RAINS

Livelihoods

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Improving Livelihood Options

35% of families in the Northern Region cannot afford to send their children to school. Primary school fees were abolished under the FCUBE, but there are hidden costs to sending a child to school, such as the cost of uniforms, shoes, books, pens/pencils as well as the loss of labour that children provide in more vulnerable households.

Since 2002 we have been attempting to implement various micro-credit schemes for over 200 vulnerable families who have school-age children. However, these schemes have had little success, and this has prompted RAINS to work with local government and businesses to establish the Borimanga Rural Bank. The bank provides access to credit to economically poor women.

Achievements since the start of this work include:

The establishment of the Borimanga Rural Bank is our greatest achievement in the area of livelihoods.
We have established six women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) that support 176 women.
With the support of the Canadian Feed the Children (CFTC) we have established demonstration farms for over 60 women in the Zosali community of the Northern Region.

It is estimated that 95% of rural women lack access to financial services and credit. Their access is hindered by the need to have collateral or guarantees in order to access a loan. However, women’s access to land and other natural resources is limited due to cultural barriers. Women have few options to improve their livelihoods and reduce their levels of poverty, especially as many are not literate (61%). Women also often lack the skills and resources to become self-employed, consequently they are economically poorer than men.

Recognizing that women are responsible for organising their child’s education, including finding the funds, we began in 2009 to establish SHGs in the two districts where we concentrate our efforts on basic education and child trafficking. So far we have set up 6 SHGs and have facilitated their training with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) for enterprise development. We have linked these groups to the Borimanga Rural Bank at Savelugu and the West Mamprusi Community Bank so they can obtain credit. The women are now undertaking various economic activities including farming, rice parboiling and petty trading. Such economic development is critical to reducing family level poverty as this is identified as one of the root causes of abusive fostering.

By 2013, RAINS plans to establish a further 10 women’s SHGs in communities where RAINS basic education work is concentrated, and will continue to support the 6 existing SHGs by ensuring they have access to NBSSI business advisory services. We will provide training to women’s SHGs in conflict resolution, group formation and governance, and give advice and support concerning the options that are provided by the government (LEAP, MASLOC).

The expected outcome from this work is that by 2013 vulnerable women have greater access to and will be using the various livelihood options provided by government.

[Our local allies in this work include district assemblies, traditional authorities, Ministry of Agriculture and rural banks. Other allies include donors such as Comic Relief, ILO/IPEC, CFTC, and other civil society organizations.

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