By Yussif Ibrahim
Adomfe (Ash), Dec. 04, GNA – The Hunger Project-Ghana, an organisation that works to build sustainable community-based programmes using the Epicenter strategy, has launched a social enterprise project for its Epicenter at Adomfe in the Asante-Akim South Municipality.
Since 1995, the Hunger Project has been working in Ghana empowering community partners to end their own hunger and poverty through integrated approach to rural development anchored on the epicenter strategy.
An epicenter is a dynamic center of community mobilisation and action, as well as an actual facility built by community members.
Through the epicenter strategy, between 5,000 and 15,000 people are brought together as a cluster of villages, giving the villages more clout than a single village is likely to have while also increasing a community’s ability to collectively utilise resources.
Established in 2005, the Adomfe Epicenter which has a clinic, food bank, conference room and other facilities has been the hub of various community activities, impacting the lives of the people of Adomfe and its surrounding communities over the years.
The launch of the social enterprise project formed part of steps being taken by the THP-G to wean off the epicenter after 17 years of mentoring.
The goal was to help the leadership of the Epicenter to sustainably manage the facility after the exit of THP-G by engaging in an income generating activity.
Having identified rental services as business they want to engage in, THP-G has provided the Epicenter with 120 foldable chairs, eight canopies, 20 students’ mattresses and a tricycle to convey the items to clients.
It also provided a motorbike to the clinic at the epicenter to facilitate the transportation of the health workers during community visits.
Mr Samuel Afrane, the Country Director of THP-G at a ceremony to launch the project and hand over the items to the Epicenter, applauded members of the Epicenter for their commitment to ending hunger over the years.
He said the Adomfe Epicenter had been one of the most outstanding Epicentres in Ghana that had shown the desire to fight poverty by embracing the concept introduced by the Hunger Project.
He noted that there was dignity in self-reliance for their livelihoods than waiting for someone to provide for their needs.
The social enterprise project, he indicated, sought to empower the Epicenter to maintain the facility even after the exit of THP-G to ensure continuity of the concept.
The Country Director was of the firm believe that the provision of the items worth GH¢ 99,110.00 would ensure economic stability of the Epicenter for the benefit of the people.
He charged them to ensure proper maintenance of the items to serve the purpose for which they were procured, stressing the need to buy more from the proceeds.
Mr Rueben Antwi, the Municipal Director of Health, said the THP-G was one of the few Non-Governmental Organisations NGOs) with strong ties with key stakeholder institutions such as assemblies, health and education directorates within their operational areas.
He said their continuous engagement with their stakeholders under the Epicenter concept made them different from other organisations which exited the communities after putting up the infrastructure.
He said the presence of THP-G in the Municipality over the years had tremendously impacted health delivery and implored other NGOs to emulate them.
GNA