Provide An Empowering Workplace for Women in Ghana

Like many of our fair trade colleagues, we've had to pivot and make adjustments more than ever before. For example, though there is not a dedicated space for the weavers at the Fair Trade Zone (FTZ), they continue to produce high-quality, beautiful water hyacinth products, and more in the shaded walkways of the existing buildings.

In order to break ground on the outdoor shaded structure, we must meet our fundraising goal. As you may have noticed, we have a little over $23k to raise. We believe in the strength of community and thanks to your continued support, we are hopeful we will meet this goal. 

In fact, we’d love your help in spreading the word. If you'd be so kind, please consider telling your friends and family about our work—you can share this project link on social media, through your email network, or just simply bring us up in conversation. Sharing with your community will help us meet our goal and amplify the work we do in our community and beyond. 

Medaase Pa,
Team Global Mamas

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We are continuing to provide a safe and empowering workplace for women in Ghana at the Fair Trade Zone (FTZ) while working on completing the next few phases such as a covered outdoor space for weavers. This process has slowed due to the price increases of materials experienced all over Ghana. Because of this, productivity remains limited as the Mamas must reposition weaving looms to avoid working in the direct sun and rain. While we persevere in raising the much needed funds, the Mamas are pressing on to create high-quality, fair trade products for life and home. We are extremely grateful for your generous support. You ARE making a huge difference in the lives of more than 300 women.

Completing this next phase will allow us to create a space where women can strengthen themselves, their families, and their communities. We will be able to connect women in rural areas to international marketplaces to facilitate a more equitable distribution of resources that promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth. This in turn will ignite social change, breaking the cycle of poverty and gender inequality. As the Mamas become powerful role models, their children and their communities will flourish. We are so grateful to have you as part of our community. Stay tuned for more progress updates. 

Medaase,
Team Global Mamas

Links:

• Description of Fair Trade Zone
• About Global Mamas

After a decade of planning, development, fundraising, and construction along with the help from our support network, we have officially made the Fair Trade Zone (FTZ) our new home thus providing an empowering workplace for women in Ghana. The FTZ houses production spaces for batikers, weavers, papermakers, seamstresses, and bead assemblers. There are also spaces for quality control, administrative offices, and a large open-air area for meetings, lunch breaks, and even yoga. 

For this first phase, it was important that we create a holistic, ergonomic production space specifically for batikers, designed with direct input from the Mamas. 

We are excited to share that the batiking workspace is complete. It is divided into three (3) main sections, where batiking, dyeing, and dewaxing will be carried out. Both sides of the batiking area are equipped with shelves to store the numerous stamps and the dyes used in batiking. A few steps away from the batiking area, are the drying lines where the beautiful fabrics are hung to dry after dyeing or dewaxing. The custom-designed open-air workstations will minimize stress to the batiker's bodies while the bamboo pillars on either side cool the space and give the batikers some much-needed shade. 

We are thrilled to be in our new home and the batikers are ecstatic to have a new space. With the completion of the batiking area, Phase 1 of the Fair Trade Zone is now complete. Stay tuned for more news from the FTZ as we work to complete each phase. Thank you for your continued support.

Links:

• Fair Trade Zone Tour