The Hunger Project (THP), a global nongovernmental organisation (NGO) committed to the sustainable end of world hunger has spent a total of $6 million annually on its Africa operations of which $1.8 million is said to be invested on Ghana projects.
The Ghana Country Director of The Hunger Project Samuel Afrane who this disclosed explained that the NGO spent the amount on technical and economic empowerment, education and capacity building, improved food production and security, and community health improvement in the country.
He told journalists at a press conference after the commissioning of Agyapomaa Epicenter that the THP was currently working in over 30 districts in five regions namely Eastern, Central, Greater Accra, Volta and the Ashanti.
According to him, 45 epicenters had been built in the NGO’s operational regions, while four epicenters were yet to be built.
Explaining more on the epicenter strategy, Mr. Afrane noted that THP’s activities were organised around the epicenters, which represent clusters of rural communities that were mobilised to pursue development objects together. These epicenters have become potent tools for grassroots mobilisation and peace building, he stated.
An epicenter, according to officials of the THP may comprise from five to 15 communities, which are located in close proximity to each other.
Each cluster has a lead community in which a multi-purpose building consisting of a library, a clinic, a conference hall, a community bank, a food bank, among others is jointly constructed the communities to provide multi-sectoral facilities/services for their mutual use.
Mr Afrane added: “The epicenter model of development is the holistic model for poverty reduction. We want the government to adopt it. That is why we are experimenting it in the south”.
The Chief Executive Officer and Global President of The Hunger Project, Mrs Asa Skogstrom Feldt said the NGO established its presence in Ghana in 1996, working in rural communities with the purpose of providing economic support to the people which is in line with their vision.
She said the THP was prepared to partner and share its working experience in the country with the aim of changing the mind-set of the people through self-reliance to attain sustainable development.
The Vice President for THP Africa Programs, Dr. Idrissa Dicko said the global NGO was operating in 22 countries out which eight were in Africa.
He used the occasion to appeal to African governments to adopt the epicenter model of development because it is yielding results in other parts of the world.
Earlier speaking at the commissioning of Agyapomaa Epicenter in East Akim Municipality, the chairman of the epicenter, Kwame Rockson said the THP had connected the epicenter to the national electricity grid.
The epicenter, he added generated sufficient income internally to paint and maintain it as well as the nurses’ quarters.
Meanwhile, the chiefs and people of the Agyapomaa enstoled Mrs Asa Skogstrom Feldt as a Development Queenmother of the area.
Mrs. Feldt paid a working visit to Ghana from 1st – 6th March, 2015. As part of her programme, she held separate meetings with the Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, Ministers of State and Heads of some Diplomatic Missions.
African Eye News.com
