german
frenchFighting Poverty through Village Development
The village of Fodome-Helu, situated some 9 miles from the provincial capital Hohoe, in Ghana's Volta region, is one of its most remote and least developed villages. People are poor and live in a subsistence economy, which means they grow food barely sufficient to feed themselves, leaving very little to sell in the market. There is no industry and no means to earn a living apart from local agriculture and handicrafts. Young school-leavers not finding local training and jobs migrate to bigger cities in search of work.
In 1994, at the suggestion of the Paramount Chief of the area, FOSHA, Fodome Self Help Association, was founded whose aims are village development and the fight against poverty. Soon a firm partnership between FOSHA and africa action Germany developed. This cooperation has resulted in several projects for village development being established. Using mainly local labour a workshop for young people as well as a youth centre were built in 1997/98. This project was co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development ( BMZ ).
Health care services being almost non-existent in the remote villages of the rain-forest, a further project jointly run by FOSHA and africa action, Fodome Community Clinic was executed in 2001/02. This time funding came from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development ( BMZ ) as well as action medeor, a German medical aid organisation, and a local section, based in Schwerte, of the German Scout Association St George. In 2006/07 a Nurses Duty Post was built up to provide the base of mobile health care to near-by villages. Areas of prime importance will be health care offered to mothers and young children as well as prevention of AIDS and blindness.
In 2002, africa action entrusted their village development programme in Ghana to CRAN, Christian Rural Aid Network, a widely recognised NGO specialising in advising and training rural people. The Group of Friends of CRAN in Germany is a corporate member of africa action. CRAN's activities aim at improvement of agricultural methods, the introduction of new ways to gainful employment such as growing mushrooms and raising snails or smaller animals, as well as locally based health insurance, micro-financing, and advice on financial planning. These tasks are being performed by three Ghanaian advisors specially trained for the job.
At the moment, we are looking for funding :
- for measures of village development, 3,000 Euros per annum