JULY 10, 2005

Jeffrey Sachs visits Hunger Project epicenter in Ghana

On Sunday, July 10, The Hunger Project’s Nsuta-Aweregya Epicenter in Ghana hosted Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Prof. Sachs visited this Hunger Project program at the special invitation of Joan Holmes.

Prof. Sachs’ delegation included representatives of the World Bank, IMF, WHO and UNDP; the Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands; officials from Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and Ministry of Food and Agriculture, as well as Prof. Sachs’ family. Hunger Project Vice President for Africa Dr. Fitigu Tadesse and staff from The Hunger Project-Ghana accompanied the group.

 

Like all 74 Hunger Project epicenters across Africa, the Nsuta-Aweregya Epicenter is an expression of The Hunger Project’s strategy that mobilizes and empowers local people to meet all their basic needs on a sustainable basis. For the past four years, the Nsuta-Aweregya Epicenter has mobilized 5,000 people from 8 surrounding villages, located just over two hours outside the capital city of Accra.

The Sachs delegation was received by the Paramount Chief, essentially the chief of chiefs in the region, which is a high honor for visiting dignitaries. Also welcoming them were hundreds of representatives from the 8 villages, who came eager to share what they are achieving.

Prof. Sachs was completely engaged with the equal numbers of women and men who serve on the long-established leadership teams responsible for managing each activity at the epicenter. When the leaders were asked to stand up, Prof. Sachs was surprised and pleased by the large numbers of women in leadership positions.

He peppered the epicenter leaders with detailed questions on issues of direct relevance to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, including their child nutrition program, their effectiveness in using compost as organic fertilizer, and their strategies to improve food production and transport their crops to market.

Prof. Sachs had the opportunity to speak with the women responsible for the creation and leadership of the epicenter’s rural bank – one of the first women-owned and women-managed rural banks ever to gain government recognition in Ghana – and one of the very few such banks in all Africa.

They toured the community farm, where the entire community works together to produce an abundance of crops which they contribute to the food bank to establish food security and protect against shortages. The delegation was able to see the food bank full of maize and beans.

Prof. Sachs and his wife Sonia, a pediatrician, were particularly interested in the epicenter health center, where they were able to see the ongoing program to keep all children current with their immunizations. The nurses spoke with pride when they informed Prof. and Dr. Sachs that, in the epicenter delivery room, there had been no deaths of either mothers or infants during the past four years.

Prof. Sachs told the assembled crowd that he was very impressed with everything he had seen and is confident that the people of the epicenter will achieve their vision of ending hunger and poverty by 2010. He stated that he and the Millennium Project will cooperate with The Hunger Project, and as an initial expression of partnership he is arranging for the epicenter to receive 6,000 bed nets to protect people from malaria.

In conclusion, Prof. Sachs was given the honor of cutting the ribbon to formally inaugurate the epicenter’s new housing quarters for full-time nurses.

Before he left, Prof Sachs presented a signed copy of his book, "The End of Poverty" to the Paramount Chief and a second copy for the epicenter library.