, to which CIWED is a member. CIWED, which has responsibility to implement the activities in Ziong in the Savelugu Municipality and Wovogu in the Sagnerigu Municipality, has been carrying out periodic sensitization as all other partners.
CIWED Executive Director facilitating the COVID – 19 sensitization in the Ziong Community
The CIWED team that visited the community and was involved in the exercise, including the Executive Director, Mr. Baako Abdul Fatawu, encouraged the community members to continue reminding each other that the COVID – 19 pandemic is still around and within our communities, which is why it is important not to let the guard down on adhering to the protocols. He revealed to them that the COVID – 19 pandemic is even more serious now than it used to be, since the new wave is unpredictable and changes all the time. According to Mr. Baako, this is making it difficult for experts to predict when the virus will become extinct, since researches carried out are not always consistent with the virus’ current form. He therefore encouraged the community members to continue wearing their masks and washing their hands with soap under running water, keeping a distance from the other person and most importantly, avoiding crowded places, especially when one is not well protected.
The “Promoting Community Based Enhanced Systems Management Preventing Contracting COVID – 19 (ProBESPCoD)” aims at sensitizing community members in the project areas on the prevention of COVID – 19 as much as possible, to prevent infections and spread of the virus in the rural areas.
The “(ProBESPCoD)” Project is in its third quarter of implementation and is being funded by Difaem in Germany.

CIWED Ghana VSLA Beneficiary supports her daughter to progress to Nursing Training College

It was a moment of joy from the CIWED monitoring team, when they came across Mma Awabu, a VSLA member for Kpalun Community in the Savelugu Municipality. The old female farmer shared how she helped to support her daughter to progress to a nursing training College in Tamale.

She narrated this:

“When she brought the admission letter home, the fees was GHS 3,000.00. My husband was helpless and confused. I went to the VSLA meeting and told them I needed a loan of GH 1000.00. That evening, when my husband returned from the farm, I went to him and put the GHS 1000.00 on his laps. He was shocked! I told him I took it as a loan from the VSLA box. He should use it as seed money to mobilize the rest of the money for the school fees”

According to her, it became less of a burden for her husband and the family to raise the rest of the money. The daughter is currently studying to become a nurse. She thanked CIWED and OSIWA for bringing that great intervention to their community.

CIWED GHANA Commemorates International Day of the Girl Child with a Drama Performance

CIWED-Ghana celebrated this year’s International Day of the Girl Child in grand style. Under the theme; “Our time is now—our rights, our future”, the organisation marked the day with a classic drama performance in the Savelugu Municipality by students from Wataniya Junior High School. These students are part of the advocacy clubs that CIWED GHANA formed in 20 schools in two districts in the “Women Voice and Leadership Project”.

The drama show witnessed parents, teachers, assembly members and directors of education in the municipality gracing the occasion. The head teacher of the school Mr. Suleiman Mohammed thanked CIWED GHANA for choosing their school as one of the implementing schools for the implementation of the women voice and leadership project. Representing the municipal director of education, a circuit supervisor also thanked CIWED and OSIWA for the strategy that they have adopted to reach out to schools and pupils to transform their lives.  Some participating parents were so happy and they were part of the drama and confessed that a lot was learnt during the drama and they will support their girls to attain education to the highest level. The drama performance is part of activities of the “Women voice and leadership project” CIWED is implementing with funding support from OSIWA

It was heartwarming during monitoring visits to the project communities to hear of a great story relating to the VSLA formed for the women of the Kparigiyili Community in the Nantong District. One of the women revealed that she supported her husband with a loan from the VSLA scheme to purchase a tractor. According to her, even though her support was not very significant, the spirit and appreciation with which the husband accepted her support made her happy.

The Kparigiyili Community VSLA is one of the groups CIWED formed from scratch under the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) project, which seeks to increase the effective participation of women in decision-making roles and leadership positions and also to empower them to have access and control of resources. 

The CIWED team, led by the Executive Director was so delighted hearing this huge success story. He called for honesty and transparency from the leadership in keeping the groups alive and strong.

As part of project roll out, CIWED-GH in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development trained our VSLA groups from 20 communities. These communities were drawn from Nantong District and Savelugu Municipal; the two districts CIWED rollout the Women Voice and Leadership Project. The trainings spanned for two weeks in each district covering topics on various VSLA and leadership principles including; income generating activities (IGA), financial literacy & numeracy, leadership skills and basic accounting book keeping.

The Executive Director of CIWED-GH, Mr. Baako Abdul Fatawu explained to the members that their understanding of the modes of operation and management of the VSLA concept is very essential to its sustainability in the communities. He urged the groups to embrace honesty and transparency in managing the VSLA boxes.

The project is supported by Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) which seeks to increase the effective participation of women in decision-making roles and leadership positions and also to empower them to have access and control of resources.  The project also seeks to have visibly empowered women, girls, men and boys’ groups leading the campaign for gender transformation. The programme is expected to directly benefit approximately 2,840 and about 8,741 indirect beneficiaries in the medium to long-term, with sixty-five percent (65%) being women.

On their part, leaders of the VSLAs expressed delight for the capacity enhancement to manage the associations. They revealed that the intervention of CIWED in their communities was great and pledged more support to upcoming activities.