Most people in Ghana live off agriculture. However, due to climate change and depletion of natural resources, it is yielding less and less. Young people move to the city, but even there they can hardly find work. In search of a better future, every year thousands of young men embark on a perilous journey to Europe. SOS Children’s Villages’ GrEEn project is creating opportunities in Ghana to allow young people to want to stay and be able to build a healthier life for themselves and their community.
GrEEn stands for Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities. The project aims to address the causes of migration in Ghana through creating green jobs and supporting sustainable and climate-resilient local economies in the Ashanti and Western regions. Shaibu Fuseini works at SOS Ghana as coordinator of the GrEEn project. As a development professional, he has over a decade of experience in youth empowerment, agriculture, climate adaptation and poverty alleviation.
Encouraging green businesses
Youth unemployment is more acute than ever in Ghana. At the same time, agricultural yields are declining due to climate change. This makes the youth employment programme GrEEN more relevant to the local people in their community.
"The participants learn to devise sustainable solutions to the effects of climate change in rural areas. At the same time, we create jobs by encouraging the development of green businesses. Both activities reinforce each other, which makes this project unique."
Developing life skills
SOS Ghana maintains a strict selection process for new participants. Shaibu: “We want to make sure they are really motivated.” The programme starts with basic life skills and personal development training. “We find it important that participants get to know themselves better as well as think critically and out-of-the-box. They gain skills that will be useful throughout their lives, such as setting goals, dealing with conflict, negotiating, cooperating and handling money. This increases their chances in the labor market.”
Basic training is followed by a three-week boot camp on technical skills in sustainability and greening. “For example, it’s about how to make organic fertilisers and pesticides. I learned a lot from that myself,” Shaibu says. Finally, participants explore – under the guidance of experienced coaches – how they can contribute to greening within their own communities.
Hopeful results
“Our ultimate goal,” Shaibu says, “is for the participants to build self-confidence and self-esteem so that they dare to start their own green business or join a company.” Initial results make him hopeful. “Since its launch in 2021, more than a thousand participants have successfully completed the training. With the help of our coaches, four green entrepreneurs have now received grants to expand their businesses. And we see that local economies are indirectly boosted by our activities.”
Green entrepreneur with growth ambition
When Shaibu Yahaya heard about SOS Children’s Villages’ GrEEn youth employment programme, he immediately decided to participate. The young entrepreneur from Ejura wants to contribute to a better environment. With his company Shaibu natural mosquito repellent, he produces a mosquito spray based on herbs.
Shaibu: “Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in Ghana, but most insect repellents are also unhealthy because they contain harmful chemicals. That drove me to develop a remedy against malaria that is friendly to people and the environment.”
‘I gained more self-confidence’
Shaibu successfully completed the GrEEn training in December 2021: “Because of what I learned, my self-confidence has grown and I can communicate better with customers. That helps me present myself and my business to investors, which I hope will take my business to the next level.” Shaibu has learned to set himself realistic goals and keep accurate business records. He also has a better understanding of business operations and financial management.
Those skills will serve him well because Shaibu is ambitious: He wants to become the leading supplier of natural mosquito spray in his district. He now employs two people. His customers are mostly pharmacies, herbal stores and cosmetics stores. “Actually, I see all 70,000 inhabitants of Ejura as my target market,” he concludes enthusiastically.
