Women groups in Northern Region enter export market

Tamale (Northern Region) 27 Jan. '99

Three women's income generating groups in the Savelugu-Nanton and Gushegu-Karaga Districts have ventured into the export market with the sale of four-and-a-half tonnes of sheabutter last year to Body Shop Company, a United Kingdom cosmetic firm. The groups operate under the non-traditional Export Programme of the Department of Community Development. They are part of 141 similar groups established at the initiative of the department which links them to credit agencies for financial support. The department also trained them in home management techniques. In a six-page annual evaluation report for 1998, a copy of which was released in Tamale today, the department said 92 other women groups have been organised in 66 communities under the department's women's empowerment programme. The groups are engaged in farming, gari and sheabutter processing, cotton spinning, soap production and agro-forestry, mainly for the local The report said the department has assisted a number of communities in the East Mamprusi, Yendi, Nanumba, West Gonja, East Gonja and Zabzugu-Tatale Districts to form water committees to manage water pumps installed by the Northern Region Rural Integrated Programme and the Church of Christ. It also educated rural communities on the disastrous effects of environmental degradation and other anti-social practices, through its study groups. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Electoral Commission, the department undertook public education campaigns on poliomyelitis, cerebro-spinal meningitis (CSM) as well as the unit committee elections.