Training 200 businesswomen in their own village in entrepreneurial skills that small businesses usually miss, and in technical skills like dress making, cloth- or basket-weaving to produce high quality products. In this way women can improve their product quality, sell better and grow their profit.

The project aims to stop the cycle of poverty, transferred from one generation to the other. Although women and girls in the rural areas are very enterprising and hardworking, the small businesses they run often don’t provide for more than a basic income. And often it is not sufficient to pay the bills that come with having their children to attend secondary or tertiary education, which results again in children dropping out from school and some even ending up on the streets. Underlying causes are that many small businesses cannot provide a certain level of quality, that would help to grow their market. And it’s difficult to invest in the quality or growth of their businesses without savings or access to credit.

That is why, RSS Foundation also plans to use radio shows, social gatherings, and social media to influence local government, public and private institutions to support women entrepreneurs. For instance, the COVID-funds to support small businesses that were made available by the government, hardly reached any women entrepreneurs. Public and private organisations can also support local businesswomen, by purchasing their goods, like hand-woven uniforms for students or workers.

Short-term, 200 businesswomen (16-55 years) increase the quality of dress making, cloth- or basket-weaving, and petty trading, learn skills to better market them, and increase their profits. At least 70% of them have formed cooperatives and adapted a savings plan.

To measure the increase of income, prior to the project, a baseline survey will be conducted on the incomes of the trainees and a similar survey after the intervention to see the rise in income.

Increased income and – in the longer run – access to credits will enable the recipients to save money for their children’s education (that is transport to school, uniform and other related costs).

Long-term, these children will attend secondary and tertiary schools. This is a powerful took to break the cycle of poverty; Global research shows that with each extra year in school, someone’s income and health increases.

The budget for the following activities is GHS 68,180 (or €9,581). The donation will be used for:

• A needs assessment to solicit the inputs of trainees into the content of the project, and the training of volunteer trainers. (April)
• Depending on needs assessment and pace of the trainees learning: several days of training within a 6-months period, that covers customer relations, bookkeeping, quality control, marketing and savings; and a quality training for the specific professions will be special refresher trainings to be led by experts in specialized training centres of the National Vocational Technical Institutes.
• The final 3 months of the training also involves coaching; Field officers will be visiting the business centres of recipients to provide onsite and hands-on advice and skills support.
• Advocacy activities on supporting local women entrepreneurs.
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• 5% to iMPACT direct for facilitating direct donations to local solutions (which helps to cover costs of the website, promotion and proposal writing, costs if financial services and the support to NGOs).

Costs thus include, trainers’ allowances, the use of training centre (including utilities such as water and electricity) or the transport costs to the National Vocational Technical Institutes, purchase of training materials and sample materials (like pieces of cloth, straw and yarns, sewing thread etc.), record keeping books for savings for recipients, and refreshments during training.

RSS Foundation’s own contribution consists of providing motorbikes for the monitoring of the project, and of time and efforts for free publicity.