The Township
Kwabengis a small town located in the eastern region
of Ghana, West Africa. It is about
80 miles north of Accra, the national capital. Its population is currently
estimated to be approximately 8,000 people.
People
The natives are mostly
Akyems, one of over forty Ghanaian ethnic tribes. The majority of
people,
usually born into large, extended families in the township, often live
there until they die. For generations, most of the adult population has been
predominantly farmers who have no fixed income.
They depend exclusively on
income from cocoa - a seasonal, cash crop which is harvested annually between
October and February. Thereafter, most
of them live under subsistence level.
Indeed, most families in that rural, farming community are so poor
that only a
limited number of families can afford one good meal a day.
Clinic
There is one private clinic with a resident doctor and
one small pubic
clinic in town that is staffed by a
nursing aid for a few hours daily. Apart
from some
first aid kits, the clinic has no other medical supplies.
The
nearest hospital is 30 miles away! Plans to have
a Registered Nurse (RN) or
visiting medical officer
have not been successful. Sadly, a number of
patients die needlessly each year from treatable
illness. |
Education
Until the last few decades, the majority of the natives were illiterates. However, the township now
boasts of the following schools with approximately two thousand five hundred
students in the school system each year.
* Two Day Care Centers (Ages 2-5)
* Four Primary Schools (Grades 1-6)
* Four Junior High Schools (Grades 7-9)
* One Secondary/Technical School (Grades 10-12)
The Primary and Junior High schools are operated jointly by he local government
and the churches in the town - Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Zion.
The Secondary/Technical school is under a Regional Educational Service. All the
schools face the same basic problems - huge class sizes (40-45 kids in
Kindergarten and Preschools and 35-40 kids in Primary schools). School supplies
are very scare and neither the township nor any of the schools have a library.
The educational needs of the community are extremely low on the priority list of
both the central and local governments. Unfortunately, most parents are too poor
to support the school system financially. The sad result is that the quality of
education is so bad that only about five percent of the Junior High school
students qualify for High School each year. Parents must pay a high tuition (and
boarding fees) for their kids to attend High School. The situation is much worse
in the High School where only about two percent of the students qualify for
undergraduate studies in one of the four Universities countrywide.
|
