In a city with few opportunities for formal employment and volatile economic conditions, the BOHF Skills Training Program is designed to help unemployed young adults and single mothers defend themselves, their families, and their communities against poverty by equipping program participants with knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to establish financial independence through self-employment. When individuals have dependable income, they can keep roofs over their heads, afford to send their children to school, provide themselves and their families with regular and well-balanced meals, and maintain bodily health and wellness.

BOHF personnel recruit qualified individuals from select communities in Accra to enroll in one of several tuition-free vocational training courses available in the Skills Training Program. Available courses may include beading and jewelry making, floral arrangement and special event décor, baking, catering, barbering, automotive repair, shoe making and shoe repair, make-up and hairstyling, and soap-making, among other options. In addition to teaching program participants a specific trade and craft, the Skills Training Program also provides basic instructions in entrepreneurship and managing finances. Upon course completion, Skills Training graduates will have the know-how to produce their selected products in cost-effective ways and sell them profitably.

Sometimes learning profitable skills, however, may not be enough to kick-start gainful self-employment. Upon program completion, graduates may lack the capital to purchase raw supplies, tools, permits, and other resources necessary for establishing themselves as a new entrepreneur. With the help of local businesses, BOHF members, donors, and cherished supporters like you, BOHF works hard to supply its program graduates with material start-up assistance.

Although our Skills Training Program’s primary goal is to help unemployed and underemployed individuals in Accra establish financial stability through gainful self-employment, the program positively impacts Accra’s communities in several additional ways.

By participating in the Skills Training Program, our graduates also gain a valuable social network. Their fellow classmates, instructors, and BOHF staff and volunteers can become supportive friends, future business contacts and collaborators, and inspirational mentors.

Further, the BOHF Skills Training program directly and intentionally supports Accra’s local economy in every way it can. Rather than leading each instructional session ourselves, BOHF recognizes how much talent and capabilities members of our own communities in Accra already have. Thus, we purposefully employ local entrepreneurs and professionals to lead our program’s instructional sessions. Likewise, when we need special venue spaces, program supplies, and logistical support, we turn to members of the communities in which we work for assistance.

We feel as though we can best serve the communities in which we work and most effectively pursue our organization mission by patronizing local businesses and establishing constructive partnerships of other kinds with individuals and other organizations here in our city.

There are many ways to set up a productive collaboration with BOHF.

Do you own a local business? Do you have some spare supplies and materials that our program graduates can use to kick-start their own businesses? Are you a local entrepreneur or skilled professional? Are you also a good teacher? Do you have specific vocational skills or types of knowledge that can benefit our program participants? Are you a member of a religious group or recreational club? Would your group or club like to sponsor our program with a financial donation? Or help coordinate program logistics and/or offer venue space for course training sessions?

Contact us with any questions or ideas, or check out other pre-arranged ways that you can support the work that we are doing!