Over 200 youth and women in the Kwapun and Zini communities of the Sissala East and Sissala West Districts, respectively, have received start-up tools to boost their livelihoods, aimed at promoting peace and social cohesion.
The beneficiaries received tools in over twenty livelihood areas, including baking, barbering and hairdressing, carpentry, electrical, tailoring, shea butter, cosmetics production and masonry, as well as birds and ruminants.
The project would also construct a solar-powered irrigation facility for some of the beneficiaries in the Kwapun community to enable them to engage in all-year-round vegetable production.
The beneficiaries, who are indigents, refugees, and asylum seekers in the two border communities, also received business development and financial management training and linkages to value chain actors to enable them to enhance their enterprises.
It was under the “Improving Economic Resilience of Host Communities for Peacebuilding in Northern Ghana (PERCH)” project implemented by Capacity Enhancement and Community Support (CAPECS Ghana) with funding from the U. S. Department of State through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Speaking at a ceremony at Kwapun to present the items, Mr Abu Dokuwie Alhassan, the Executive Director of CAPECS Ghana, said the beneficiaries were selected in collaboration with community leaders to ensure the intervention reached the targeted people.
He said the beneficiaries had been organised into Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) to enable them to access resources to support their businesses while promoting social cohesion.
“The VSLA is not just to raise capital for investment but also to create a platform where refugees, asylum seekers and indigenous people can network and live together in harmony,” Mr Alhassan explained.
He assured the people that CAPECS Ghana would continue to support the beneficiaries by linking them to markets within their communities and beyond.
The beneficiaries at Kwapun performed the Kassena and Moshi dances in expressing joy about the support, pledging to put the tools to good use to derive the expected benefits.
“I never imagined that I would ever get something like this in my life. So, I have promised to put these tools to good use.
I am so happy, and I will use them as my life business,” Madam Kutumi Sumaila, a 25-year-old beneficiary of soap-making tools, at Kwapun, said.
Apostle George Apasera, a representative of the Upper West Regional Peace Council, commended the CAPECS Ghana and its partners for investing in the economic resilience of the people for sustainable livelihoods.
He said that would promote social cohesion in border communities and help prevent vulnerable youth from being lured into violent extremism.
“When people have something to do, they are less likely to be enticed into violence. …it is an investment in your future and in peace along our borders,” Apostle Apasera noted.
Pio Kwabalugu Emmanuel Ali Badiyiga IV, the Chief of Kwapun, expressed gratitude to the benefactors for leveraging the influx of asylum seekers in the community to provide livelihood intervention.
Mr Adamu Yakubu Benin, the Sissala East Municipal Chief Executive, indicated that the intervention would help reduce poverty among the youth and women in the community.
He said it was in line with the government’s National Apprenticeship Programme and that the Assembly would support the beneficiaries to grow their businesses.
GNA
