International Project

The Zonta Club of Lansing and Michigan State University joined to create a Women's Entrepreneurship Training Project in the Republic of Ghana. This project was submitted to the Office of Citizen Exhanges in the US Department of State and received funding.

The project began with discussions between members of the Zonta Club of Lansing and three Zonta Clubs in Ghana, located in the cities of Accra and Tema. The shared goal is to help women to become financially self-sufficient through self-employment projects called "Micro-enterprise Projects," in which selected women would be trained in starting and sustaining a small business and loaned the capital necessary to start up the business.

Activities include the visit of a 7-member Ghanaian delegation to the US for training in the essential elements of Micro-enterprise development. A Michigan-based project team traveled to Ghana to conduct training workshops and consultations. The Project's goal is to build an international model of development long-term partnerships between academics, local Zonta Clubs, and public officials to support women's entrepreneurship efforts in developing nations around the world.