WomensTrust

Dear Friends,

As WomensTrust begins its fifth year, we are delighted to report great strides in fulfilling our mission.  First, our microlending and economic empowerment model is thriving and we have introduced several vital new initiatives.  Second, our goal to inspire others to adopt their own villages has become a reality.

In January, we hosted our board member Marina Marrelli from San Diego, California, and officially began planning the new WomensTrust resource center in Pokuase.  This very important building, fully funded by Marina and her husband Bob Anslow and the partners of their firm GlobeFlex Capital L.P., will provide classroom space for skill building workshops and literacy classes, a library and evening study hall, a computer lab, and much needed office space for our staff and our rapidly growing operations. 

On this same trip we kicked off a new healthcare partnership, with the help of Linda Messenger of Newbury, New Hampshire, president of the N. H. Nurse Practitioners Association.  Linda spent several days with Pokuase’s district health officer Victoria to assess the most pressing needs and we are proud to announce that WomensTrust HealthShare is official, with much interest from our greater N.H. nursing community.  Linda will be returning in August to implement our first health initiative: screenings to detect hypertension in women of childbearing age to help combat the maternal mortality rate of 20 percent. 

This year WomensTrust has witnessed the launch of TWO microlending programs in towns contiguous to Pokuase through our new affiliate groups pictured below.  Both will use the WomensTrust model and our Pokuase staff will administer their loan programs.  In January, World Class founders Judy Willsey and Barbara Tsairis, Skidmore ’71, officially partnered with the town of Amasaman, just north of Pokuase.

World Class and friends shortly after arriving

And in March, we introduced Professors Harriet Stephenson and Chris Weber of Seattle University, and their colleagues Donna Mace and Cindy Butler to the town and women of Ofankor, just south of Pokuase.  We are thrilled to be fulfilling the “inspire others” portion of our mission with these two exceptionally committed and energetic teams.

The offical launch of Women's Center-Ofankor

In the last six months Team Pokuase has grown, with salaries for our staff completely covered by the interest of our loan program.  Evans Gyamfi our talented technical specialist and loan processor is now full-time, and Program Director Gertrude Ankrah and Chief Financial Officer Eric Ankrah continue to impress us with their commitment and proficiency.

Team Pokuase at headquarters - Evans, Gertrude and Eric

New to our team in January, thanks to a $3,000 grant from the One World Children’s Fund in San Francisco, is Abigail Mettle, pictured below.

Abigail is an experienced educator with a diploma in Basic Education from the University of Education in Winneba, Ghana, and will be the part-time administrator for our Keep-Girls-In-School program.  We have tremendous capacity in this program and our goal this year is to grow from 64 to 200 students.  Statistically in Ghana, only one in five girls will make it to the sixth grade, and we have observed this dwindling of girl students in Pokuase grade schools beyond the fourth grade.  Traditionally, girls are taken out of school to help care for their families and bring in additional income.  As a result, their expectations for an education are very low.  Abigail reports that the minute new candidates are accepted to our Keep-Girls-In-School program she observes a dramatic shift – they become totally energized by the promise of an academic future.

Meanwhile, our microlending program – now in its fourth year – has passed the 750-client mark and we are on track to reach 1,000 clients by August 2007.  To date, we have loaned over $100,000 to the women of Pokuase, with a greater than 90 percent repayment rate.  It is no surprise to us that we now have a group of women stepping forward with businesses that employ other women (and a few men) who are in need of access to more capital.  We met with this group – the newly formed EntrepreneursClub – and using our focus group discipline we came to an agreement that would allow these women to get loans up to $550 with no prepayment penalties.

One of our entrepreneurs, Comfort Owusu, received an initial loan of $55 for her porridge business in March 2006.  Each morning, Comfort would make 4 gallons of wheat porridge in a very large pan, hoist the heavy load onto her head, and walk the three miles from her home to Pokuase center and back selling the porridge as she went.  Her initial loan allowed her to purchase raw materials in bulk, and immediately increase her profit. 

Comfort selling porridge	New foundatio for the Fast Corner Chop Bar

A talented cook of more than porridge, Comfort assessed her neighborhood and found there were no prepared food businesses.  Over three four-month loan cycles, Comfort has gradually developed a small eating establishment outside her home with an al fresco dining area.  She employs two part-time cooks and has broken ground for her new restaurant, the Fast Corner Chop Bar.  In nearby pens she is raising chickens and goats in anticipation of its summer opening.  We are looking forward to a meal at the Fast Corner in August!

While we continue to gather impact assessment data on our loan applications, we are beginning to get anecdotal information from people in Pokuase that reinforces what we believed from the beginning – that the WomensTrust loan program has the potential to transform a village in profound ways.  The local District Assemblyman reported to Gertrude last fall that access to WomensTrust loans was definitely contributing to the largest number of young entrepreneurial women with new businesses in Pokuase as he could ever remember seeing.

Our New Healthshare partnership - Victoria and Linda

Additionally, Pokuase’s district health officer Victoria told Linda that “wife beating” was markedly down from past years, and attributed the decrease to the WomensTrust loan program.  She explained that women don’t need to press their husbands (many of whom are struggling with lack of employment opportunities) for money anymore because of their access to loan capital and their own business profits.

This summer is shaping up to carry us even further.  We will have a number of interns and volunteers in Pokuase gathering data for a community assessment project, working with our staff to process loans and analyze our data, shadowing the community nurse and preparing for the WomensTrust HealthShare screenings scheduled for August, and the launch of a pilot small business development class.  Our new affiliates – World Class and Women’s Center-Ofankor – will be visiting again, building and expanding their partnerships and experiencing first-hand the impact of their loan programs in the nearby towns.

With your help, WomensTrust is having an impact we frankly could not have anticipated when this venture was launched five years ago.  Dana and I make it very clear to all our constituencies in Ghana – especially during our semiannual meetings with our loan clients – that we are just two representatives of a very large group of caring individuals who make the WomensTrust programs possible.

January 2007 - Women's Trust client meeting

We thank you all and look forward to your continued support as we move forward with this important work. 

With warmest regards,

Susan Kraeger
Executive Director
WomensTrust, Inc.
P. O. Box 15
Wilmot, NH 03287
603 526-4366
501(c)(3)