Asesewa(E/R), Nov. 15, GNA- The desire by Plan Ghana, an International Non-Governmental Organization(NGO) to support communities in the Upper Manya-Krobo District in the provision of social amenities, is being hampered by the demand for compensation for community lands by some individuals claiming to be landlords of those lands.

This was disclosed to media personnel by the Asesewa Programme Area Manager of Plan Ghana, Mr George Cobbinah Yorke at an end of year review meeting of his organization with representatives of 40 communities which Plan Ghana was providing support at Asesewa on Wednesday.

He explained that, under the project, communities which request for assistance from Plan Ghana, have to provide land for the project which is free from any form of litigation.

Mr. Yorke said often, the said landlords come to his office to demand for compensation for the land which had been provided for the project after the project had taken off and reached advanced stage. He said over ten years that Plan Ghana had been working in the Asesewa Area, it had supported the communities to construct over 40 school buildings and 60 boreholes fitted with hand-pumps and supported other health and educational programmes in the area.

Mr. Yorke said during the year under review, his organization spent a budget of 5.5 billion cedis to support programmes and projects in the Asesewa area, including the training of staff of Ghana Health Service(GHS), Ghana Education Service(GES), some volunteers and members of the beneficiary communities.

He said, his organization also supported the construction of two primary school blocks with library facilities, three boreholes fitted with pumps and provided three year scholarship for 115 second cycle students in the area.

Mr Yorke said the challenge facing his organization was how to get the communities to raise their own funds to maintain the projects which they had constructed for them and use some of the funds to initiate new development projects.

Mr Asum Kwarteng of Plan Ghana, called on the beneficiary communities of Plan Ghana projects to often collect data to analyze to find out if the purpose for the construction of the projects had been achieved.

He advised the communities to avoid politicization of issues in the collection of the data to enable them to get very objective facts which could help them arrive at credible information. In a welcoming address, Mr Joe Appiah, Co-ordinating Manager of Projects for Plan Ghana in the Southern Sector of the country, explained that, the forum was to provide an opportunity for the stakeholders to access their performance over the past year. He called on the people to support their projects with communal labour and not to award them on contract to help reduce poverty in their communities. 15 Nov. 2006