Garu (U/E), Jan 13, GNA - A total of 124 women in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region have for the past five years been equipped with skills in cloth weaving, batik, tie and dye and gardening. The women, both disabled and able-bodied persons, undergo 12 months and 18 months training respectively at the Garu Community-Based Rehabilitation Centre (GCBRC) and are assisted to acquire working equipment to start their own businesses.

The disabled are allowed to go home after one year training but continue to receive guidance from visiting trainers until they become perfect.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Garu during an interaction with some of the women, the out-going Director of the Centre, Mr Edward Dahamani, said the Centre takes an average of 20 young unemployed women for each training session, one-third of whom are disabled. He said the disabled receive free training and equipment for their work, while the able persons pay 450,000 cedis for their training. The women are also taught gardening and are assisted to cultivate plots of cabbage, onions, carrots and leafy vegetables.

Mr Dahamani said the disabled women are doing just as well as their able-bodied counterparts and are encouraged to go back to their communities and train other community members who were interested. The centre also helps female and male groups with micro credit to go into farming and petty trading through a revolving fund of over 100 million cedis.