The Youth Challenge International (YCI) and Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) have trained 26 females on social entrepreneurship programs, dubbed HerStart. The training, which lasted for 8 weeks, is to enable the women find businesses and solutions to economic and environmental problems in their communities.
At the graduation ceremony, which was held on Monday, 26 September, 2022, at the Bolgatanga Technical University, Prof. Daniel A. Ayoung welcomed staff of YCI and BTU and the
graduands, on behalf of the Vice Chancellor. Prof. Ayoung noted that BTU’s collaboration with YCI was one of the ways to help deal with female unemployment and the gender divide. He also encouraged the ladies to apply the knowledge, skills and expertise acquired to further develop themselves.
The Country Project Lead for YCI, Mr. Esmond Wisdom Quansah said that YCI has been in Ghana for the past 20 years and supporting young people. Its new program, HerStart, is one of the programs resulting from their experiences in Ghana. He explained that the HerStart program is an initiative to provide and build the capacity of young women in social entrepreneurship in order to sustain their livelihoods and to bridge the gender divide. He added that the HerStart initiative was being implemented in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.
According to him, Global Affairs, which is supported by the Canadian Government funded the training of the 26 young women through YCI. He added that YCI is expected to further train about 3000 young women. It also has a grant up to 5000 US Dollars for trainees with promising ideas on solving problems within their communities.
He said, “The HerStart program includes training and support for aspiring entrepreneurs and aims to engage about 10,000 young females in the 3 countries to participate in the design and development of innovative solutions to the challenges in their communities”. “It also targets key areas such as gender equality, environment and climate change, human rights and inclusion”, he added.