Sankofa Empowering Women in Ghana (SEWING) is the only international program that advocates against child labor and female exploitation in the Kayayei labor cycle in Ghana. In this cycle, girls as young as eight years old work grueling 14-hour days carrying hundreds of pounds on their heads. These girls – called Kayayei – face extremely unfair labor practices and are vulnerable to malaria, HIV, and sexual assault.
To combat this exploitation, SEWING leads an entrepreneurship and skills training fellowship program for young women in the Upper East Region in Northern Ghana. SEWING’s educational fellowship program focuses on promoting sustainable economic opportunities for young women through a curriculum centered on sewing and entrepreneurship. The fellowship program simultaneously works to mitigate the detrimental environmental consequences of the global fast-fashion industry by repurposing a fraction of the approximately six million clothing garments that go to waste each week in Ghana. Reaching hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, SEWING has eight international partners, sponsors, and brand ambassadors and team members and supporters from five continents. SEWING was also featured at the 2022 and 2024 World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates.