100 unemployed women follow a 6-month training and practice in modern farming practices that can be sustained and managed by themselves. After training, the women will go and cultivate their farmlands, growing enough tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, onion, peppers, okra, garden eggs and other vegetables. Vegetables that are on high demands so that surplus is easy to sell for a good price. The newly trained farmers can rely on mentorship for a period of one year. The project will offer increased employment and food security to the region, which is important since Tain District – a predominantly agricultural community in the Bono Region – is one of the poorest areas where nearly half of the households are food insecure, and where over 23% of people are living below the national poverty line ($0.70 a day). It also has one of the lowest literacy rates, with 85% of the region being non-literate. Poverty, food insecurity and low literacy levels impact women and children more severely, since women have limited access to land and are vulnerable to discriminatory attitudes which can hinder their ability to negotiate crop sales and to coordinate production with local buyer demands. The future trainees, as the major stakeholders, are engaged in planning of the project. They will be trained in technical agricultural and business skills, such as crop production, storage, organic fertilizer measures, pesticide labels, network organisation and marketing. Ultimately, 95% of the revenue from the sale of vegetables is going to the women as start-up funding to be able to start their agribusinesses to enable them to live financial independent and self-sustainable lives. The remaining 5% will be kept for HCF to be able to start up new similar projects.

100 women small-scale farmers increase their crop yields and will increase their income by selling high quality ecological vegetables. The project will create long-term and sustainable change, by permanently improving household income, which will enable (on average) 500 family members to have an increased budget to spend on education, health care and nutritious foods.

It is expected that the trainees will start 100 businesses, that will generate employment for another 100 women in the communities. That again will benefit 500 more family member with an increased income, lifting them out of extreme poverty. In total 1100 women and family members benefit directly from the project. Moreover, trainees gain relevant knowledge and facilitation skills to effectively disseminate what they have learned to fellow farmers, for them to also increase yields and income. In addition, for the communities it means an overall impact in reducing the rate of unemployment, rural- urban migration and crime through the training of female farmers.

The budget for the following activities is GHS 47,368 (or €6,240). The donation will be used to:

• A 6-month training and practice in functional literacy skills, technical agricultural and business skills, such as crop production, storage, organic fertilizer measures, pesticide labels, network organisation and marketing. Costs include the purchase of training materials, hire an agronomist, training facilitators and farm equipment, like organic manure and organic vegetable seedlings.
• Monitoring & Evaluation: HCF interviews the trainees before the project starts, during the project (in month 3 and 5) and after the training (in month 10) to understand the impact of the training on the recipients. The major success of this training will be measured by the number of beneficiaries that successfully start and manage their own businesses in the district.
• 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).

  Own contributions of Heritage Charity Foundation include:

• Market research was already done in shopping malls, hospitality industries, restaurants, educational institutions, and food processing companies, to find out the demand for fresh organic vegetables.
• HCF shall organise the venue and develop the curriculum for the project.
• A mentorship for a period of one year after the training for all trainees.