Read News

Home

YMCA Ghana

Facilities

Projects

Picture Gallery

News

Historical Background

Chief rallies his people around YMCA project in Ghana

Barima Obenakwa Kwarifa II seated in state during the fundraising durbar

A decade after its closure, the Ghana YMCA

A decade after its closure, the Ghana YMCA and the local chief of Apedwa, have ensured the re-opening of the Apedwa Vocational Training Centre to provide youth with employment opportunities.

Apedwa lies on the main Accra-Kumasi highway and is about one-and-a-half hours away from Accra, the capital of Ghana. This community is surrounded by much greenery as it is situated in the forest zone of Ghana. Belonging to a trio of chieftaincy divisions – known in the local Akan language as the amantuomiensa – that serve as the royal guards of the Okyehene, Apedwa ranks high in the chieftaincy hierarchy of the Akyem Abuakwa traditional area of which the Okyehene is the overlord.

In 1983, when over two million Ghanaians were deported from Nigeria, communities in and around Apedwa saw a sudden influx of young people returning with a lot of energy, but with little or no employable skills. They had left the shores of Ghana to seek greener pastures in neighbouring Nigeria, a country that was then experiencing an oil boom. But on return to their motherland, they found that the cities had very little in store for them in terms of employment. So they returned to their villages in the hope of depending on the rich land abounding in the area to derive their livelihoods.

“In the first few years of our return from Nigeria, we were mainly engaged in vegetable farming. We planted garden eggs, tomatoes, pepper and just about any kind of vegetable that could grow on our land. The crops did very well wherever we grew them – whether on our farms or in our backyards – and we made very good harvests,” says John Awuah, a YMCA branch member and member of the Apedwa Vocational School Board.

As John explains, “It was our vegetable farming that attracted the YMCA to Apedwa. It happened when a team of Ghana YMCA staff and their partners stopped by one day to buy vegetables from us.” This initial contact led to the establishment of the Apedwa Rural Electrical Training Institute in 1987 with funding support from the traditional partner YMCAs in Germany, North America and England. The school, which was later upgraded and renamed Apedwa Vocational Training Centre, admitted young men and women to pursue courses in electrical, carpentry and joinery, and masonry. Most of these young people graduated to start their own small businesses or found jobs in the urban areas.

However, in 1998 the Apedwa Vocational Training Centre had to be closed down due to its inability to sustain itself. A protracted chieftaincy dispute that emerged soon after did not help matters as the community was sharply divided in solidarity with either one of the two feuding factions within the royal family. Realising the extent to which the chieftaincy dispute had retarded the progress of Apedwa, the community finally installed a new chief in 2005. Upon ascending the title, Barima Obenakwa Kwarifa II did not mince words of his intention to unite the people and combat youth unemployment in the area. The Ghana YMCA’s decision to re-open the school seems to have provided the chief with the perfect opportunity to realise his vision for the community. “Youth unemployment is a problem in and around Apedwa so I am working with the YMCA to revive the Apedwa Vocational Training Centre,” he said on Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station.

The Ghana YMCA and its German YMCA partner (CVJM) are offering financial and technical assistance for the re-opening of the school while the chief and people of Apedwa are also contributing some start-up funding and communal labour. Barima Obenakwa Kwarifa II has so far mobilised his people to construct a pit latrine which is at an advanced stage of completion. An old cocoa shed is being renovated to serve as a residence for the principal and some of the teaching staff of the school, while the students’ hostel is also under renovation. Barima Obenakwa Kwarifa II has committed his people to provide communal labour and they have obliged. At a recent fundraising durbar (1) in support of the school, his people again heeded his call as donations poured in from his citizens far and near. Excluding pledges, a cash amount of 5,700 Ghana cedis was realised, which the community is currently channeling towards the renovation works.

The Apedwa Vocational Training Centre has re-opened with 19 students so far enrolled for dressmaking and electricals. Clearly, the chief’s intention to reduce youth unemployment in partnership with the Ghana YMCA is on course. There is no doubt that a Ghana YMCA project has become a rallying point for a community that has emerged from a chieftaincy dispute to take their destiny into their own hands, thanks to the visionary leadership of Barima Obenakwa Kwarifa II, chief of Apedwa.

1. The word ‘durbar’ has traditional/royal connotations in Ghana. It is the gathering of a chief, his elders and his subjects. The fundraising event organised by the Apedwa community was also a durbar of the chief, his sub chiefs and the people.

posted onFriday, June 19, 2009