Young Tetrem Afigya man helping tackle poverty in Kumbungu District
Justice Boakye Tumfour, from Tetrem Afigya is in
Kumbungu spending 10 weeks volunteering on a UK government funded project to fight
poverty in the Northern region of Ghana.
Justice Boakye Tumfour, 23, is working as part of a
UK government funded scheme International Citizen Service (ICS). He is working alongside
UK volunteers to work with women groups engaged in shea butter and rice
production as their income generation activities. The fulfilment of their
economic right is his priority where he seeks to formalise them as
co-operatives under the Ghana Co-operative Guidelines and provide them with
basic skills which will help achieve stability in their economic activity.
Justice said: “I wanted to do ICS because I always
want to reach out to people to help solve their problems whenever I have the
opportunity to offer my help and impact positively in people’s lives and I found
ICS which I am grateful for. During my placement, I had the opportunity to
offer my skills and assistance to the achievement of the objectives of ICS to
the women groups. The best part is such that, I had the opportunity to develop
new skills such as blogging and I was able to realise my potentials. I accepted
a new challenge to be in charge of communications between my team and the general
public. I really loved this responsibility and will never regret accepting it. I’ve
been most surprised by the wonderful cooperation between UK and Ghanaian
volunteers on my team and the wonderful leadership skills exhibited by our team
leader. I cannot leave out the unity of purpose of my team towards the planning
and implementation of activities. I’ve never volunteered in the northern part
of Ghana before so I wanted to accept a new challenge which was against the
wishes of most of my relatives and friends because I was moving from my comfort
zone to stay up to 10 weeks in an unfamiliar location. This is completely new
experience for me and I’m really excited to be involved. I had volunteered
before but ICS offers a completely unique opportunity to make a real difference
on a long-term development project, so I’m really excited to be involved”.
“I applied to ICS because I wanted to develop my own
skills and experiences while making a real contribution to fighting poverty. It
has been really interesting meeting people in the north and realising what life
is like for young people as it is against what has been perceived by people in
the south of Ghana.
ICS allows young people aged 18-25 to contribute to
sustainable development projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. On return
to the Tetrem, Justice will also take on an ‘Action at Home’ project, ensuring
that his new skills also benefit the local community.
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