1st ViVID Village - Sekyere -
The change of ViVID Village
ViVID Sekyere Village
1. Basic information of Sekyere, Ghana
Sekyere is a small rural community near the second biggest city in Ghana, Kumasi. Sekyere has about 5000 populations,and 80% of them are self-sufficiency agricultural workers and 20% of them are non-regular employees.
Most people from the nearby communities, such as Banko, Akrofoso, Oyoko, and Dadease, come to Sekyere to either buy or sell on Friday, the market day when the town usually gets busy. Although Sekyere does not have a large-scale market, people from those villages visit year round; The number of the visitors may range up to 250 people on Friday and 50 people on regular weekdays.
2. Social problems in Sekyere
A. Water system
In Sekyere, there are no above ground flowing water systems, and local people only have access to three wells. Therefore, washing their hands regularly has never been a part of their daily routine. This makes them more vulnerable for prevention from Covid-19 and the other diseases.
B. Poverty
In Sekyere, there are no efficient opportunities to work with stability. Therefore, people who complete all educational programs leave the village to seek better jobs than Sekyere, and people who do not complete all educational programs have no choice to choose their jobs and engage in agriculture. Moreover, it is difficult for them to produce and sell more products because they lack the funds to get skills and knowledge to make agriculture more profitable. Therefore, people who engage in agriculture suffer from poverty, and it is difficult to overcome these situations because of lack of funds.
C. Education
According to the information from people in Sekyere, 70 to 80% of people in Sekyere did not complete all education programs. There are several reasons, however, poverty is the most serious reason to shut out the opportunities of education for children. Also, poverty and educational problems have strong correlations. Especially, female students have been the biggest victims in Sekyere. Rate of dropout of female students is higher than male students. Most of the female students get pregnant and are unable to complete their Schooling. These girls cannot acquire the skills to get enough incomes by themselves. Therefore, again their children and families suffer from their hardship, and they cannot get out of the cycle of poverty. In addition, some students have resorted to drugs and alcohol. Instead of resorting these pleasures, it is necessary to give them places to enjoy sports and music with their friends.
In the Sekyere community, three are combined primary and junior high schools, one junior high school.All the teachers are from outside of Sekyere.
D. Agriculture
In Sekyere, 80% of the population rely on agriculture as their main forms of subsistence. Most are crops farmers, with the most popular crops in the region being yam, maize, plantain, and rice. About 35% of farmers also own livestock. Chickens were the most common livestock.
Basically, they sell it at the Market in Sekyere or Effiaduse. About 40% of farmers are daily employments and
around 10% to 20% are able to employ the people.
In Sekyere, there are one agricultural association and 6 groups in the association. One group has more than 30 members. Although they make groups, they don’t share the profits. The profits from the land belong to the family who has that land. They make groups to get insecticides and farm spray from the government. Therefore, they hold the meeting only when they need to get insecticides, and they correct money from the members just for insecticides.
3. Sekyere Health center
Sekyere Health Center is the public health center in Sekyere, founded in 1997 under the supervision of American peace corps volunteer and funded by the Japanese Embassy. The clinic has greatly benefited the community since there were no other medical institutions before, and community members had to drive to Effiduase for medical service and also for delivery.Now the community members can receive service and give birth at the clinic. There are 11 nurses and one physician assistant (without medically qualified doctors), and these staff are dispatched by the government.Some of the health problems that the patients come for include malaria, diarrhea, HPT and cough and others come for delivery and check-ups. The center also provides education about AIDS, and most of the people have the correct knowledge of AIDS.
As the Sekyere Health center, there were 916 patients of Malaria in 2019. (see graph 1) Also, there were 80 births given at this center in 2019. (see graph 2)
Overview of Sekyere Health Center
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graph 1: Number op Patients with Malaria(2019)
graph 2: Number of Delivery(2019)
4. Community Support Center of Sekyere ViVID Village
ViVID Sekyere office
Administrative office for ViVID Sekyere Village
ViVID Intern / Volunteer rooms
We will offer the rooms that the participants in our ViVID Intern / Volunteering Program
ICT center
We will regularly provide ICT seminars and workshops for Children. We open an ICT center for all the community members as an Internet cafe.
Library
We will open a library for community members and studying places.
Lecture / Seminar rooms
We will open lecture / seminar rooms for multiple purposes.