Over 40 young women entrepreneurs with disabilities have staged a peaceful march on the principal streets of Savelugu Municipality with a petition addressed to the Municipal Chief Executive to address urgent bottlenecks to their businesses and well-being.
The women took to the streets to draw attention to their plight after a mentoring workshop organized by the Starr Woman Dream Edition Project. The Starr Woman Dream Edition Project is an initiative of EIB Network’s flagship radio brand Starr FM to significantly rectify the profound disadvantages and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs with disability and to promote their participation in economic spheres.
The project led by Eyram Bashan, EIB Network’s Group Managing Editor earlier engaged the women in a mentoring workshop. Four key facilitators including renowned social entrepreneur Elizabeth Patterson [founder of Girl’s Education Initiative of Ghana], Blind Graduate Cosmetic Retailer Aishetu Abdullah and successful poultry farmer Ruka Yaro Limann engaged the women in disability experience sharing, overcoming various enterprise barriers, and running thriving businesses.
Other speakers at the mentoring clinic were the MCE Hajia Aishetu Seidu and Princess Selina Sirina Iddi, a women empowerment advocate and SME business development trainer. The Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Mr. Abukari Mohammed Shani Gaddafi also graced the event.
Participants were empowered and inspired to aim at the top and must not allow their physical appearance to limit them.
During the march, they wielded placards bearing their grievances and took to the streets seeking recognition within the community to end stigmatization, improvement of accessibility to funding, entrepreneurship support services and commercial trading enclaves, and regular disbursement of their share of the District Assemblies Common Fund among other needs.
The MCE Hajia Seidu, who met the group, expressed her unflinching support and commitment to address their concerns. She underscored the need for gendered and inclusive growth hence government’s dedication to empowering people with disabilities to benefit from state contract works through a quota system amongst other interventions. She pledged to quickly work on the prompt disbursement of DACF accordingly and advised the group to continue the pursuit of wealth despite their physical disabilities.
The Starr Woman Dream Edition Project is spearheaded by Starr 103.5 FM together with its sister networks under the EIB Network with grant sponsorship from STAR-Ghana. The project organized and facilitated the mentoring and peaceful march for the women entrepreneurs with disabilities to improve their inclusiveness in enterprise as a path to economic empowerment and promote general awareness about disability issues.
The mentoring clinic and public march were one of a two-day program in the Savelugu Municipality in the Northern region to advance the project’s goals.
Most of the participants were grateful for the events and commended the STARR WOMAN DREAM EDITION team for such an initiative. The Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Mr. Gaddafi intimated, “for the first time in the history of the disabled in the region, our voices have been projected.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
