The Jedidiah Trust Blog

Whenever we visit a district it never ceases to amaze us the amount of young women sitting around doing nothing. Their story is almost always the same the either did not finish secondary school or did and had no other idea what else they could do with their future. With The Jedidiah Trust women development at all levels is very important to us; That is why we are launched The Arise Youth Training Program® . We are going further, we are now launching our Target Girls Programme® . This programme puts one girl through vocational training in every district we train. Through this programme we also set her up in business after the training is completed. The Target Girls Programme will be launched on the 6th May 2011 during our official fundraising and launch party. There are so many ways you can can help The jedidiah Trust send us an email on thejedidiahtrustgh@gmail.com or call our project coordinator Maame on +233268111736.

We at The Jedidiah Trust are going to reprint a series of notable articles on our microfinance  and Susu to let our friends know how important and essential this aspect of our NGO is we will also be launching our pilot scheme in the Adansi North District in December so watch out for pictures. Thank you and enjoy the article. Susu Collection – The Ancient Version of Micro-Savings microfinance in ghana  by Fehmeen Ahmed, the founder of the  Microfinance Hub  Blog. The term  Bottom of the Pyramid  should be synonymous to the word ‘resourcefulness’ because of all population segments, this group cannot afford to be otherwise. Low income groups are compelled by the paucity of assets and limited access to financial services to create viable solutions that serve their needs. An example of such ingenuity is the ‘susu collection’ service which is an ancient banking system in Ghana,  worth USD 160 million . The model resembles  microfinance  in several ways; susu collectors (equivalent of loan of

When we started The Jedidiah Trust it became clear to us very quickly that we couldn’t just teach the women about business without providing the avenue for saving and the provision of microcredit. This is why we started a branch of the NGO the Jedidiah Susu savings and Microcredit that will deal with just that. We get a lot of questions about this aspect of our work. Questions like does Microfinance really help? Are you sure this little amount can change lives? Luckily I found this article By Gbenga Ogunbufunmi ,Asst. Business Editor, Daily Independent Online that best describes the most powerful illustration of the impact of microcredit or microfinance banking by the man who started it all Dr. Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank. Microfinance banking (MfB) started as a concept to provide financial services to the world poor, those who by circumstances of not being rich are excluded from access to the conventional commercial banks and other financial institutions due to lack of collat

The Jedidiah Trust had small business management training with the theme: financial empowerment of women through proper business practice in Adansi North District (Fomena). The team had been excited about this training for months because of the positive vibes we got from the people we met when arranging this training. We felt it was very timely and very much need The Adansi North District is one of the 28 newly created districts in Ghana. It is one of the 27 Administrative districts in Ashanti Region.. It has its capital at Fomena situated on the Kumasi – Cape Coast main road. The district has 35 electoral areas and two constituencies (Fomena and Asokwa). The District has seven area councils i.e. Akrokerri, Anhwiaso, Asokwa, Bodwesango, Dompoase, Fomena and Fumso area Councils. There are 94 communities in the district. We had women from all these communities at the training. Most of the participants were petty traders and farmers. We had seamstress and hair dressers in attendance. We

Before the conference I have always told the women that I train that you can never stop learning and that is what we are doing today. The Jedidiah Trust will be attending the first ever all NGO women directors and leaders networking conference organsised by The Ark Foundation; an NGO that champions women law and human rights. The conference is aimed at making us all come together and partner strategically to ensure that all our effort and resources are channeled to development projects that will spur economic growth, reduce poverty, eliminate abuse and positively impact on the entire citizenry, particularly women and children (got that off the conference notes). It was good to be in the learning seat for the first time in a long time.  I am very excited. After the conference The Ark foundation first women NGO directors’ conference was a phenomenal success. There were female directors from all over the country. It was amazing the breadth of social issues covered by these NGOs and I

Whenever women come into our office for help and advice they always complain that the wish they had knew sooner how to plan and formulate strategies for their future, they keep telling us that if they had know better or had been told they would not be in the position they are now. So we at The Jedidiah Trust came together to form a group that will ‘catch them young’ .When we go to the districts to train women on entrepreneurship, micro finance, good business practice and business expansion. Another group visits the secondary schools to run a special presentation to the girls. We call it The Arise Youth Training Program©. The program is specially designed to motivate these girls and help them plan, visualize and strategize for their future. The first Arise Youth Training Program© was at the T. I. Ahmadiya Secondary school in Fomena- Adansi North District in the Ashanti Region. It was an exhilarating experience the girls were very enthusiastic and interactive. We also had a good frien

My name is Maame Dentaa Amoo for years I have felt it my calling to do something to help the less privileged in society. Trust me I do not exaggerate when I say calling I am the kid who always cried when I heard ‘Man in the mirror’ or ‘heal the world’ by Michael Jackson but I felt it a great burden so I ran away from it. Have you ever heard the saying that many at times a man meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it? That is me! Years of running and I find myself back in my country, Ghana doing what I was destined to do training women in business and entrepreneurship, focusing especially on women in the deprived areas and loving every minute of it. The Name of my NGO is THE JEDIDIAH TRUST FOUNDATION. It comes from the first name the prophet Nathan gave Solomon and it means ‘beloved of God’. I love that the name is associated with wisdom and its meaning is so important because I want the women we meet to know that they are special beloved of God and not abandoned. I always q