Grace, Ghana

I live in Accra in a place called Alaja. In my town we have so many problems with the environment.

 

The children have to go to school through the rubbish, making it very difficult for them. Sometimes they fall in the gutters and some of them have to walk along the railway, which is very dangerous. There are some places on the street that sells food which is cooked right next to the gutters. This is not good at all because it brings sickness and death to our people all the time.

 

As a community, we asked the government to come to our aid and they sent us to our community leader, called the Assembly Group. We gathered a mixed group of thirty people. I remember I had to go from house to house and ask if they wanted to help get our message across. I think I visited over 20 houses. Finally, we organised ourselves, and we came together as sisters and brothers and as a family. When we arrived, the community leader welcomed us and he took us very seriously. He organised a meeting with the other leaders and they visited the community and tried to convince other people to help us to clean the rubbish but that did not help and nothing really changed.

 

Grace Mensah

Resident, Accra

 

© Grace Mensah / NCCE / ODI / PhotoVoice

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