By Samuel Ayammah
The Mobilization of Rural Entrepreneurial Women, popularly known as MORE Women has launched a Basket Weaving Project to provide entrepreneurship training and employment for vulnerable women, teenage mothers and the youth in three Communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.
The Communities include Kandiga, Mirigu and Nabango.
The project seeks to train selected members in straw basket weaving and management as a source of employment and income generation.
Our Upper East Regional Correspondent Samuel Ayammah reports that Basket weaving as an art and a vocation has been with the people of the Upper East Region particularly women; the reason they have become known as the Bolgatanga Baskets.
Basket weaving among women in rural Communities of the region is common, as it serves as a major source of income for households. The main raw material, the Veta vera straw, is harvested from grass stalk, and each piece split into two. It is then twisted tightly and rolled back together to give it strength and then dyed in boiling water for use.
Weaving starts at the base, and works up to the rim and wrapped to form a tube-like edge and finally, leather handles skillfully applied by local leather workers for the final consumer.
MORE Women is a social entrepreneurial basket producing company in Ghana that focuses on empowering and alleviating poverty among vulnerable women, teenage mothers and youth in rural communities.
Its goal is to empower and develop the entrepreneurial potentials of women and youth, and to equip them with the right skills to produce unique baskets for local and international markets.
The CEO of Mobilization of Rural Entrepreneurial Women, popularly known as MORE Women, Madam Celestina Azure, spoke with GBC News and explained that the project has brought relief to a lot of women.
Sales on the Upper East baskets are undoubtedly booming, in and out of Ghana, but weaving them is not without challenges.
Some basket traders advanced arguments as to why it is better for Ghanaians to use these baskets over polythene bags in their daily shopping.
In 2017, Ghana exported roughly $800,000 worth of baskets.
The Upper East exports baskets to key markets such as Australia, US, UK and New Zealand.
