Linda Asantewa is a living example of how The Hunger Project’s work is impacting the lives of village women, especially, and empowering them to play key leadership roles in their communities. Linda is 52 years old and a single mother of three daughters. She is a secondary school graduate and currently an animator for the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP) and in HIV/AIDS as well as an Adult Literacy Facilitator in the Nkawanda Epicenter in Ghana.
According to Linda, before her training as a WEP animator in 2004 she was very shy and could hardly speak in public. However, as a result of her participation The Hunger Project’s training programs in WEP, HIV/AIDS and Adult Literacy Facilitation, Linda is now able to go around to communities in her epicenter to educate them on issues relating to gender and HIV/AIDS. While working as an animator to change people’s lives, Linda’s own life has been transformed tremendously through her association with The Hunger Project-Ghana. Linda presently holds many leadership positions, including: Chairperson of the Epicenter Loan Committee; Secretary of the Village Unit Committee; Secretary of the Community Water and Sanitation Committee and the Women Organizer of the ruling National Patriotic Party in her community.
Linda was supported by The Hunger Project to undertake skills training in soap and cosmetics production after which she helped to train women groups in other regions. She supplements her income from the sale of secondhand clothes with that from soap making. She said, educating her children was not previously her priority and as a result her first two daughters dropped out of school “but now I have learnt a lot from The Hunger Project, especially through the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop and I will do everything possible to give good education to my last daughter.” Linda said she used to live in a rented house but has been able to put up a two-bedroom house from her own resources.
