TUMI GhanaTumi Ghana is a social enterprise that creates sustainable income opportunities for women in Kumasi Education in Ghana, especially university, is still a luxury for many. This leaves a lot of women without employable skills. We are convinced that trade is more dignifying than aid. That is why we train young women in our Women Empowerment Center to become seamstresses and designers. These women are also coached on entrepreneurial skills, such as administration and marketing. In addition, they receive sex education and access to free birth control. This results in skilled and independent women who can take care of themselves and their children. Since our opening in October 2017, we offer: The course includes classes in: Our team in Ghana Milou studied Tourism & Leisure Management and Facility Management. In 2015 she came to Ghana for an internship and loved the place and the Ghanaian people. While working here she saw the many possibilities that Ghana has to offer and started working on the project plan for Tumi Ghana. After a year of preparations in the Netherlands, she came back to Ghana in 2017 to start Tumi Hostel and the women empowerment center. Till this day she loves working in Kumasi with the team and the students. Antoinette (better known as Annette) is married and mother of four. After finishing Management studies at the Institute for Commercial Management she studied Fashion and design in Kumasi. She worked for an international NGO for eight years and seven years ago she founded her own fashion and design business. Given her work experience and her passion to be part of the women development movement in her country, Annette is the perfect person to plan our sewing course, supervise the sewing teachers and she will teach the advanced sewing classes. Patricia schooled in Kumasi, after completing High school she went on to teach in two different schools where she found out she really has a passion for teaching. After a while she enrolled in the first batch of Tumi Ghana students in 2017, after completing the program she worked on her own for a while and when Tumi was in need for a substitute teacher she happily took the job. Because she did the whole program herself, it makes her a very equipped teacher and a great example for all the new girls coming in. Dorothy teaches Sexual Health Education at the Women Empowerment Centre, she recently graduated from the nursing and midwifery training college. While studying to become a community health nurse, she learnt how to discuss sensitive topics with people of all ages. Dorothy has a vast knowledge in Sexual Health. She makes sure our curriculum is up to date and relevant and whenever issues pop up, she makes sure we transfer them into a lesson plan. Dorothy is very approachable which makes it easy for the students to talk to her. That’s how she has grown into the role of confidante of the students and staff alike. Louisa holds a Bachelor of Education Degree from Winneba University of Education. She joined the Tumi Family in 2021. Louisa is very confident and a great leader. She lives and breathes women empowerment and truly believes in gender equality hence her inspiration to manage the hostel to generate more revenue to run the foundation. She leads by example and has a very natural way of coaching the team into excellence. Our team in The Netherlands Danielle works as a specialty beer portfolio manager at Swinkels Family Brewers. Driven by her passion for other cultures and her close involvement through Milou as her sister-in-law, she is part of the Tumi Ghana team from day one. Because of her experience with the foundation, she is chairman of the Dutch board. She ensures that the Dutch team is enthusiastic about Tumi's inspiring mission, and believes that together we can make the world a little better. Wouter has extended knowledge about financials and the Non-Profit world. He was a board member for several years for an NGO in Colombia and works as an accountant for the Dutch government. Jozan has studied cultural and social work. With her passion for traveling and the will to work for other cultures, Jozan has seen much of the world. It makes her happy to empower others and let them develop further. As a job coach at Complete Mensenwerk she works with various cultures. When she was in Ghana to visit her friend Anneroos, she was soon really enthusiastic about Tumi. She uses her experience as a coach to guide the volunteers of Tumi Ghana, and she is also involved in the further development of Tumi as a professional organization in the Netherlands. Jelle works as a project manager in the field of spatial planning for the Province of Limburg. He followed Tumi Ghana from the beginning and saw how a driven group of friends worked for the foundation over the last years. The positivity that can be found in the vision of Tumi Ghana as well as the enthusiasm of the team really appealed to Jelle. Since the beginning of 2019, he joined the team to work together on the further growth of Tumi Ghana.
An is sales manager for Wittenberg in Amsterdam. She visited Milou when she was in Ghana. She fell in love with the country and supports the project completely. She helps Tumi Ghana with finding new partners and sponsors. Evert has a lot of experience with financial accountability and the associated administration. This knowledge has been gained during his Business Administration studies and his long career in banking. Now he is retired. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the board members, Evert has been helping Tumi since 2018. In this way, he hopes to improve the inequality in the world a little. He takes care of all administrative tasks and in this way supports the Ghanaian organization very much. Apart from the above team members, we also work with a large group of very enthusiastic volunteers:
Because trade is more dignifying than aid
Women Empowerment Centre
Young women from 17 to 28 years old with a maximum level of SHS can apply for our Fashion & designing course by calling to Annette: 0244 86 92 75
Team
Milou Lommelen
Founder
Antoinette Opoku
Sewing Coordinator
PATRICIA ATTANLEY
Sewing teacher
DOROTHY SAGOE
Sexual health teacher
Louisa Korkorvi Lawson
hostel manager
Danielle Leukel
Board chairperson
Wouter Gerards
Board treasurer
Jozan Drost
Board vice-chairperson
Jelle Merkus
Board secretary
An Pegels
Advisory sales
Evert Gerards
Volunteer administration
