Women's Agency To Teach Pottery Skills

Tamale,(N/R) 4 June Women's Development Agency, a UK-based non- governmental organisation, is to embark on a programme aimed at imparting economic skills to women potters popularly known as 'kayayei' In an interview with GRi in Tamale today, Mrs Matilda A. Nantogmah, founder and director of the Agency, said an outreach centre was established in Accra last May to co-ordinate activities of women porters as well as other women who are living in distress. Mrs Nantogmah said a pilot project has been set up in Tamale to provide young girls and women who want to be potters with alternative skills such as textile designing and fashion, weaving, pottery, ceramics, and artefacts production. Others are bakery, confectionery and cosmetology using the local sheabutter. Explaining why the agency is targeting its resources to the relief of women porters, Mrs Nantogmah said ''the plight of women porters in the country is well documented and our main aim is to empower them with economic skills to enable them to find alternative jobs.'' She said this is especially important since the market is now saturated and many of them face the prospect of resorting to prostitution.