The Long Journey of The African Woman
“Poverty has a female face and the global economic downturn will have a significant impact on women as more of them lose jobs and are forced to manage shrinking household incomes,”Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for Africa Region (2009)
Poverty among African women is historic and well documented. Many development programmes and international conferences on women attest to this fact. For example, the 5th Regional Conferences on Women –The African Platform for Action, a prelude to The 4th World Conference on Women, The 6th African Conference on Women, as well as subsequent women-centred conferences such as the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategy, and the Abuja Declaration on Participatory Development: The role of Women in Africa have all guided recent governments’ policies on women issues. Women poverty reduction strategies, participation in decision-making and economic empowerment are some of the positive developments.
But despite these seemingly positive developments, the fact of the matter is that majority of African women, particularly those in the communities that we operate, are women who manage and resource the household finances. Many make ends meet through unrewarding subsistence farming and other toiling activities. Again, most of them are illiterate and, invariably, this translates to apathy towards their children’s education.
At Children of Potentials, we seek to empower and assist parents, especially women/single mothers, into gainful employment through our entrepreneurial projects. We are determined to fully support disadvantaged parents to contribute to and participate more effectively in their children’s education and socio-economic welfare.
In this regard, we have plans to set up cottage industries to offer employment and steady income to these parents. The recent economic hardship in many Western nations as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have seen development assistance equally affected. Without the support from individuals and organisations like you(rs), the cycle of poverty and lost hope will be perpetrated.
What can you do about this situation? You can be our partner in reaching our objectives. You can help reduce the burden on poor parents by sponsoring a child’s education –even if it is for a period, or donate to our entrepreneurial projects. Act Now!
Edward Amoah
