Mr. Mohammed Saani with officials of World Vision in Karaga
The Karaga District Chief Executive (DCE), Mohammed Saani, has commended World Vision Ghana for their numerous projects which have transformed the lives of the people of Karaga district and its environs.
According to him, programmes of World Vision has impacted about 13,874 males and 14, 851 females in the Karaga district for the past 25 years.
He indicated that World Vision through its WASH activities was able to fix 86 hand pump boreholes constructed to serve about 25,000 people and trained 189 communities on hand pump maintenance and supplied them with pump toolkits and trained 92 Water and Sanitation Management Teams for maintenance of water facilities adding that the programme also constructed 6 limited mechanized System to serve over 10,000 people in the district and provided 60 schools with improved sanitation facilities and 60 schools with SHEP/Sesame WASH -UP clubs with facilitation.
The Karaga DCE stated that World Vision constructed 149 household latrines that serve a population of 98,808.
“We all appreciate the fact that we are a deprived district, and through livelihood improvement and family Empowerment, 1000 women were trained on business management skills to sustain a livelihood, 166 people trained on honey product value chain development for diversification of their livelihood, trained 400 farmers on improved practices and post-harvest loses, trained 803 faith leaders on child protection and 18 Child Protection Committee Advocacies were established.
Mr. Saani thanked World Vision for their massive work in the district and assured them that the district assembly and stakeholders will continue the good work in order to sustain the projects.
During the close-out durbar of the Gushegu and Karaga projects of World Vision after 25 years, the Integrated Programme Manager, Joshua Baidoo who read a speech on behalf of the National Director of World Vision, noted that the organisation came to Gushegu and Karaga because the area was among the most deprived districts in the Northern Region at the time and that there were challenges of food insecurity, lack of available wholesome water for both domestic use and for dry season vegetable production, and poor school enrolment levels as a result of insufficient school infrastructure coupled with an unwillingness on the part of teachers to be posted to the districts to teach.
He said the strategic goal of World Vision’s interventions has been to contribute to improved and sustained conditions of life for all vulnerable girls and boys and their families and that the interventions were tailored to provide the needed support to over 37,501 people with 940 households in 30 communities in Gushegu Municipality and 18,944 people with 1,695 households in 35 communities in the Karaga District.
“We are extremely happy to say, in contributing to reducing poverty and its related issues in Gushegu Municipality, World Vision has invested 8,722,112 approximately 8.72 million dollars, that is about 109,026,400 (109.02) million Ghana cedis into programmes to support vulnerable children and communities in the municipality. Children and adults in the 35 communities of Karaga District have equally benefitted from 3,861,487 US dollars (3.9 million USD), equivalent to 48,268,587 Ghana cedis. This has greatly contributed to the holistic transformation of our people in the Gushegu Municipality and the Karaga District. The two Area Programmes’ interventions have been addressing food insecurity and empowering households to generate local incomes to improve their farming activities and to sustain the gains acquired.”
He revealed that the implementation of the Livelihood Improvement and Empowerment (LIFE) project in collaboration with the district-level partners and the communities, brought very inspiring changes resulting in improved living standards for children adding that they established two dry season vegetable production sites at Kpatinga in Gushegu Municipality and Sung in Karaga District.
“The two mechanized solar panel water system provides fresh water to refreshed acres of land in Kpatinga and Sung. Our annual assessment and monthly monitoring sessions identified that over 3,789 households annually receive fresh vegetables to improve the nutritional status of their households. The farmer groups managing this garden with a population of 100 women and men make not less than 150 USD per farmer (1,875 Ghana cedis) annually, from the sales made on their farms.”
He disclosed that World Vision provided potable water for over 298,975 people in Gushegu and Karaga Districts and 191 hand pump boreholes were constructed for communities, schools and health facilities in both Gushegu and Karaga to address domestic water needs with 18 Limited Mechanized Water Systems provided to address the domestic needs of the people.
“248 schools have been provided with improved sanitation facilities in Gushegu and Karaga schools. In sustaining these gains, 146 Water and sanitation management teams have been trained on the maintenance of Water facilities.”
The Gushegu Municipal Chief Executive(MCE), Robert Dawuni Robert Yaja, assured World Vision that all their interventions will be factored into their Medium Team Development Plan and Budget in order to sustain the gains they have made in the municipality.
“We say a big thank you to World Vision for your selfless support towards the transformation of the lives of our people , most especially children ,women ,youth and vulnerable groups in the municipality.”
BY Eric Kombat, Karaga