Fish mongers receive vocational equipment to promote livelihood diversification
Thirty fish mongers within the Shama district of the Western Region on Tuesday received vocational equipment from “Hen Mpoano Initiative”, (HMI) a Takoradi based environmental NGO to go into dressmaking and hairdressing.
The six months vocational training would enable the fish mongers who would be trained by the Opportunities Industrialization Centre to diversify their fishing business to earn income to supplement their livelihood.
Mr. Steven Kankam, the programmes Director of HMI stated that the gesture aims at eradicating poverty in the fishing communities and also avert the communities from depending solely on the fishing industry.
Mr. Enoch Kojo Appiah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shama noted that the fishing industry was at the verge of collapsing due to the use of destructive and unsustainable fishing practices by fishers.
“This clearly shows that without reforms in the way our fish and fisheries are managed, the future of the services derived from fish and fisheries are by no means assured”, he added.
The DCE said in an attempt to better manage “our fisheries, both fisheries authorities and resource users must work together to identify the challenge and come up with a common vision and develop action plans to achieve the vision.”
According to him the initiative by the HMI was a step to curb the high dependency on the fishing industry and also to promote alternative livelihood for fishing communities.
Ms Beauty Agbenyegah, secretary to the fishmongers association was thankful to the organization for the assistance saying the support would go a long way to economically empower women in the area.
Source: GNA