Background - Life in the Upper East Region

The Upper East Region is situated in the north-eastern corner of Ghana and is bordered to the north by Burkina Faso, to the east by Togo Republic and to the west by the Northern Region. The population of the Upper East Region is about 0.92 Mio inhabitants. Since 1984 there has been an increase of 19 per cent, which is the lowest rate of increase among all the regions in the country. The region's population density of 104.4 persons per square kilometre is higher than the national density of 79.3 persons per square kilometre.

Climate and Vegetation

The climate is characterized by one rainy season from May/June to September/October. The mean annual rainfall during this period is between 800 mm and 1100m. There is a long spell of dry season from October to mid May, characterized by cold, dry and dusty Harmattan winds. Temperatures during this period can be as low as 12 degrees centigrade at night, but can rise to more than 40 degrees centigrade during the day time. Humidity is however, very low making the day time high temperature less uncomfortable. The natural vegetation is that of the savanna woodland characterized by short scattered drought resistant trees and grasses that gets burnt by bushfire or scorched by the sun during the long dry season. The most common economic trees are the sheanuts, dawadawa, baobab and acacia.

Social structure

Ninety percent of the population are peasant farmers and the crops mainly cultivated include; peanuts, yam, millet and some vegetables. Also, the most common economic trees are the sheanut, dawadawa, baobab and acacia. Farm tools are still primitive and include the hoe and cutlass. About less than 7% of the dwellers have access to water and electricity, greater than 90% of the wall material is mud and 75% of all the roofing materials are thatch or wood. The limited market for farm produce in local markets reduces purchasing power of rural farmers. Lack of collective action at community level decreases productivity and undermines the voices of farmers in the market place.

Education

The overall levels of educational attainment are much lower in the region, compared with the country as whole. For instance the proportion of the population aged three years and over that have no schooling or attended only pre-school is 75.7 per cent in the region compared to 47.7 per cent in the country as a whole. When educational attainment is restricted to the population aged 6 years and over, the proportion in the region which has never attended school is 71.8 percent. This proportion is higher for females (76.4%) than for males (66.8%). For the population aged 6 years and over who have attended school before, almost one in two (48.1%) attained primary level. About one in five (20.8%) attained middle/JSS, and about one in eight (12.5%) attained secondary/senior secondary. Less than 5 per cent attained vocational/technical (4.2%) and post-secondary (4.7%). The proportion of males who have attended school before is consistently higher than for females at all levels. The proportion of the region’s educated population that have primary or middle/JSS as the highest level of education they attained (68.9%) is rather large, and poses a great challenge for the implementation of any education improvement programmes. Current school enrolment in Primary 1, however, is generally comparable with the national situation for males and also for females; rather, substantial differences between the national and regional picture persist at the JSS level.

Working children (population aged 7-14 years)

A total of 69,094 children of school going aged 7-14 years are reported to be working full-time. The majority (54.5%) of them are boys. The number of children working represents a little over one in three (34.0%) of the total population aged 7-14 years. The proportion of males of school going age who are working is 35.3 per cent and that of females is 32.7 percent. The fact that children at these ages are already gainfully employed is a reflection of the extent of child labour in the region. Almost all of these children are engaged in agriculture (77.9%), production and transport equipment (9%), service work (8%) and sales work (4.4%). The working children are almost entirely in the private informal sector and are either self-employed without employees (63.1%) or are unpaid family workers (29.8%); about five per cent are employees. Contrary to the popular perception that children are used as home help, child domestic employees make up only 3 per cent while other employees make up 1.7 percent.

Gender

Northern Ghana is a patriarchal society where women are traditionally excluded in decision making. This state of gender inequality couple with other discriminatory traditional and religious practices and policies compound the situation of girls. Early marriages and early motherhood curtails their educational and employment opportunities.

The Trap of Poverty, Illiteracy and Ignorance

The youth of northern Ghana are therefore caught up in circle of poverty quagmire which is constantly being fed by illiteracy, ignorance and low self image. Many children do not go to school because of the low levels of income of their parents couple with the little interest of the illiterate parents themselves. In order to supplement family income, majority of the youth (young farmers) move to the southern part of Ghana in search of non-existent jobs. Most of these desperate youngsters end in either the large cocoa farms working as labourers or in the streets of the big cities where they are subject to many social vices. This phenomenon further reduces the workforce in the families back home and children are made to work on the farms of their parents and offer services such as cow boys and maid servants creating an unacceptable level of child labour. They eventually grow up in the same poverty environment and future generations are at a threat to adopt the current poverty cycle as a way of life.

Motivation for Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana

This was what moved a group of young people in the Upper East region to found the Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG) as an NGO that seeks to help the youth of the region to develop their skills and equip them with the appropriate information that will help them gain the self confidence necessary to fight through the factors that are promoting the cycle of abject poverty.