The Ben Jefferson Foundation has come to the Rescue of two communities in the Bongo and Talensi districts of the Upper East Region that have being without good source of water for several years.
Word News reporters, Simon Agana and Gaspard Adongo, visited the Sikabiisi community in the Sambogligo Abokobiisi electoral area of the Bongo dustrict on the 28th March, 2022, and reported of the difficulties that women especially went through to access water for both domestic and other uses.
The Community with over 600 inhabitants, for several years had no reliable source of clean water for domestic use. The community’s only source of water which is a community hand dug borehole which produced muddy and claylike water was almost dried up forcing women and children to form long queues sometimes as early as 2am in order to access the muddy water or travel long distances to fetch water from nearby communities.
Some of the women complained of their children falling sick often.” Our children easily fall sick. Their urine is mostly yellowish. Some of the children have begun having bald head and I think it is the water.”
A troubled Assembly member of the electoral area, Joe Aniah said he has reported the water challenge of the people to the Bongo District Assembly and the Member of Parliament but he only keep receiving promises without any concrete action. “I’m worried about the water situation. I have reported the issue to the Assembly and the Member of Parliament for Bongo, Hon. Edward Bawa, but none of them have come with any concrete solution. Sometimes I wish I had the money to drill a borehole for them.”
A representative of Ben Jefferson Foundation Mr. Sebastian Akanzire got in contact with Mr. Simon Agana after watching the video documentary of the plight of the inhabitants of the Sikabiisi community.
The Foundation offered to drill six boreholes for the Sikabiisi community and other five communities which faced water challenges in the Upper East Region.
The Sikabiisi community have been relieved of their age long water challenges after the Ben Jefferson Foundation drilled and handed over a hand pump borehole to the community.
Another community that has so far benefit from the benevolence of the foundation is the Datuku community in the Datuko electoral area of the Talensi District which was also selected to benefit from the support. A hand pump borehole has been drilled and handed over to the community.
Hon. Joe Aniah and Hon. Elijah Tii, the Assembly members of the two communities expressed their gratitude to Word Fm, a radio station in Zuarungu and Mr. Simon Agana and Gaspard Adongo for bringing their plight to the attention of the foundation. They also expressed gratitude to Ben Jefferson Foundation for coming to their aid with the boreholes.
The representative of the foundation, Mr. Sebastian assured the other four communities that they will receive their share of the boreholes once the rains stop.
The BEN JEFFERSON FOUNDATION is a charity humanitarian foundation created and dedicated to cause of promoting better conditions in the lives of the needed.The creation of foundation was in memory of the late Ben Jefferson which started off as a memorial and later as a full foundation providing inner-city assistance programs to the disadvantage children by offering outreach summer camps to children who otherwise would not be able to afford a summer vacation.
The foundation has existed in its form and structure for well over the last 50 years and have shifted its efforts and direction in Africa and the carribean specifically Haiti.Africa, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Cost (la Cote D’IVOIRE) Ghana and Rwanda, each of countries has its own needs where we contribute to make a difference for the better of human society and conditionsIn respect to Ghana we are presently involved in providing water through the insulation of borehole in the northern part of Ghana. It is a well established fact that the need for drinkable water in this part of Ghana is a challenge and we are pleased to involved in participating to meet that challenge making it a realityWe are looking at other areas of need where we willing to provide assistance such as students educational assistance programs (SEAP) Women Empowerment Programs (WEP) Better Healthcare Assistance Programs (BHAP)In these times of many uncertainty we are here to make a certain difference in the lives of people.
By: Simon Agana Blessing/mywordfmonline.com