OUR CHARITY PROJECT
When fashion meets the women's future
The idea arises from a meeting among women: women supporting other women. From different continents. Of different backgrounds. However women.
It was enough to meet in Bologna Antonella Sinopoli: just an exchange of ideas and experiences and our collaboration began to take shape. Journalist, editor of Global Voices, an online magazine dealing with human rights, Africa, culture and digital information, Antonella lives between Ghana and Italy. She is also a co-founder and the director of the Italian section of Ashanti Development, a British charity founded for the development of villages in the Ashanti region in Ghana.Thanks to the story of her work, Korai, our company, chose to support one of its projects in particular: Yendaakye.
(documentary by Antonella Sinopoli)
MICROCREDIT: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
HOW THE PROJECT RAISED
In the '80s the Districts of Sekyere Central and Mampong in Ghana were still quite prosperous. The inhabitants led a life of dignity thanks to the profits of the cultivation of cocoa and, even though most of them could afford to drink only water collected from the streams, it was not polluted as today. Since then, however, the Sahara desert has spread southwards as well as poverty. In the villages, especially the most remote ones, people lack drinking water, toilets and basic knowledge of health and hygiene. Village communities are often severely malnourished and three children in ten die under two years of age. In these rural villages, women have little or no chance of making money: the activities of their communities - agriculture and trade - hardly guarantee the existence and, in difficult situations, women are forced to leave home and prostitution. If they return to their own villages also they bring AIDS.
YENDAAKYE - OUR FUTURE
The women's micro-credit program of Ashanti Development was started in 2009 by a group of experts who have studied at the school of the economist Mohammed Yunus and set similar programs in many parts of Africa. When the women participants in the first microcredit program were asked to choose a name for their project, they decided to call it Yendaakye, that in the Ashanti language means "Our Future".
Yendaakye supports women who do not have jobs for launching small businesses, usually in the areas of trade and agriculture. Some women cook and sell fast foods like kenkey (fermented corn) to those who go to school or work, sew clothes, and smoke and sell dried fish; other buy goods such as flip flops or kitchen utensils in the city markets and sell them in the villages; others have access to small lots of land and the money awarded allows them buying tools, tubers of good quality, seeds and fertilizers. Through Yendaakye, groups of women admitted to credit are also educated on the basic principles of math and budgeting from a tutor who, during weekly meetings, helps them to develop their ideas and business plans. Women are involved in decisions such as how much money to borrow at the rate of reimbursement. The money refunded goes back to the loan fund and is then reused to support similar programs for other women.
Ashanti Development Italia aims at encouraging the development of villages in the Ashanti Region in Ghana. All activities are carried out in agreement and collaboration with local communities. ADI is an ONG. It is supported by the efforts of volunteers, the funds of donors and the work done by the villagers. Ashanti Development Italia follows a similar experience already gained by the organization registered as a Charity in England and Wales (http://ashantide.org/).
Follow Antonella on www.vociglobali.it and www.ghanaway.net
Follow Korai on www.korai.it