Self -help have been long adopted as a strategy in Ghana back before our independence. It appears we are becoming very lazy and happy to receive hand me downs and say thank you instead of us saying well, we did these projects ourselves. Amazing

Ghana, @ nearly 51, our life journey comes with responsibilities and pride. Let’s be observant from now on and help to develop our country. We hardly have public toilets with hand washing basins at strategic spots. Yet, our markets, cities, towns, hotels, villages, tro tro stations, hospitals and even our major transport stations are all excellent venues for generating money for such community developments.

We did celebrate Ghana @50 in style all over the globe, however at the same time, let’s take a new strategy of self-help programmes through our motherland. If we say we are independent then, instead of relying on others from overseas and to help us we need to be proactive in generating money for using other strategies.

Money generated could be channelled into providing basic amenities for our communities.

How could we start up these self-help programmes?

Communities could buy four raffle prizes with perhaps the first prize as a TV, second prize DVD player, third a microwave and fourth an electric iron. The raffle tickets could be sold for five New Ghana cedis each and when enough money the made the prizes are reeleased week week at a set time. A community needs to sell about 20 thousand tickets sold to make a profit to cover the cost of the prizes and some left for community development.

The communities themselves would need to open a bank account with three key community trusted people signing for every cheque issued.

Accountability is essential and the community needs to be told monthly what the community are making through community meeting and their strategic planning. This momentum needs to be kept going with raffle tickets every week and with different prizes each time. For example, one week it could be electric sewing machine, next a lawn mower, pumps for a well etc as first prize and followed by minor prizes. It is best to buy prizes that one feels a community would wish to have therefore are more likely to buy a ticket.

Then sooner or later every development that a community identify would be addressed through this community money-generating programme. This would also free the government to address major issues of concerns.

Those with good beaches along their villages or towns could evene engaged in beach volley and footballs programmes for the locals and the tourists industry

Please do share these initiatives throughout Ghana. It is about timing we all club together to have a pride of being Ghanaians. As all these tactics would help us to be truly self reliant for Ghana @50 +.

Self-help is very important, as one can not expect the Government to do everything for us. We can then take greater pride of our own achievements than what has been done for us.

Let’s make a difference within the communities in which we live with great pride. Every community must have something that would draw tourists and other Ghanaians else where in the country to do a day trip or excursions and in the process that community can also cash in on the influx of people into their community.

Long live Ghana, and Africa.

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