Funsi, UWR, Oct. 22, GNA - Majority of people living in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region are aged, poor and neglected. The youth in the district have migrated to the south and galamsey mining communities in search of jobs to improve their personal economies and as a result left behind their old at home to cater for themselves, a situation that is taking a heavy toll on their health. An opinion leader, Mr. Limann Suari, raised this concern at Funsi when the Ghana News Agency carried out educational sensitization interviews on the impending National Population and Housing Census to be held early next year.

He said the trend of migration was more manifested in the Wa East District where the old age population was estimated at 70 per cent of productive manpower resource of the area. "With the drift of the youth to urban centres, the aged who are mostly dependent on subsistent farming are left to fend for themselves. As a result, they are not always able to produce enough for their families, the product of which is the endemic poverty situation among the people", Mr. Suari explained.

Mr. Suari said, in all of these, women are the worst off as they lacked the capacity to do intensive manual labour as well as acquire financial assistance to undertake any meaningful economic activity to generate income.

He advocated for a proper documentation of the aged in the census to enable government include those in the district on the list of would be beneficiaries of packages designed to reduce poverty. 22 Oct 09