A project to improve the standard of living of inhabitants of communities in the Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region has been launched.
Some of the communities in the district are Amankwakrom, Adiembra, Kwaekese, Brumben, Vuvla Kope, Amankwa Tornu, Appiah Brah, Teacher Kope, Wodidiada, Kyikyire, Havokope and Galilea, all of which lack basic social amenities.
The initiative known as Interprofessional Collaboration for Community Development, which is being spearheaded by the Chief of Kwahu Asabi Amankwakrom, Nana Otukwa Mpareko VI, through his foundation, the Asabi Royal Foundation, will focus on improving education, health and agriculture.
It is being carried out with the support of the Afram Plains North directorates of the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Agricultural Service and the Afram Plains Development Organisation (APDO).
At the launch of the project at Amankwakrom last Tuesday, Nana Mpareko said the level of poverty in the communities was quite high and there was the need for stakeholders to take action to reduce it.
That, he said, would be addressed by putting in place a number of social amenities and infrastructure such as clinics and classroom blocks and assisting the inhabitants to expand their farms to increase yield.
Nana Mpareko said although the area was blessed with arable land for the cultivation of all types of crops such as maize, yam, cassava, plantain and vegetables, the inhabitants were not getting the necessary support to enable them go into full-scale farming to make ends meet.
He said his people were struggling to make ends meet, although the area had been blessed with a water body full of varieties of fish and fertile lands for farming.
What was needed was a little push for the inhabitants to undertake their farming and fishing activities, as well as good drinking water, good classroom blocks and clinics to treat the sick, he said.
Nana Mpareko said his outfit had already undertaken outreach programmes in the various communities to address issues relating to health, education and farming which to him would create the awareness for the people.
He called on all stakeholders, particularly well-to-do individuals in the district, to show commitment and willingness to support the transformation drive of the district.
The Manager of the APDO, Alhaji Nuhu Umar, who was highly elated about the collaboration, said his outfit had specialty in the areas of sustainable water access, hygiene and sanitation, education and livelihood programmes among others.
That, he indicated, would help improve the socio-economic conditions of the people in the various communities in the district.
Alhaji Umar said the farmer groups in the district had undergone series of training on good agronomic practices to enable them increase their yield to earn more income to feed themselves and their families.
He, therefore, called on all indigenes, both in the communities and in the diaspora, to financially support the new project to make it successful .