Tamale is the biggest town in Northern Ghana. It is became prominent following the British colonial Gvernement making it the capital of the then Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Colony.
Tamale from its modest beginning is a conglomerate of small villages, and today it has grown into a mini-city, with a population of about 450, 000 people. Tamale is the fourth largest city in Ghana coming behind the twin cities of Sekondi-Takoradi. As one of he fastest growing cities in West Africa, it is home to REAL TAMALE United Football Club, which raised the Ghanaian soccer star Abedi Ayew Pele.
The main language spoken in Tamale is Dagbani (Language of the Dagomba or Dagbamba people), which is part of the Mole-Dagbani group of languages. Hausa and English are also spoken. Most people on the street in Tamale are able to understand a bit of english (Pidgin) at least. The people are very hospitable as in most parts of Ghana. The children in Tamale are particularly friendly to vistors, and most are likely to demonstrate the desire to assist visitors even to the point of being almost nuisance. Do enjoy their comapny, for they only mean good.
Family sizes in this city are generally large, with average households having no less than 15 people.
As part of Northern Ghana, people in this community are generally poor, compared to those in southern Ghana. In fact the Ghana Statistical Service index report (2000), shows that Northern Ghanaians are among the pooorest in the entire country. The average incomes of families per year do not exceed 400 US Dollars. This situation can be blamed on both the general poor soils that make agriculture / farming a less profitable occupation, and also the lack of good education to secure skilled jobs in the modern sector. The latter (lack of education ) stems from the British colonial administration policy between 1890 and 1950 to keep the population of Northern Ghana less educated in order to provide cheap labour for the plantations and mines in southern Ghana.
It is this background of poverty that results in many children being unable to access basic education. This aside, there are issues of disability, broken marriages and the break-down of support, and in recent times lose of family support from AIDS, which is on the rise. It is in such a context that the CEVS is working to support children from more vulnerable backgrounds, including those with disabilties.
Bimbila is a small town located about 100 miles south east of Tamale. It is the administrative capital of the Nanumba District, with a population of about 45,000 people. The people of the town and surrounding villages speak the Nanuni dialect (south-easten dialect of Dagbani). The main occupation of over 98% of the population is subsistence farming. Modern machinery for large scale farming is not accessible to the farmers due to low incomes.
Though schools have been established here for some time many children do not access education, due both to inability (poverty) and reluctance of parents to enrol them. In this community, the CEVS is concentrating efforts at convincing parents to enrol children in schools especially in adopted villages like Nasamba.There is also considerable emphasis on the disabled children being enrolled in schools and to support these children.
Nasamba in particular has had a dysfunctional school for many years and CEVS would want to ensure that the village school becomes a permanent feature of the community's modern institutitions. The village has no clinic, no clean water and no electricity. The issue with the electricity has to do with politics, as a political decision was made not provide the village with power even though the power lines run through the village. All other villages, which lie within the Goverenment stipulated 10-20 mile radius of powerlines have electricy except for Nasamba. CEVS does not intend to intervene in the areas of hard infrastructure but we hope our effort in highlighting the plight of the village would draw other agencies to provide support in addresssing these problems.
*** CEVS has been unable to make impact in this community because of resources. It will exciting to se any non-governmntal oganisation tak up the issues in Nasamba.