A delegation from Helen Project International Incorporated, a Non-Governmental Organization based in Charlottesville, USA on Monday, August 7, 2023 called on the Effutu Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Alhaji Zubairu Kassim as part of their visit to the Municipality to follow-up on a project of offering financial support to grandmothers in Effutu to start their businesses.
The visit is to allow the team assess the success or otherwise of the progrmme currently running in two African countries namely, Kenya and Winneba in Ghana.
Addressing the Municipal Chief Executive and his team, the Executive Director and Founder of Helen Project International Incorporated, Rev. Dr. Mrs. Dale Johnson, said that her organization which exist in the commonwealth of Virginia has as its mission to assist African grandmothers who are raising orphan grandchildren financially to be independent.
She noted that about 50 Grandmothers in Effutu have since the inception of the support facility, a micro- lending project, with no interest, benefitted to establish as well as expand their businesses to affect their lives positively.
According to her the grandmothers, some of whom are into businesses such as selling smoked fish, roasted plantain and peanuts, are being helped to properly take care of the children and orphans under their care to become useful citizens in the society.
She hinted that the team currently in Ghana will among other things hold a workshop to train the beneficiaries on the production of tire and dye fabric as well as how to go about the businesses to be self-dependent to take care of the children under their care.
The Effutu Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Alhaji Zubairu Kassim, on his part expressed the gratitude of the Effutu people to the Charlottesville Foundation in the USA for their continuous support to various sectors of the Effutu economy.
Recounting the support received in the various sectors of the local economy including health, education, and general infrastructure from the Charlottesville partners since the agreement to form the sister-city partnership in the 2010, Hon. Zubairu Kassim said that the financial support for grandmothers in Winneba is an indication that the partnership has deepened to touch lives of the less privileged in the Effutu Municipality.
He appealed to the beneficiaries to pay back the interest free loans on time to sustain the programme for others to benefit so as to touch many lives to augment Government’s drive at implementing programs aimed reducing poverty in the country.
STORY BY: CHARLES BAAH ABOAGYE -ISD
Last modified: August 8, 2023
