Sunyani (B/A), April 29, GNA - Action Aid Ghana (AAG), an internatio= nal Non Governmental Organization, has built 20 school blocks and many other projects for its ten years of existence in the Brong-Ahafo Region. The other projects in the region were construction of six teachers' bungalows, 14 KVIP toilets, a community library, a gari processing and pa= lm oil extraction centers in the region.

At the national level, for its 20 years of operation, AAG has built 91 schools, four childhood development centers, 16 nurses and teachers' quarters, 17 dams and tube wells as well as 13 grinding mills and 23 farm= ers centers. Mrs Christiana Amarchey, Brong-Ahafo Regional Programme's Manager of=

AAG announced this at the regional launching of the 20th anniversary of t= he organization and the 10th anniversary in the region in Sunyani on Thursda= y. The anniversary is under the theme: "Action Aid Ghana: 20 years of fighting poverty". Programmes lined-up for the celebration included folkl= ore writing competition for schools in Asutifi and Tain districts, debate competitions, media discussions with community voices an open day among other things.

Mrs Amarchey said the organization introduced the Rural Education Volunteer Scheme (REVS) in 2000 aimed to assist rural communities with teachers and at the same time support them to improve their results for further studies. In Brong-Ahafo Region, she said, 128 REVS (87 in Asutifi and 41 in Asunafo districts) supported by Action Aid between 2001 and 2008 made a h= uge contribution to improving school performance. For instance, Mrs Amarchey said Asutifi District, which attained a 5= 4 per cent pass rate at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2001 when the REVS started, improved its performance to 87 per cent in 20= 04. This she said was sustained until mining activities began in the are= a and the performance started declining. Giving a brief history, Mrs Amarchey explained that AAG started work=

following a feasibility study it took, which indicated that Northern Ghan= a was more deprived than the rest of the country. She said based on the study AAG selected three districts - Bawku and=

Builsa in Upper East and Nanumba in Northern Region for further scrutiny. Mrs Amarchey mentioned low agricultural production and poor food security, low incomes, poor health, low levels of literacy and lack of wo= men's voice and participation in decision making as some of the issues that emerged from the development area appraisal. She further expressed concern about the issue of bio-fuel noting wit= h regret its huge implications for food security, land usage, environmental=

and human rights as a result of the unregulated upsurge of bio-fuel companies into the country. Mrs Amarchey called for a holistic energy policies (including bio-fuels), which protected its citizens from unscrupulous bio-fuel companies.

"We need to ensure that there is accessible and fertile land for the=

next generation of farmers to use", she stressed adding "we need to ensur= e that the economic trees that many women depend on are not destroyed".

Mr Eric Opoku, Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, noted that eradicating extreme poverty required combined efforts from government and=

the private sector and other development partners. He said government had identified AAG as a true partnership in development and commended the NGO for its numerous contributions especial= ly in areas of infrastructure development that had made tremendous impact on=

the living conditions of the ordinary Ghanaian. Mr Opoku said national extreme poverty, which stood at 52 per cent i= n the past 20 years, had declined to 29 per cent adding that in Brong-Ahafo= , the poverty level, which stood at 65 percent in 1992, had reduced significantly to 18 percent in 2006.

He attributed the success to the efforts of successive governments t= o improve on the lives of the people through job creation.