The OR Foundation has received praise from the Hon. Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, the Mayor of Accra, for its commitment to empowering women, especially female head porters, or “kayayei,” through creative skills training programs that turn waste textiles into useful goods.
She claims that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA) goal of enhancing urban sanitation and uplifting neglected populations via skill development and capacity-building programs is in line with the Foundation’s work.
During her working visit to the OR Foundation’s Accra office and manufacturing site, the mayor praised the organization.
“The OR Foundation is making a significant impact in the lives of these women by providing them with essential skills that can empower them economically and socially as well as improving sanitation. This is exactly the kind of intervention we need in Accra to support vulnerable populations and ensure sustainable development,” she stated.
She expressed concerns over the low quality of second-hand clothes brought to Ghana stressing developing countries like Ghana deserve good quality and wearable clothing,” she said.
“There isn’t efficient regulation of what is shipped to us…The traders have no choice but to throw the waste garments away, which adds to the overflowing landfill sites… We must all support this campaign and sign the petition to compel these countries to stop importing unwearable clothing to Ghana,” she added.
“We will continue to work closely with organizations like the OR Foundation to ensure that our collective efforts contribute to the overall development of Accra. These women deserve every opportunity to succeed, and we will do everything in our power to help them,” Hon. Sackey noted.
The Mayor saw the many training programs provided by the OR Foundation, such as fashion design, tailoring, and other vocational skills, while touring the industrial hub.
She spoke with a few of the trainees, and many of them conveyed their appreciation to the foundation for giving them the chance to acquire useful skills that would help them improve their own and their families’ quality of life.
The OR Foundation’s co-founder, Branson Skinner, discussed the continuous initiatives to manage textile waste in Accra and revealed that the organization has restored a vehicle to pick up tons of textile waste from marketplaces every day.
“Right now, we are paired with one truck, working alongside the AMA to fill it with textile waste and prevent it from reaching the lagoon,” he said.
He outlined the initiative’s more general objectives, saying that in addition to moving the trash to a landfill, they also hope to eventually turn it into something useful.
Skinner stressed that the Foundation’s goal is to remove trash that is already in the lagoon and in beachfront areas, as this could have a negative effect on the ecosystem.
“We can clean the water, make it swimmable, and healthier for the fish. Even a small amount of pollution can have severe consequences, affecting the fish and children who swim in the area,” he said.
In his explanation of the OR Foundation’s activities, Skinner said that the center’s primary objectives are waste management, research, and the creation of goods from textile waste. The center is situated behind Kantamanto Market, next to Galloway Metal Market.
According to him, the facility is an essential point of contact for preventing market garbage from entering the Korle Lagoon.
He revealed that the Foundation has 55 full-time employees and assists over 200 people through its training program. He also mentioned that roughly 85 people participated in the teams that cleaned up the beaches and collected textiles.
Source: newsthemegh.com