Girls Launch Income-Generating Activities in Ghana

As the first of more than 3,000 girls in northern Ghana graduated from World Education’s Strategic Approaches to Girls’ Education (STAGE) project, the local press took note. 554 young women from 23 communities in Nanumba South and Kpandai Districts, some of whom have disabilities and all of whom live in poverty, participate in the STAGE program because they are out of school and highly vulnerable to early marriage and pregnancy. 

The graduates had trained with craft persons skilled in trades such as in kente weaving, hair dressing, catering, beadmaking, and soap making, and received kits to start a business. The girls also learned about financial literacy and how to manage cooperatives and market products. The start-up kits, tailored to the girls’ chosen professions, included materials like combs, scissors, hair extensions, beads, needles, pliers, chemicals for making soap, and cutting boards. Each graduate received seed funding to launch a business in her community. 

The article in the Atlantic Federation of African Press Agencies, RAINS supports about 554 girls with start-up kits, cash, reported that “The items and cash were received amidst joy, excitement, and gratitude from the girls, their family members, and other community members.”

The STAGE project began in 2018 to reduce girls’ barriers to education by providing formal and nonformal education tracks. The initiative operates in seven regions of Ghana, specifically targeting districts and communities where high levels of extreme poverty and deep-seated traditional and social norms harm women and girls. STAGE works to keep more than 17,200 out-of-school girls safe and engaged in learning.