A woman actively involved in a mining process
The extractive sector is widely seen as a playing field for men with muscles, due to the nature of work involved. In small-scale mining, for example, those who head underground (like what’s done in Tarkwa) to carry the ore for processing on the surface require strong energy.
The energy to dig the ore underground, and same to carry it in bags on their shoulders, to the surface. It’s a no-go area for women.
But when the ore is brought to the surface, a series of activities are triggered before it’s finally processed into gold. Then men need food, they need support in the form of labour to complete the chain.
Women have been playing this role. They are then paid an average of GHC 50 daily wage. In Ghana, it is estimated that over five thousand women are involved in mining.
But here is the thing; women who are menstruating are barred from mining sites, with the generally accepted view that a menstruating woman brings bad luck to the mine site, thereby reducing the amount of gold expected.
A woman on average menstruates for four days. Every day as she menstruates, she looses Gh50. In a month, she loses GHC 200 and GHC 2,400 in a year. Multiply this figure by the estimated 5000 women involved in mining, and you are looking at GHC 12,000,000. This amount becomes a loss to women, just because she menstruates to keep us all alive.
This is what Friends of the Nation; an NGO based in Sekondi Takoradi, and its partner Oxfam in Ghana and the Ford Foundation have set out to test the authenticity of the practice that gets women out of mine site whenever they are in their monthly periods.
Their research work led them to a mine site at Wassa Gyapa in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region where only women were made to process the ore. “It is only women who work on the “black” on Thursdays, said the manager of Obeng Mines. But we do not suffer any reduction in gold quantities because they are women menstruating”. he added.
A traditional leader at Prestea, Nana Nteboah Prah IV who is the Divisional Chief of Prestea Himan Traditional Area believes “these belief systems may not necessarily have any effect on gold output. Women in their menstrual flow may lose energy, so I believe this prevention of women in their menses to mine site was to avoid subjecting someone already losing blood from the physical work done in the mines. But if a woman has the strength to work, I believe she must be allowed to”.
Friends of the Nation and its partners have thus produced a video documentary that is being premiered in mining communities to educate mining concession owners on the economic implications of the belief they hold against women in their menses. “We believe this will remove the barrier to women’s active participation in the mines and prevent the loss of revenues to women due to the practice,” said the Natural Resources Coordinator of Friends of the Nation Solomon Kusi Ampofo at the premiering of the video documentary in Tarkwa.
Another area the partners are working on is the low number of women who own mining concessions. Out of the over 3,000 small-scale mining concessions in Ghana, only 10 percent are owned by women. They have thus initiated a campaign to have 30 percent of blocked-out mining areas in each mining district to be reserved for women.
Another initiative is the proposal to have 30 percent of the revenues allocated to the Minerals Development Fund expended on projects and activities that empowers women.