By Philip Tengzu, GNA
Chogsia, (UW/R), May 15, GNA – The Innovation for Sustainable Rural Development (ISRuDev), an NGO, has celebrated mothers in the Forest and Farm sector in the Wa West District for their roles in maintaining and caring for their families.
The celebration was on the theme: “Mothers’ Participation in Agriculture and Health Education: The Role of Mothers in Our Homes”.
It was also to expose the mothers to some social and agricultural interventions by the government and how they could take advantage of those interventions to improve their livelihoods.
At the event at Chogsia, a community in the Wa West District, Mr Maxwell Kpetaa Maal-Eng, the Business Development Officer of ISRuDev, said mothers played very important roles in caring for their families and needed to be celebrated.
He said they must also be empowered economically and health-wise to enable them to care for their children and husbands.
As part of its economic empowerment for the women, the NGO had established a garden with mechanised borehole for 80 women beneficiaries of its Forest and Farm project dubbed: “Enhancing Resilience and Sustainability of Women Producer Groups in the Forest and Farm Sector.”
The project funded by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sought to empower about 1000 women and youth in the Wa West District.
Mr Maal-Eng announced that the organisation was considering soybeans threshers for the women to enable them venture into the viable soybeans production sector for their economic turn-over.
Madam Benedict Naab, the Wa Municipal Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD) Officer, acknowledged that women played critical roles on their husbands’ farms from planting to harvesting and thus needed to be supported to take up the opportunities in the agricultural sector.
She encouraged the women to form cooperatives to enable them to get the necessary support from the Department as donors were not interested in supporting individual women farmers.
Madam Naab also educated the women on good farming practices and how they could maximise their farm produce such as soybeans to improve their income and nutritional status.
Madam Genevieve Yuoni, a Midwife at the Chogsia Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), educated the women on breast cancer and how they could prevent being infected by it.
She encouraged them to regularly visit the health facility to examine their breasts or to do self-examination for early detection and treatment of the disease.
Madam Yuoni urged the women to report to the health facility when they detected unusual lamps in or discharge from their breasts as those were symptoms of breast cancer.
On his part, Mr Vitus Sey Pele, the Wa West District Social Welfare Officer, took the women through some interventions at his department including the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP and how they could benefit from them.
The women expressed gratitude to ISRuDev for the education as that was an eye opener to them and would enable them benefit from the available interventions.
Madam Gifty Tuonzuinyelle, a beneficiary from Tendoma community, appealed to the NGO to engage their husbands on the need for them to support women, including releasing parcels of productive lands for them to cultivate.
The women also appealed for improved and early maturing seeds as well as early tractor services to enable them benefit from their farming activities.
Difficulty in accessing safe and clean water at the communities was a major challenge the women raised and appealed to ISRuDev and other kind-hearted organisations and individuals to come to their aid by providing them with sources of potable water.
The women were drawn from 12 communities, including the Tendoma, Chogsia, Gbaalwob, Talawonchelle and Meteo communities among others to participate in the Mother’s Day celebration.
GNA