CocoaAction Strategy Project

About the Communities

Eight of the twelve communities are located in the Central Region and the remaining four (4) are in the New Edubiase District of the Ashanti Region.

The average population of the 12 communities was approximately 800 people with the least populated community beingNsuakyi Mmoho Ahenkro with approximately 250 inhabitants and the highest been Sibinso with over 2000 inhabitants.

The community leadership structure is very similar to each other with the chief at the helm of affairs, supported by his elders and other opinion leaders. Except Lah-Teh Amanbete where the queen mother is recognized and actively take part in decision making in the community.

Education

With the exception of Nsuakyi Mmoho Ahenkro, the remaining eleven (11) communities have either a primary or JHS or both schools. At Nsuakyi Mmoho Ahenkro children as young as five (5) years old walk for about 20 minutes daily to Afano, the nearest community, to school.

Some of the communities such as Obuobikrom, Nyamebekyere, Taylorkrom and Beyeden had only primary schools but no JHS. Bunsu on the other hand had a JHS but no primary school. In all these cases, the children have to walk long distances to schools in near-by communities. In most cases however, the communities with school did not have adequate toilet facilities, except in the cases of Sibinso and Lah-Teh Amanbete.

In the cases of Obuobikrom and Nyamebekyere, the communities had to contribute both financial and human resources to put up the school facilities there. La-Teh Amanbete had gone a bit further to construct a 14-bedroom teachers Living quarters to motivate the teachers to stay in the community because even though the community had adequate school facilities, the teacher to student ratio is very low with only 7 teachers instead of the minimum of 12.

In all twelve communities, the students’ retention rate was very low especially for the females. This was attributed to high teenage pregnancy rate in most of the communities.

Out of the twelve (12) communities, only three; La-Teh Amanbete, Bunsu and Kwafulkrom had Well-functioning SMC/PTA where members of both committees knew and played their roles effectively. Six of the communities; Sibinso, Nsuta, Obuobikrom, Beyeden, Kwame Adukrom and Basofi Ningo had weak committees, meaning, they had incomplete executive members or a weak structure. The remaining three; Taylorkrom, Nsuakyi Mmoho Ahenkro and Nyamebekyere did not have any of the committees.

 

Child Labour

During the community entry phase of the project where the GLOWDEP team went on a familiarization trip to each of the 12 beneficiary communities, none of them admitted to incidence of child labour in their communities.

However, the initial assessment showed that children are used in various capacities either at home or on the farm such as burning, carrying of load to the market, weeding of rice farms and selling during market days.

In all twelve (12) communities, only La-Teh Amanbete had a Child Protection Committee, the remaining eleven (11) had no CCPC to ensure and promote the welfare of the children in their communities.

 

Gender and Women Empowerment

In all twelve (12) of the beneficiary communities, the female population were higher than the male. However, the women were poorly/not represented in the leadership structure of the communities and hardly took part in community decision making.

Most of the women worked with their husbands on their farms and majority depended on their husbands as their sources of income.

None of the communities had a recognized women’s groups which advocated for the women in the communities.

 

Achievements

In the 1^st Quarter of the year, the GLOWDEP team worked tirelessly and achieve the following objectives. These were;

1. Support the formation and training of members of School Management Committees (SMC) and Parent Teachers Associations (PTA) in all the twelve (12) communities
2. Support the formation and training of members of Community Child Protection Committees (CCPC) in all of these twelve (12) communities
3. Raise awareness of children’s rights and the negative effect of Child’s Labour on the wellbeing of the child.
4. Support and facilitate the formation and training of women groups in leadership and governance towards empowerment.

 

Summary of the Groups Formed

NO.	COMMUNITIES	SMC/PTA	CCPC	WOMEN GROUP
1	La teh-Amanbete	Well-functioning	Revamped	Newly Formed
2	Basofi Ningo	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
3	Beyeden	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
4	Bunsu	Well-Functioning	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
5	Kwafulkrom	Well-Functioning	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
6	Kwame Adukrom	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
7	Nsuakyi	Newly Formed	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
8	Nsuta	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
9	Nyamebekyere	Newly Formed	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
10	Obuobikrom	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
11	Sibinso	Revamped	Newly Formed	Newly Formed
12	Taylorkrom	Newly Formed	Newly Formed	Newly Formed

 

Success Stories

The GLOWDEP team had enjoyed a number of successes since the commencement of the CocoaAction Strategy Project. Notable among them were;

1. The formation of the committees and training of executive members:

Just within three months, the GLOWDEP team had been able to form or revamp the all three (3) committees targeted in each of the 12 beneficiary communities. This is a major achievement since it covers about 3 major objectives of the project.

 

1. Miss Gifty Asiedua:

A JHS One student of Nsuta D/A who refused to go back to school after an embarrassing incident with the headmaster of the school made a new decision after receiving counsel from the GLOWDEP team.

The training has helped me realize that I have the ability to be excel in my education and have a bright future – Gifty Asiedua

The following week, when the team visited the community, she was in school learning and according to the teachers, she is behaving and performing better than before; both socially and academically.

 

Conclusion

The implementation of the CocoaAction Project which started in January 2017 went on smoothly during the period under review. The committees were receptive towards the Needs Assessment and the Community Profiling.

Out of the twelve communities, only three (3) had well-functioning SMC/PTA committees. The remaining were reshuffled and some new members brought on board.

The Community Child Protection Committees were virtually non-existent, except for La-Teh Amanbete which was even revamped because it was inactive.

There were no formal Women’s Groups in all the communities except for few churches.

In all, thirty-six (36) committees were formed towards the development of the project goal.

Training workshops were organized for all the committee members to spell out their roles and responsibilities in achieving the objectives of the CocoaAction Project.  In all, one-hundred and eighty-five (185) participants were in attendance including Seventy-Two (72) women.

The communities are now aware and conversant with what constitutes child labour and pledged their support to desist from the practice.

The project communities were receptive and poised to participate towards the success of the CocoaAction Strategy Project.