In Africa, The Hunger Project works to build sustainable community-based programs using the Epicenter Strategy. An epicenter is a dynamic center of community mobilisation and action, as well as an actual facility built by community members. Through the Epicenter Strategy, 5,000-25,000 people are brought together as a cluster of rural villages, giving villages more clout with local government than a single village is likely to have while also increasing a community’s ability to collectively utilise resources. The epicenter building serves as a focal point where the motivation, energy and leadership of the people converge with the resources of local government and non-governmental organisations. Over an eight-year period, an epicenter addresses hunger and poverty and moves along a path toward sustainable self-reliance, at which point it is able to fund its own activities and no longer requires financial investment from The Hunger Project.
There are 45 epicenter communities in Ghana, reaching approximately 494 villages and 324,603 people. The Hunger Project has been working in Ghana since 1995 and is empowering community partners to end their own hunger and poverty. Through its integrated approach to rural development, the Epicenter Strategy, The Hunger Project is working with partners to successfully access the basic services needed to lead lives of self-reliance.
In Ghana, one of West Africa’s most developed nations, less than half of all women have received secondary education and almost a third of the population is living on less than $1.25 a day.
The capital city of Ghana, Accra, is one of the wealthiest and most modern cities on the continent and is currently experiencing a period of rapid growth and urbanisation. Although the country’s GDP continues to rise with oil production, gold mining and other industries, the majority of this wealth is not distributed among the population due to high corruption. As a result, most of Ghana’s poor live in rural areas without basic services such as health care and clean water. Small-scale farmers, who are affected most by rural poverty in Ghana, depend on outdated farming tools and lack access to improved seeds and fertilisers to increase crop yields.
Formerly a British colony, in 1957, Ghana (bordered by the Côte D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo) became the first colonial country in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence. After a period of turbulence, with several military coups, a stable democracy was established in the 1990’s and remains to this day.
