Ghana Outlook supports the Livelihood Project in Upper West
The people of the Upper West are subsistence farmers, but the 8 month dry season means much of the year there can be no farming. Honey production, soap making and shea butter making are being taught to women groups in the area, by our local charity partners Coalition for Change, as a means of supplementing the meagre income. The Livelihood Project is supported by Ghana Outlook.
The Livelihood project, in Nimbare District, Upper West Region, is the ambitious brainchild of Coalition for Change (C4C) a Ghanaian charity operating from Wa in the Upper West and who have been Ghana Outlook’s partners there since 2014. The project is enables some 60 women to develop skills in self-employment fields such as shear butter making, soap making and bee keeping, thereby having productive activity during the long (eight months) dry season when there is no farming work to be done. The group is now also empowered with the required financial and business skills to make the project a lasting one. Surplus butter, soap and honey are sold at market, subject to transportation.
Another very important benefit of the Livelihood project is that it is an alternative to the current and prevalent practice of chopping down trees to make charcoal, a practice which is decimating the local bush and subsequently causes more land erosion and longer term reduction in rainfall. Ghana Outlook has committed £3,000 as initial funding for this project, which is a crucial part of the road to a permanent self-sufficient future.
