A day’s training workshop has been held in Tamale to empower women to understand what unpaid care work is and how they can be efficient at investing in their economic activities for income.
It was also to improve women’s skills in engagement with household and family members to support in home level support to reduce and redistribute care work to save time for productive activities.
Participants were also introduced to the existing social protection initiatives and how they could take advantage of them to reduce their expenditures.
It was organised by the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency – Ghana (SWIDA-GH) as part of its Advocacy Actions for Women Economic Security and Justices in Agricultural Actions in Northern Ghana project, being implemented in the Northern Region with support from the African Women’s Development Fund.
Participants were drawn from different economic groups such as market women, shea butter processors, dressmakers among others from the Kumbungu, and Mion Districts, Savelugu, and Sagnarigu Municipalities and the Tamale Metropolis.
Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director, SWIDA-GH, speaking during the workshop, explained that while unpaid care work such as cooking, cleaning the home, taking care of children among other household chores had become mainly women’s responsibilities, some women used it as an excuse to not engage in any business activity.
Hajia Sagito-Saeed said “So, we want women to see unpaid care work as something that they can transform to work for themselves. If you are very good at cleaning, you can do it elsewhere also to make income. So, even the unpaid care work, you can be efficient and do that one in your house but still save time to use that skill to get money.”
She added that “So, the core issue is about seeing unpaid care work also as opportunity to save time to be efficient and be healthy because the more you save time, the more you use energy saving gadgets, you will be able to save time and be strong and transfer that into your economic activities.”
Madam Bushira Alhassan, Northern Regional Director, Department of Gender, who made a presentation on reducing workload on women to improve their productive activities, expressed need for promoting shared responsibilities within households to distribute the workload more evenly.
She also expressed need for integrating time-saving gadgets and tools such as washing machines amongst others to streamline household tasks and decrease the time spent on chores as well as establishing community-based initiatives to assist women in managing household duties through collective efforts.
Madam Elizabeth Kassan, an Officer from the Department of Social Welfare, Tamale Metro, explained the various social protection initiatives such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, National Health Insurance Scheme, Free Senior High School amongst others advising participants to take advantage of them to reduce their expenditures.
Madam Abdallah Adizatu, a participant from Shishegu in the Sagnarigu Municipality, who deals in beads, said she had learnt how to engage people around her to support her in household chores to save time to do other businesses.
She added that she had also learnt to buy items such as foodstuffs in bulk so as not to frequent the market for such purposes, and to then use the time for her business activities.
Madam Ayisha Mohammed, another participant, said she had learnt how to create space for her business and household chores, and seek support to ensure that she remained healthy and productive.
