By Mohammed Balu
Tumu, (UWR), June 13, GNA – Mr. Fuseini Batong Yakubu, the Sisalla East Municipal Chief Executive, has distributed ruminants for rearing around border communities, with a call not to sell but to take good care of them to improve their living conditions.
He handed over 150 improved goats to 18 persons from border communities as part of the Changing Lives in Innovative Partnerships (CLIP) project.
He advised the beneficiaries to take good care of the animals for them to multiply saying, “I plead with you not to sell or slaughter them Sallah but see it as an investment that you would take care of to improve your livelihood and incomes for your families.
“As you begin rearing, if you let them multiply, the provider could extend similar support to others in the area, if you take good care of them.”
Mr. Yakubu said the support to communities around the border towns was dear to the heart of the government to work with partners to reduce the burden and pressure brought onto communities that hosted persons that fled from violent extremist activities.
Mr. Salifu Mahama, the Sisalla East Municipal Director of Agriculture admonished the three communities Banu, Konchogu and Kassanpouri, to take good care of the animals and ensure they benefit themselves and their families.
“Animals are like humans, so when you get up in the morning feed them well and they will run back home all the time, create a home for them in your house and don’t allow them to roam freely,” he said.
Mr. Alhassan Mohammed Sayibu, the Technical Adviser of Changing Lives in Innovative Partnerships (ClIP), said the distribution of the animals was a follow-up of the data gathered in the community sometime back.
He said the purpose was to rebuild the economic capacity of communities along the borderline that hosted communities that fled the Jihadist attacks from Burkina Faso and other Sahel regions.
He said the project targeted border districts and communities that hosted the asylum seekers by improving the livelihood of host communities through improved livestock breeding, livelihood, capacity building for women and promoting cross-border dialogue to enhance peace.
Mr. Sayibu added that the project intervened to support and build the capacity of women to diversify through agro-processing and village savings schemes to improve their incomes.
He noted that the project will improve social cohesion between asylum seekers and trans-human herders through dialogue to keep the peace within front-line communities scattered along the border.
The cost of the project is GH¢285,575.00, and it is being implemented in three districts- Sissala East, Sissala West and Lambussie of the Upper West Region-by CLIP, and Acting For Life, a non-government organisation based in France with funding support from the French Foreign Affairs under the Crisis Management Centre.
GNA