11 COMMUNITIES DEVELOP PLANS TO IMPROVE THEIR LOT (PAGE 20 , OCT 6)

ELEVEN cocoa farming communities in the Wassa Amenfi West District in the Western Region have drawn up community action plans depicting their various needs to facilitate the social, economic and environmental transformation of their respective communities.
They are also meant to develop the capacities of the farming communities.
The communities are Juantokrom, Akokofe, Jaman, Essakrom, Nkwantanum, Nsabrekwa, Nyame Nnae, Takyikrom, Wiredukrom, Sewayor and Bokakore.
The action plans were drawn up after dialogue and sensitisation meetings conducted by Codesult Network, a local non-governmental organisation and community engagement partners for Mars Partnership for African Cocoa Communities of Tomorrow (iMPACT) project.
The iMPACT project’s technical partners include the German Development Co-operation (GTZ), Africare, the International Foundation for Education and Self-help (IFFES), Sustainable Tree Crops Programme (STCP), the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and the Rainforest Alliance (RA).
Each of the technical partners has a specific role to play for the effective execution of the community action plans.
An exhibition has been organised at Asankragwa to showcase the developmental change that has come about as a result of a strategic partnership initiated through a participatory process starting with the dialogue and sensitisation.
The iMPACT project engaged Codesult Network to dialogue with and sensitise the selected project communities to their development needs to come up with an action plan based on a vision which will in turn be addressed by the various technical partners and the district assembly, with the communities taking the leading role.
Speaking at the exhibition, the Executive Director of Codesult Network, Mr Robert Obiri-Yeboah, said 11 hand-dug wells had been constructed for the communities.
He said community health volunteers had been trained to identify basic illnesses in the communities and support the various community health nurses.
Mr Obiri-Yeboah added that 24,000 tree seedlings of different species had been supplied to cocoa farmers, while 35,000 cocoa seedlings had also been supplied to them.
He said the cocoa farmers had been trained in integrated crop and pest management.
According to him, the project had changed the development face of the 11 communities.