Exhibition held to showcase women's economic activities

Published in the Daily Graphic on 30/01/10, pg 11

Story: Matilda Attram
The Greater Accra Regional Secretariat of the National Population Council in collaboration with the regional office of the Department of Women, has organised an exhibition in Accra to showcase the handiwork of women’s economic activities.
Items exhibited included locally made beads, door mats, head gear, batik, and tie-dye.
The exhibition, organised in line with the theme of the 2009 World Population Day celebration, ‘Responding to the economic crises: Investing in women is a smart choice’, was to boost the capacity of women in economic activities, as well as encourage others who lacked job opportunities to engage themselves in activities that would enable them to support their families.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Greater Accra Regional Population Officer, Mrs Ellen Osei-Tutu, said it was important to empower women economically to reduce their dependency on their male partners for survival.
She said women were economic agents who could plough back their earnings in supporting their male partners to develop their families and the nation.
Mrs Osei-Tutu stated that women through the allocation of resources were able to raise healthier and better educated children to build an efficient labour force for the country, stressing that women allocated more resources to nutrition, education and the health of their children than men and that earned them respect.
“Women who are economically empowered are respected by their husbands and partners because they also contribute to the family’s welfare,” she stated.
She pointed out that there was the need for women to ensure that their daughters were given maximum education beyond the basic level to equip them with the skills needed to face the challenges of the future.
Mrs Osei-Tutu also advised exhibitors and women present to obtain services and information on reproductive issues such as family planning and maternal health, adding, “Pregnancy takes a very heavy toll on women’s health and resources and this has been a major challenge facing us in our economic activities”.
In a welcoming address, the Assistant Greater Accra Regional Population Officer, Nana Ama Obuobi-Donkor, indicated that women and girls suffered disproportionally in relation to men and boys, in times of crises.
She said according to the World Bank, such cases could lead to increase in infant and maternal deaths, female dropout rates and violence against women and reverse progress in women’s empowerment in relation to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
She said there was the need for decision makers to protect women’s ability to earn income, keep their daughters in school, and obtain reproductive health information and services, which were the factors that made or break a family’s future.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Women, Madam Comfort Ablomati, who chaired the occasion, challenged women to focus on their activities and learn to manage the affairs of their businesses.