Village Exchange International Inc

VEI is a women's empowerment organisation. We implement reproductive health and poverty alleviation programmes that support and protect young women in their choices regarding their reproductive and sexual behaviour, and we aim to create opportunities for them by promoting alternative livelihoods and offering capital loans to entrepreneurs. VEI also carries out research aimed at informing its projects as well as those of partner organisations.

The empowerment of women in Ghana's Volta Region

VEI's programmes fall under two primary categories, Reproductive and Sexual Health and Poverty Alleviation Strategies.

The Reproductive and Sexual Health programme includes:
- Teenage Pregnancy Awareness programmes in rural communities. These programmes are aimed at sensitising key community members such as chiefs, opinion leaders, teachers, parents, young men, young women, and teenage mothers on issues surrounding teenage pregnancy. These issues include: contraception, condom negotiation, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, assertiveness training, the biology of sex, etc.

- The Lady Volta Resource Centre (LVRC). The LVRC is a youth-friendly space located in the centre of Ho Township and available to all young men and women. The LVRC offers both a male and a female counsellor on RSH issues, as well as a multimedia resource centre including CD-ROMS, books, pamphlets, games, etc. pertaining to RSH. The LVRC also carries out outreach services to rural communities, and mobilisation activities in schools, churches and various youth groups.

Our Poverty Alleviation Strategies include:
- Microfinance services to women's groups and individual women who wish to engage in various income-generating activities. The services are primarily capital loans and target petty trading activities as well as SMEs

- Business training and development for women's groups. Targeting students and various women's groups including our microfinance beneficiaries, VEI offers classes in basic business development. These classes target basic accounting, promotion of savings mechanisms, planning and budgeting for your business, as well as more complex issues of market chain development, marketing, etc.

- Support for innovative alternative livelihoods. Both through training provided for by VEI, and through innovative entreprises and skills brought to VEI's attention, VEI will offer support in product and market development.

VEI has also implemented various research projects including:
- Teenage pregnancy amongst school students of Ho Municipality
- A survey into the conditions and needs of teenage mothers in Ho Municipality, and
- An Exploration of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Myths in Ghana: Implications for HIV/AIDS and Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Programmes

VEI carries out monitoring and evaluation practices for all its programmes.

Please contact us for detailed impact reports of our activities.

Chrstiane Milev is a development professional and freelance translator for international organizations. Her qualifications include a Masters in Translation from the École de Traduction et d’Interprétation de Genève in Geneva (Switzerland) and 25 years of employment experience with international organizations (UN, UNICEF, UNDP, CITES, IUCN).

Ghana

551 MAIN ST APT W213
NEW YORK, NY 10044-0127
Phone: (212) 888-1913
http://www.villageexchangeinternational.org
EIN: 65-1211468