HUNGER PROJECT ACTIVITIES HELD IN K'DUA (PAGE 39)

THE Hunger Project (THP), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has organised a day’s seminar at Koforidua to review its activities.
THP is dedicated to the improvement of the standard of living of Ghana’s rural poor through various interventions, such as women empowerment and micro-finance schemes.
The seminar was attended by more than 40 participants made up of Municipal/District Chief Executives, District Co-ordinating Directors, budget and planning officers in a number of political entities in the Volta, Eastern, Ashanti and the Central regions, as well as THP’s project officers in the operational areas.
It was aimed at addressing the challenges of the beneficiary communities with a view of making life worth living for them.
Addressing the participants, the Country Director of THP, Dr Naana Agyeman-Mensah, said her outfit, which started work in 19 communities in the country in 1996, had by the end of 2007, entered 332 communities in 18 districts in five regions working with 254,510 people.
She said for the people to enjoy the full benefits of the NGO’s initiatives, which included empowerment of women, micro-finance schemes and other development programmes, THP had adopted four main strategies namely, mobilisation and concretisation of the people, partnership creation, unity and the spirit of self-reliance within the beneficiary communities.
According to Dr Naana Agyeman, her outfit was of the view that poor people had the innate potential to improve their lot, and there was, therefore, the need to build their capacity to empower them at the local level to take up the responsibility.
She expressed the hope that the participants would come up with useful suggestions to address the challenges militating against the well-being of people in THP’s catchment areas.
Dr Naana Agyeman gave the assurance that her outfit would continue to assist poor communities for a better life.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, who also addressed the participants, said since the greatest assets of a nation were its citizens, the government had come out with a number of development plans and programmes geared towards the provision of food, shelter, health and educational facilities among others, to reduce poverty in the communities.
Mr Affram Asiedu, however, stated that due to limited resources, the government could not do all that was expected in that regard.
He expressed his gratitude to THP for the role it was playing to improve the lot of the people in its operational areas.
The regional minister called for more collaboration between the THP and the Municipal and District Assemblies to ensure that more people in the rural areas benefited from the NGO’s activities.
The project officers of THP in the beneficiary districts, such as Kwahu North (Afram Plains), Atiwa, Nkawkaw Municipality and Manya Krobo, took turns to brief the gathering on their activities, which they said were going a long way to improve the lot of the people.