Monday 19 September 2011

GIVING HOPE TO KAYAYOS

The future looks bright for Kayayos (young migrants from northern Ghana engaged in head-portage) in the country as Peoples Dialogue, Ghana (PD Ghana) in collaboration with the Kayayo Youth Association, engages the Office of the Vice President.  Kayayo Youth Association is a member of the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor.
The engagement with the office of the Vice-President of Ghana led to a community-led enumeration exercise to collect data and other basic information on the Kayayos and their activities across the major cities in the country. The enumeration report which among other things recommended a comprehensive guidance and counseling programme for Kayayos on skills development and career path has been submitted to the office of the Vice-President with the expectation that appropriate actions will be taken to address the needs and aspirations of the Kayayo.
PDG and the Kayayo Youth Association also expect that the office of the Vice-President will support the formulation of relevant programmes that will link the skills training options to the jobs that are available in the market. This according to the report will prevent a situation where people acquire skills they do not actually need or will never use thereby returning to the street in order to survive on menial jobs.
Over the past years, Ghana has been confronted with massive migration of people, particularly young men and women mostly from poor communities in northern part of the country to Accra and other major cities such as Kumasi, Takoradi and Tema in search of jobs and other economic opportunities.
These young migrants engage mostly in head-portage popularly known as “Kayayoo” and other menial jobs such as domestic servitude and street trade. The Kayayo phenomenon and its allied street activities seems to be a never-ending situation and many more young people, mostly girls migrate each passing day to the cities and other urban centres of the country. The situation has been attributed to policy and system failures including both pull and push factors.
To address this challenge the leadership of Kayayo Youth Association together with People’s Dialogue deemed it fit to engage the office of the Vice-President on the issue during which PDG and the leadership of Kayayo Youth Association were tasked to conduct an enumeration to gather up to date information about the membership and challenges confronting head porters.

People’s Dialogue Ghana together with Kayayo Youth Association listed and collected information on about 15,000 Kayayos operating in the city of Accra. 

CHANGING THE FACE OF SLUMS IN GHANA

The partnership between People Dialogue, Ghana (PD Ghana) , Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor and Tema Ashaiman Slum Upgrading Fund (TAMSUF) is slowly finding new ways to improving slum settlements in Ghana.
With one step at a time the collaboration between key stakeholders and the members of the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor, at the heart of Amui Djor slum in the Ashaiman Municipality has lifted the confidence of many slum dwellers in Ashaiman. Federation members say they will forever remain grateful to the stakeholders of the Tema Ashaiman Municipal Slum Upgrading (TAMSUF) Fund, since the project has enabled some of its members to acquire low income houses.
Mr. Emmanuel Zonyra, a leading member of the federation was happy that the project has lifted their hopes to believe that it is possible for the Urban Poor to upgrade their housing. “Through this project we realized that we can help ourselves with daily savings to acquire a better housing and we will forever remain grateful to the stakeholders”, Mr. Zonyra stated in an interview.   
 “Our incomes would not permit us to access bank loan to build houses but with this facility and our daily contributions we are getting the houses so they are helping us a lot and we are very grateful to all the stakeholders”, he continued.
The Tema Ashaiman Municipal Slum Upgrading Fund is a UN HABITAT Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF) seed capital project. The facility which includes fifteen shops and a block of public toilets and bathing facility on the ground floor provides commercial subsidy to ensure affordability for the low income community members. TAMSUF provided construction financing and actively working with local banks to secure take-out financing.
So far twenty six out of 31 members of the federation who have made various contributions towards the acquisition of the houses have moved into their new houses and the remaining five families are expected to move into their residence soon. 
Ashaiman remains one of the fastest growing urban communities in West Africa with an estimated population of 150,312 (2000census) with females forming about 60% far higher than the national average of 52%. More than half of the population lives in wooden structures with deplorable sanitary conditions.
Mr. Farouk Braimah, the Executive Director of the People’s Dialogue, Ghana (PDG) is however, happy that the TAMSUF pilot project is a model that would encourage more community members to work towards upgrading their houses. “We have learnt lessons that go beyond the project and these lessons would guide us in our future engagements with key stakeholders including city authorities”, he added.

IMPROVING ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER

For once community members of Tapa Abotoase seem to be in a stronger position to resist the numerous water borne diseases that have afflicted them for years.
A new era has dawned on the people of Tapa Abotoase, a fishing community within the Jasikan District of the Volta Region when the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP) stepped in to provide two mechanized boreholes with a distribution system to the community.
The distribution system which includes two water storage tanks, water pumps with four public standpipes at strategic locations in the community is boosting the distribution of potable water to over 4,000 residents in the community.   
The construction of the borehole and its distribution system had not only contributed to the elimination of waterborne diseases, but had also lifted the burden of trekking to fetch water which usually falls on women and girls with negative impact on girls’ education (giving them less time to spend on their studies).
The availability of safe drinking water is also expected to encourage many qualified professionals such as teachers, health workers and other civil servants to accept postings into the area. 
Tapa Abotoase is one of the numerous fishing communities along the Volta River with high level of water borne diseases such as bilharzias, cholera, diarrhea etc. Residents in the Tapa Abotoase community for example mainly rely on the polluted water from the Volta River for all household needs including bathing, washing and drinking. Availability of these water borne diseases had compelled many public service workers to decline postings into the community.
It is against this challenges that PDG working in alliance with GHAFUP and with funding support from Jersey Overseas Aid Commission stepped in to construct the facility under its Water and Sanitation programme. With technical training from PDG, the federation has established a 7-member Water and Sanitation Committee to operate maintain and manage the facility.