Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency
The Village Savings and Loans Scheme is a social Mobilization and a behavior change strategy.
SWIDA – GH is very experienced in using the strategy for the promotion of financial inclusion of women in rural and Peri-urban areas.
This is why the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency organized a refresher training for its staff members, as well as staff members of the SWFA, to ensure better support for the 150 VSLAs for SWIDA-GH and about 40 for SWFA.
The Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Gh), has been supporting women in five districts in the Northern Region on beekeeping for livelihood improvement.
Women in the districts, Damongo, Mion, Tolon, Kumbungu and Nanton, have received a series of training on harvesting honey and making it a venture, to support the upkeep of their households’ needs.
SWIDA – Ghana’s activity activity on facilitating for the installation of the beehives, is to enable the women beekeepers improve harvest of honey.
The bee centres are found in communities that have had many of the women make the best of beekeeping as a venture.
The beekeeping centres will serve as demonstration fields for women from neighbouring communities. The hives will help in colonising the hives and making the women harvest more.
The beekeeping under the Sustainable Livelihoods project, which aims at supporting women for better management of the households, is being implemented in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP).
Wyatt James, a Climate Action and Entrepreneurship Fellow/Advisor at Youth Challenge International, Canadian Development Organization in talks with Executive Director for SWIDA-GH on a possible partnership for the HerStart project.
Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Gh), a women empowerment Non-Governmental Organization, has organized a capacity building workshop for guidance and counseling units of selected educational institutions in the Northern Region.
The exercise is aimed at raising the capacity of the various guidance and counseling units in Tamale, as a contribution to addressing Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
The workshop, dubbed “The Situational Analysis and Capacity Building Workshop for Guidance and Counseling Units on Addressing SGBV in Educational Institutions” also aims to identify the challenges that counselors face, as it empowers them to address SGBV cases at their various institutions.
Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director for SWIDA – Gh, stated that fighting SGBV cases is supposed to be a collaborative effort of NGOs, advocates and counselors from educational institutions.
She therefore called for collaboration between the organizations and the schools.
According to the project’s lead officer, Khadijah Abdul – Samed, the workshop aims to increase counselors’ capacity to manage issues and capitalize on opportunities to promote anti-sexual violence as well as protect girls who are exposed to SGBV in educational institutions.
Speaking at the workshop, Madam Linda Amoah, Head of Girls Education Unit at Ghana Education Service, stressed that sexual jokes and spreading sexual rumors should be discouraged in all schools.
Tamale Technical University, Tamale College of Education, Ghana Education Service, and Ambariya Cluster of Schools were among the educational institutions represented at the workshop.
Executive Director for the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Gh), Hajia Alima Sagito – Saeed has called on Ghanaian youth to take full advantage of e-commerce business.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Tamale, Mrs. Saeed advised the youth to seize the immense opportunities available in the sector to create employment for themselves and their peers.
According to her, the e-commerce industry offers several benefits to small scale businesses, including bringing them closer to their customers and allowing local enterprises to expand globally.
Hajia Alima believes that the e-commerce industry has many benefits that have yet to be completely recognized.
“The e-commerce sector provides enormous opportunities for the youth, but only a small percentage of them are aware of them” she said.
The stakeholders’ stakeholder meeting in which the SWIDA – Gh Executive Director made this call, was organized by Africa Skills Hub, in collaboration with Ghana Tech Lab, under the theme The Role of e-Commerce in Transforming the Local Economy for Job Creation and Economic Development.
The Executive Director for the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Gh), Hajia Alimah Sagito – Saeed has been pushing for the youth to be included in the various efforts aimed at fighting the menace of terrorism in Ghana.
In her remarks as chairperson for the peace town hall meeting organized by the Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Council and the Sahel Peace Initiative, Hajia Alimah said the youth are the most vulnerable to terrorist groups’ operations in the Sahel, which necessitates their inclusion in the fight.
The town hall meeting which was organized to help address the youth about the unprecedented level of violence in the Sahel regions brought together various stakeholders including security chiefs, players in the CSO, traditional and opinion leaders, as well as some religious leaders.
Superintendent Siekure A. Amatus, who represented the Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons Service and Chief Superintendent Mahamud Yussif, who also represented the Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, both took turns to make comments on the security of the country, as they noted some of the challenges their departments face which hinder their work.
Representing the traditional authority was the Chief of Choggu, who was accompanied by an entourage from his palace.
The leaders of the Ghana Muslims Association (GMSA) and the Catholic Youth Council (CYA) in the Northern Region also spoke, as they stressed the need for peace in the country.
In her closing remarks, the chairperson of the meeting, Hajia Alimah noted that peace and security are shared responsibilities of all citizens, therefore, the youth must be featured in it.
She however urged the youth to be extra cautious about terrorist operations in the region.
Joshua Amehi, the Coordinator of SPI Tamale Archdiocese and Chairman of the Tamale Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Council, facilitated for the demonstration of how peace building works, as he used the Spider Web Method to show that.
SWIDA – Gh is a strategic partner of Active Youth Global and Total Life Empowerment Centre on the project, Youth Against Drugs (YAD).
Executive Director for SWIDA – Gh, Hajia Alimah Sagito Saeed, spoke as a Chairperson and Ambassador to the YAD.
Hajia Alima on behalf of SWIDA – Gh, launched the YAD.
In partnership with the Song – Ba Empowerment Center in Tamale, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Gh), commemorated the World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022, with focus on the reusable pad to support the girl.
A total of one hundred female students of the Riyadh Soliheen Islamic JHS at Nakpanzoo went through training on how to make and maintain the reusable pads, as a means of effectively managing their menstrual hygiene.
Each of the students was given a reusable pad, which has the lasting capacity of three years. This pad will be washed after use and be reused, without any adverse health and hygiene effects.
The pad is made from local materials which have a guarantee of hygiene and health as well as safety assurances.
Through a short training video, the girls were shown how to manage their menstrual hygiene.
The event created a safe space for the girls to ask questions and share information on this essential subject.
In many homes in the rural areas of northern Ghana, it is considered as close to a taboo to raise or talk about issues of menstruation.
The theme for World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022, is “To create a world where no woman or girl is held back because she menstruates”.
Theme “Reproductive Health: a Measure of Equity and Human Rights”
Organized by Tiyumba Hope Foundation.
The northern regional Director for forestry was one of our facilitators for today’s training.
He explained the relevance of the Green Ghana Day and how afforestation helps in the fight against climate change and its devastating effects.
He tasked the women to see themselves as persons who have a key role to play in the climate fight.
Pictures:
swidagh.org