BACKGROUND 

Efia is a densely populated community located within the Shama Ahanta district of the Baiden Ansah constituency in the Western Region of Ghana.

The community accommodates over ten thousand (10,000,000) inhabitants; with over 75% of the same either jobless or living far below the national minimum wage scale. Indeed those within the other 25% are identifiably living in the residential Cocoa Villa precincts, located not very far beyond the Takoradi Polytechnic area.

History has it that the villa was allocated to local cocoa merchants some immemorial years back. However, justifiable research proves that a higher part of these somewhat ‘modern class’ residence are currently being occupied by professionals who have been transferred by their various corporate establishments to execute duties for and on behalf of their companies (mostly from Accra and Kumasi). A few have also rented some part or the whole of their houses to polytechnic students. This means that, the very natives of the community are not really able to maintain the living standards within the estates (including payment of utility). The effect is that they are often faced with the fervent option of renting or leasing these properties to offset the insurmountable burden of keeping their homes and families going as well as meeting their inevitable daily needs.

Natives have attributed the situation to the fact that, the cocoa and particularly farming business took a nosedive some two decades ago; making life quite difficult for the average native whose major source of income was farming.

The community registers a little over six thousand adults (about 2,200 males and 3,800 female), and about 4,000 children; most of whom are out of school. Average age range stays between 10-45years.

THE ISSUES 

Owing to the unavailability of meaningful or paying jobs, the community has been subjected to a number of unpleasant social issues, with the remarkable ones as:

1. High rate of school drop outs
2. Teenage pregnancies
3. Absolute absence of family planning policies
4. Absolute lack of employable and vocational skills
5. High immortality rate
6. Lack of native professionals (doctors, lawyers etc)
7. General ignorance on universal mutual technology
8. Rural-urban migration
9. Indiscriminate sex amongst the youth
10. Malnutrition in children
11. Lack of proper parenthood for children
12. Very poor hygienic conditions
13. Perennial convalescence record
14. General communal malnourishment

In general, both the young and old, as observed during this compilation to present, are constantly seen lazing about with no income generating engagements.

OUR OBSERVATIONS 

1. It goes without saying that children are the highly vulnerable in this canker. Children in this community form over 40% of the general population. Ageing from day one to about 15years, the only education they get is what their parents provide in their homes and a bit of FCUBE literacy. Beyond that, these kids are left on their own to fend for survival.

   Ato Kwamena is a class six pupil who lives with both parents at Efia. Ato is the third of other four siblings sharing a single room with their parents at the slummy part of Efia. Whereas his father is unemployed, Ato’s mother sells toffees and biscuits on a small table in front of their family compound house.

   Ato explains that; after school he gets home, lays down his books and proceeds to carry out his shoe shinning duties. He usually returns home after six, takes his supper (if there is any), goes to watch TV about 5 houses away and returns home whenever he feels sleepy.

   His story is only different from those who choose to play about with other kids and go to sleep whenever they feel sleepy.

2. Most men like Ato’s father are simply unemployed, thus their inability to maintain the homes. Ato’s other siblings take to selling on the streets to make a living since their mother’s little trade does not meet the least decimal of their needs.
3. Women in this community appear to be wanting to do something; not to support, but to take absolute care of particularly their children. Like Ato’s mother, most women in this community carry out petty trading during the week and move into the residential Cocoa Villa to do household chores for the ‘rich’ for some money.
4. Sexual activities in girls within this community begin as early as 14 and sometimes 13 years old. Several girls between the ages of 16 and 21 are single mothers who have no sustainable vocational training. The girls retort that their boyfriends will only provide on the basis of sex; which they (the girls) must not refuse if they want to survive.

   Mr. Eshun, Ato’s father recounts a situation where some of their teenagers were spotted practising prostitution in Accra and Kumasi, in their bid to survive.

   These incidents of single parenthood go down to explain that the teenagers are having unprotected sex.

OUR COMMITMENT 

We at African Paradigm Foundation (APF), have identified and resolved to adopt the community, assess the issues above and ultimately assist in making life liveable for the people of the Efia community.

1. With several kids roaming about within the vicinity, it becomes more than necessary to create a platform that will arrest their attention, and put their minds to work with the view to developing these young ones as and when they are idle. We wish to start by organising and facilitating free educational drive for the primary and JSS kids. Our inception will take charge of extra class during vacations and after normal school hours. We would try as much as possible to provide snacks and or lunch for the kids during the classes’ periods.
2. We look at going further to engage the teenage girls and boys in developing vocational skills including batik / tie and die making, bee keeping, beads making etc.
3. For adults, APF would commit to securing parcels of land within and around the community to project income earning traditional businesses including bakery, poultry, livestock, mushroom and snail farming etc.
4. For the whole community, APF will continue to spearhead sensitisation campaigns on issues of socio-economic concerns including: HIV/AIDS awareness, Tree planting exercises, Hygienic living practices, domestic violence, child labour, adolescent development, deworming exercises, vaccination exercises etc.

OBJECTIVES 

1. To institute an educational support system for the underprivileged in the area
2. To equip the youth with employable vocational and technical skills
3. To create jobs and income generating ventures within the community
4. Sensitize the people especially on reproductive health and HIV / AIDS issues thereby curbing the prevalent teenage pregnancy and related health problems within the community
5. Sensitize the community on their basic rights and responsibilities in order to build individual confidence within the inhabitants.

HOW TO ACHIEVE 

1. Create and assess a detailed questionnaire to evaluate the very pressing issues confronting the community
2. Liaise with community heads (i.e. assemblymen, traditional heads) for image and data support.
3. Advertise and recruit volunteers to teach basic school pupils on part-time basis.
4. Assemble the smallest constructive opportunity that exist in the community and develop it to a greater communal benefit.
5. Investigate and identify other projects that commenced and turned fiasco after sometime, to be able to reconsider possible restoration measures.
6. Lobby for natural and fundamental resources (project site, etc) from community.
7. Involve stakeholders in the health and civil/ human rights profession to aid respective sensitisation campaigns
8. Lobby for drugs to facilitate deworming and vaccination projects
9. Market project via agencies and corporate organisations who consider community services as a social responsibility.

PROJECT DURATION 

The Efia community project is expected to commence not later than the 1st of July, 2007. Being a community adoption project, it is foreseeable that the project would be a long term one. It is also foreseeable that other projects would erupt with the growth and success of the pending one.

However within the next sixty (60) months, the Efia Community Project would have gone miles beyond maturity.