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Inhabitants of Bonkrom, a farming community in the Ahafo Ano South West District in the Ashanti Region, are appealing to the government to provide a health facility for them.
In Bonkrom, there is no single health post in the community so pregnant women rely on the services of the only traditional birth attendant (TBA) to deliver them of their babies since they have no option.
The closest facility is a health centre at Asibey Nkwanta, about four kilometres away from Bonkrom. Due to the bad nature of the road motorists are unable to ply the road, therefore, inhabitants are left with no option than to journey on foot to Asibey Nkwanta.
The Odikro of the town, Nana K.Anane appealed to the district assembly to construct at least a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) in the community to cater for the health needs of the people.
In terms of communication, the odikro said it was difficult to even access to communication one had to climb a hill or be at a specific location before one could have access to a network to call for help in case of an emergency.
He added that with the exception of Fridays, which is the market day for the next big town, Kunsu, he said vehicles were hardly seen in the area. Most often, one would have to pray that a motorbike would bring someone from Kunsu to the community and then board or do the 12km journey on foot to Kunsu.
Bonkrom township
The community has about 500 inhabitants and almost everybody knows everyone.
Surrounding the village are plantations of plantain and cocoa, cocoyam and other food crops.
Also, with the exception of the churches and schools which are built with cement blocks, most of the houses in the community are made from mud.
Bonkrom inhabitants eat virtually what they grow as commercial vehicles only come to the community on Fridays which is the market day of Kunsu.
In Bonkrom have only two solar-panelled streetlights to light up the town at night and residents rely on battery-powered electrical gadgets to stay in tune with the rest of the world.
The town is blessed with two boreholes that serve the water needs of the inhabitants.
Odikro of Bonkrom Nana k.Anane
According to the headmaster of the Bonkrom DA Primary, Mr Kwame Yeboah, the school had only six teachers, including a Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCO) person for the eight classrooms.
He said to make up for the shortage, some of the classes had been combined.
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Mr Yeboah said the kindergarten section was being handled by one teacher, same as class one and two and class three and four.
However, he was hopeful that more teachers would be posted to the school as the town would soon have a JHS following the donation of a three-classroom block to the community by International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) as part of its child protection project in cocoa communities in the country.
ICI ISan international is a non-governmental organisation that works to improve the lives of children in cocoa-growing communities by supporting the acceleration and scale-up of child-centred community development and responsible supply-chain management throughout the cocoa sector.
It aims to safeguard child rights and contribute to the elimination of child labour through innovation, development, application and promotion of good practices and through the building of partnerships.