Completion of a classroom in Kwamo

The Ghana Government has, in recent years embarked upon the development of the country be preparing planning schemes of towns and villages but in most cases only few of these layouts are actually implemented. These are those in urban areas declared Statutory Areas. The reason for this unfortunate situation is two-fold: a. inability of the Central Government to pay for implementation; b. inadequacy of planning staff But in order that villages may keep abreast with developments taking place in the urban areas, the government encourages them by providing technical aid so that they can improve their living conditions through self-help. Self-help is a technique of community development by which the efforts of the people are joined with those of the government in order to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities into the life of the national progress. The enthusiasm of the people is secured from the start but where this is not forthcoming it is stimulated through lectures, photographs, cinemas and concerts organized by the Social Welfare and Community Development Department. To this end the Social Welfare and Community Development gives aid to villages in the form of technical know-how to direct the people in carrying out small scale project as construction of schools, roads, and health centres, aid is in the form of materials and sometimes cash. Foreign agencies such as the United States agency for International Development and the Ford Foundation have, in recent years, been providing aid through the Social welfare and Community Development. While undertaking various self-help projects in the villages it is necessary to have trained personnel to guide the villagers. This project report exercise is therefore designed to introduce the Physical Planner to get some insight into his future work. As part of the final examination, each student was given the option to choose a village, select a project from it and carry it through survey, analysis design (where necessary) and implementation through local self-help. This project report has five chapters, each chapter covering a specific topic. Chapter I deals with the preliminary work; selection of villages out of which final project was to be chosen; final selection of village and project. Initially three villages, namely, Ayeduase, Kotei and Kwamo were selected. The main factor taken into consideration in selecting these villages was their proximity to the University since this would permit frequent and regular visits to the site. These villages having been selected, problems facing each village were discussed with the respective chiefs, elders and members of the Village Development Committee and their felt-needs listed in order of priority. Kwamo was finally selected because the villagers seemed extremely enthusiastic on self-help. Felt-needs of the village were listed as follows: a. completion of a Middle School classroom; b. completion of public pit latrines; c. construction of a Primary School. In selecting the final project from these three, preference was given to the one which satisfied most of the following criteria: a. the project should be capable of completion by 1 May 1967; b. it should meet the immediate felt-needs of the people and not the needs as conceived by an outside expert; c. it should represent a physical improvement of immediate use of the local people; d. money to be spent on the project should not exceed N¢167.00 (one hundred and sixty-seven new cedis) if possible; e. the project should allow for maximum use of local labour, materials and technical know-how with emphasis on self-help and community development techniques. With these criteria as a guide, the completion of the Middle School classroom was selected by the villagers as their immediate felt-need. Chapter II deals with the location, physical features, population trend, land tenure, political, economic and social aspects of the village. Kwamo is about nine miles east of Kumasi along the Kumasi-Accra trunk road. It lies on a ridge and is bordered by Fomisua on the west, Jachie on the north, Ejisu on the east and Krapa on the south. It has a population of 1,131. The village has moved once and is now resettled three quarters of a mile from its former site. The main occupation of the people is cocoa farming but a few of them trade in palm-wine, basket making and petty trading. There is a Community Centre, one Catholic Church, two Primary Schools, a Middle School and a Field.

Source: KNUST