Most of you reading this post know me as an environmentalist
who is also very passionate about renewable energy. In the past 2-3 years, I
have focused my work in areas that are ignored by majority of players in the
energy sector— off-grid communities in rural centers and villages. My
convictions are: first, solar lighting solutions make more socio-economic sense
in villages than bulk grid infrastructure, and second, the social capital and
human potential in rural areas are so vast to be ignored. I have therefore made
efforts to visit as many villages as possible to learn about what can work
there with solar.
A couple of months ago, some friends reached out to me about
visiting some villages they thought needed help with solar lighting. After
months of connecting with a contact on the ground, I made the trip with 2
colleagues— Perk Pomeyie of our startup company Solar People and Afi Antonio, founder of our social action project Solar4Girls, supported by friends and partner Support A Vision Ghana.
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| From Left: Gideon, Afi and Perk |
We embarked on an adventurous trip with three objectives:
first, connect with the local school there, and provide solar lamps to the 20 Junior
High School (JHS) pupils who are preparing for their Basic Education
Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E) in 2018. Second, build a relationship with
the people in the community, and third, assess the needs and potential of the
community, and reach out to people in our network for additional support in the
sectors of education, energy, health, etc.
On the dawn of Friday October 20,
the journey to the ‘three forgotten villages’—Tsremanti Dornguanor, Tsremanti
Yoyim and Besease Dornguanor of the Yilo Krobo District of the Easter Region began.
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| A shot of Tsremanti Dornguanor |
We traveled from Accra through Akropong-Akuapem to Nkurakan
where we picked a taxi to Akpamu junction.
Since the villages do not have a motorable path from here, we began a 40 minutes walk on foot through the valley to Tsremanti Dorguanor, also known as the valley village. The other option is
an hour and half journey also on foot through the forest from Koforidua
Pipeline; we used this route after our visit when returning
from the village.
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| In the middle of the forest descending the hills to the 'valley village'. |
Every holistic development is transformational, integral and
sustainable, and requires the practitioner to assess the potential of the
community in order to design a response. Below are our findings after an
assessment of Tsremanti Dornguanor:
Leadership
The village has a chief and a linguist with a group of
elders who see to the welfare of the community. We also met the Unit Committee
members of the village. What impressed us most was the introduction of the
member in charge of youth development.
Electricity/Energy
This was the main reason we went to the village. The
community has no electricity and children rely on traditional lanterns and
torchlights to study at night. Not only does this impede their education,
children and adults also risk bites from poisonous snakes and other reptiles at
night.
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| We provided solar lamps to pupils with support from friends |
Water
The only source of water in the village is a stream, which
links all the 3 villages. This is for both drinking and irrigation purpose.
Education
This is a big challenge in Tsremanti Dorguanor and the 2
sister villages. There are 2 classroom blocks; one is a makeshift structure and
the other requires a facelift. The educational facilities and supplies for
learning are inexistent or incredibly inadequate. Pupils are in dire need of
uniforms, knapsacks and learning tools. But the biggest problem the local
school faces is with teachers. The lack of electricity, portable water,
motorable path, health post and mobile network, coupled with the lack of accommodation
facilities for teachers make it difficult for them to live in the village. Children therefore have to travel for 2 hours
to Nkurakan during the weekend for extra classes. The performance of the local
school in the BECE has been fairly good and access to electricity will improve
it immensely.
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| The primary school classroom block at Tsremantin Dornguanor |
In addition to this, because teachers have to walk for hours
climbing and descending mountains every week to teach, they are not able to
come to school the whole week. A teacher told me, “I do 2/5 or 3/5 because I
get too tired walking for hours and escaping snakes just to teach and return to where I live”. I was lost about what 2/5 and 3/5 mean until he
explained to mean 2 or 3 days out of 5 days in a week. Because of these
challenges, there are no female teachers in the school.
Agriculture
This is the biggest potential in the village. The land is
very fertile for vegetables such as cabbage and green pepper, for tubers such
as cassava and cocoyam, and for cocoa. The number of cabbage farms we saw
impressed us. The problem however is about access to markets for these produce.
The lack of roads linking the village to urban centers present villagers with 2
options: children and women carrying produce and climbing the mountains to the
nearest market which is 4 kilometers away or paying a fortune for vehicles to
cart the produce to markets in Nkurakan or Koforidua.
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| The villages are noted for cabbage production |
The creation of road networks will transform education and
also impact agriculture and energy. If families can access markets for their
produce without excessive costs, they can save some money to afford solar for
their children to study at night. The presence of lights can also be a
motivation for teachers to stay for weekends and help pupils with extra lessons.
Health
All the villages have no health post. The nearest health
post is about an hour away (Koforidua Zongo) where emergency cases are taken.
Community members carry sick people on broken doors and walk through the forest
for treatment. A small makeshift health post which will respond to emergencies
such as snakebites and provide first aid will come in handy. We were however
told that some community health nurses from Nkurakan visit the village
occasionally for health outreaches.
Sports
The school has very good sportsmen and women in athletics
and football. We were thrilled to meet one of the girls who doubles as the captain
of the football team and 3000m women champion in the Yilo Krobo District for 4
consecutive years.
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| Most of the students in the JHS are good in sports |
Conclusion
Our visit to Dornguanor was very successful. We had an
amazing time with the school pupils and reached out to them with solar lamps.
The experience was beautiful, and at the end we were fulfilled when
departing. I hope this post will ignite your interest to know more about the ‘three
forgotten villages’ and reach out to support them.
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| School children using the solar lamps |
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| The journey from the village on foot through the Dornguanor forest |
