Daasgift Quality Foundation (DQF), an NGO based in Takoradi, Ghana, is currently participating in GlobalGiving’s Open Challenge. For this challenge, organizations are asked to raise at least $4,000 from at least 50 individual donors over 24 days. Every organization that succeeds will be given a permanent place on Global Giving’s website. Top fundraising organizations will also be eligible for cash bonuses.

GlobalGiving is opening up its network of donors and corporate partners in an effort to support non-profits like DQF that are providing much needed support to their local communities throughout the economic downturn. Its website, www.globalgiving.org, is an internationally recognized marketplace for philanthropy that connects individual donors to the causes they care most about.

DQF is most actively trying to raise money for a palm kernel oil production community that employs over 50 women in Kojokrom, just outside of Takoradi. The community’s milling machine recently broke, which is essential for cracking and milling palm kernels. The women now have to walk an hour each way to use a milling machine at two different points in the palm kernel oil production process while carrying heavy loads on their heads.

Due to the increase in production time caused by the broken machine as well as the decrease in production value, the community now operates at a $350 loss each month instead of a $550 profit. This loss of revenue has made it difficult for the women to support their families and, more pressingly, pay their children’s school fees.

We need a repaired machine for work so that we can expand business,” said Fati Amed, the chairlady of the Kojokrom Palm Kernel Association. “If we do not have to carry the palm kernels to a different site, more people can stay on site and we can produce more. “

To support this project or to get more information, please go to http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-over-50-ghanaian-women-run-a-small-business/ and donate by December 22nd. Any funds raised beyond the cost of repairing the machine will be used to build a well in the same community or to support DQF’s other microfinance and clean energy programs in the region.

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About Daasgift Quality Foundation:

Daasgift Quality Foundation is microfinance NGO that aims to empower poor women and youth in Ghana’s Western Region. Its primary projects include giving small loans to small local businesses, training entrepreneurs in business skills, providing clean and alternative energy sources to off-grid communities, and training clients in good health care practices. To find out more, please visit www.daasgift.org.