Diving Into Community Development: The Beginning of Butre

22 May 2010

Dear all,

We have officially arrived in Butre safe and sound on the evening of Friday, 21 May.  On arrival in Butre, we were reminded of Ghana's culture of hospitality as we were treated like a sister and brother to the community.  On our first full day in Butre, Saturday, 22 May, we visited our friend and former District Assemblyman, Mr. Mensiez, as well as Joseph Yankey, a fellow tour guide at the Butre Tourism Committee.  It wasn't long until we were both invited to act s intermediaries in community development affair.  "Village politics" or local politics are complex, dynamic, and not accountable.  "Big man" politics is prominent in Butre where the few people in power stand to gain a lot and the majority of community members are not in  a position to argue against the status quo.  Similar to other Ghanaian villages, Butre has a community fund, which is controlled by the local assembly members-that is, the local assembly members have the power to deposit or withdraw money from this fund.  In Butre, there ae two organisations that contribute money to this fund: 1) the Butre Tourism Committee, which puts forth 30% of their earnings and 2) the Butre Premix Committee, which deals with community petrol.  The Chief Fisherman supposedly is in possession of a document that states that the Butre Premix Committee is to contribute a fixed amount of its proceeds to Butre's community fund.  As it stands, there is ony 310 GhC in the community fund, which was nearly funded competely by the tourism board.  This community fund is used for community maintenance and development projects.  Currently the bridge repair is at the fore of development projects to be funded by the community (BEHC is responsible for other projects).  Without the rightful contributions of the Butre Premix Committee as stated in its original agreement with the Butre community, the bridge repair cannot be completed.  We have met with the community mason and he gave us a list of materials that will be needed and labour costs.  We have been asked to discuss the current issue of the bridge with the Assemblywoman, Florence, as well as the Chief of Butre, Nana Agyebu Tsiah IX, whom we are staying with in Butre.

Once we finished talking about the bridge repair, we met one of the JSS teachers, Kofi Amoah, who instucts Home Economics.  It was our intention to meet with the JSS teachers that day; however, we were told that the teachers had left for the weekend.  Mr. Kofi Amoah was able to tell us that the local JSS has about ninety students, around twenty-fiive of which are from the nearby village.  We were happy to hear that there are nine teachers working at the Junior Secondary School.  Some of these are permanent teachers, whereas others are temporary National Service personnel that serve for one year.  We briefly dicussed our plans to conduct a reproductive health peer education programme in the Butre JSS in order to raise consciousness on reproductive health issues from general repoductive health to teenage pregnancy to rape and so on.  We scheduled a meeting for 10:30 A.M. on Monday, 24 May to introduce the idea to all the teachers.  If everything goes according to plan, the teachers will be responsible for selecting two girls and two boys from each class (there are two classes at this JSS) that will be chosen on merit, how outgoing and vocal they are, and their ability to discuss these sensitive issues with their peers.  Starting 7 June, we plan on conducting the training sessions for the students with our selected Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) volunteer, Anita Akumiah.  Julie has undergone a similar training by Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana in Spring 2010 called Life Planning Skills (LPS), so she will also be able to make useful contributions to the week-long training.  We look forward to welcoming Anita to Butre!

We also have plans to speak with the Chief of Butre to plan a community entry scheduled this coming Tuesday, 25 May 2010.  This community entry will formally introduce us to the rest of the community, make them aware of what our projects and intentions are, and how we can help them become involved to promote sustainability.

On Wednesday, 26 May, we will be traveling with Joseph Yankey to Takoradi, the capital of the Western Region, to the Water and Sewage Agency to receive quotes for the borehole.