Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Sanatu Zambang
15Th October is a day set aside by the United Nations to mark International Rural Women’s Day. The day is to acknowledge the important role and contribution of women to their society.
To mark this day in Tamale, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency ( Swida-gh) organized a mini durbar at Nakpanzoo, a community under Tamale Metro, bringing women from the communities that, they are working in within the Tamale Metro and Sagnarigu municipality to improve their socio-economic- and livelihood.
The theme for this year’s celebration is building rural women resilience in the wake of Covid-19. In the spirit of the theme, Swida-Gh took the opportunity to launch the Climate Change Justice Solutions in Agric Project with funding support from Global fund for women.
In attendance of the mini durbur saw the presence of women farmers from selected communities within Tamale Metro & Sagnarigu areas, women leaders (Magazias), traditional authorities, members of the Assembly, as well as representatives from the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and Women in Agric Development (WIAD).
The Dagbon Toomtooni Naa, Hajia Saratu Alhassan admonished women to practice all the safety protocols on Covid-19 and also added that, they should not let any political party use their children to perpetuate violence in the upcoming elections. She bemoans how politicians use the have nots in our society to perpetuate violence for their selfish again and after winning the power, they neglect these people who helped them come into power. She called on the women to take care of their children well being and also attached on personal and environmental hygiene.
- Sometimes you need the political tag to operationalize your ideas- Mrs. Hajia Halima
- Hajia Alima Sagito – A Life of Service to the Nation
- Women-lead project launched in Tamale by Swida-Gh
The executive director for Swida Ghana, Hajia Halima Saeed Sagito called on the women to learn how to save the little money they make from every season to finance their business instead of going in for loans from financial institutions that charges them high interest rate. According to her, this system does not help them to grow their business but rather cripple them and they end up working to pay people.
With regards to the theme in relation to the impact of the pandemic on women, this is what Hajia Halima had to say
“We know that climate change is real and we cannot deny that because it is affecting us negatively especially on agriculture – the rain pattern is changing, soil fertility issues, so what solutions that we need to bring on board to ensure that the rural woman can be resilient and that is what we are going to do”.
Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed
She also added that, with support from the Global fund for women will be supporting women to enhance the gains they make from agriculture through the best practices how they can add value to their products.
The women also made known their situation by appealing to Swidagh to help them. While some women also advise their fellow women to learn to provide for their kids should their fathers refused.
