Opoku Gakpo Writes: The “Jungle Poor” and our GJA Award

I was in the Department of Communication Studies’ library at the University of Ghana one morning when I got a whatsupp message from my editor Dzifa Bampoh saying, “Gakpo, we need to talk when you come to work in the afternoon.” I wasn’t sure what it was about but I responded “ok.” It turned out to be a busy day so that conversation eventually came off on the staircase to the Joy newsroom in the Multi TV building on the Fanoofa Street around 9pm. This was sometime in August 2015, I think.

In summary, Dzifa had an idea that as the Millennium Development Goals expired to make way for the Sustainable Development Goals in September last year, it would be good to put together a documentary that will assess Ghana’s performance in meeting the MDG targets from “bottom up”. A look at the level of progress beyond the eyes of the United Nations, National Development Planning Commission, central government, among others. But an assessment from the perspective of the ordinary Ghanaian, particularly in rural Ghana, on how they believe we have fared on specific MDG targets like education, health, sanitation, accessibility to portable water, among others.

Weeks later, I set off on a visit to some of our country’s poorest regions, ostensibly to hear stories of rural Ghana’s progression and retrogression alike over the last 15 years that the MDGs had been in existence. Tours like this involve very long, tiring days and short nights; aching backs from non-ending drives on bumpy roads, and sometimes exhaustion beyond imaginable levels. But I enjoy them and always look forward to the next.

What we found during this visit proved interesting. We saw communities like Nyitavuta in “Volta Ghana” which lacks all the necessary basic amenities including portable water, electricity, health post, road network and toilet facilities, but people are still surviving there in patched-up mud houses. Their children sometimes go to school bare footed, but they have decided to cancel ‘giving up’ from their options. Pregnant women in this community have to walk for hours to the nearest health facility for natal care, but they wake up every morning with a thankful heart to the God of life.

At Saakpuli in the Savelugu Nantom District of the Northern Region which also lacks all the necessary basic amenities, I met a father who spoke passionately about how three days earlier, he had to carry his sick daughter on the back of a motorbike to the district capital, about an hour’s ride away, just to seek treatment for malaria. This father told me he was afraid she was going to die, but thanks to God, she lived.

In Bodzanutokor for example, residents have to paddle canoes on the Keta Lagoon carrying gallons of water for hours to fetch pipe borne water from a nearby community and bring back for drinking and cooking. At Atsivikope, residents drank water from a grayish looking stream they share with animals because the district assembly had started the construction of a borehole but had abandoned the project for more than one year. The closest school to the community is an hour’s walk away and the little ones couldn’t walk there, so they stayed at home. At Bincha in the Nkwanta North District, the school there which has a population of more than one hundred pupils had no desks and children had to sit on blocks to learn. There was no teacher either to train the kids. And the structure they learn in is worse than a school under tree. The above are a few of the highlights of that one week tour. In the end, our Hotline Editor Fiifi Koomson could not have captured it any better when after editing the script, he suggested we call the documentary “JUNGLE POOR.”

The evidence from the ground was glaring that although Ghana had made a lot of strides at meeting the MDGs, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done in helping deal with poverty and under development. This was rightly echoed by the analysts who were featured in the documentary including the UN Resident Cordinator Christine Evans Klocke, Country Director of Care International Elkanah Odembo, Economist with the University of Ghana Dr. Eric Osei Assibey, Mr. Ken Owusu of the NDPC, among others.

Fast forward, that documentary titled “Jungle Poor,” which was the brainchild of Dzifa is what I used to win the Ghana Journalists Association Award as Best Journalist on Sustainable Development Goals reporting for the year 2015 on Saturday.

I wasn’t at the Banquet Hall to pick up the award personally but when I heard my documentary had won the award, I was really glad. Neither was I surprised. Jungle Poor received some very good reviews after it was aired; with top among them coming from the BBC’s Akwasi Sarpong, who tweeted: “Heard Opoku Gakpo’s story on radio today. Such a powerful reminder of what journalism is about: the fate of our people.”

https://twitter.com/akwasisarpong/status/647032468424495104

And Jungle Poor received very good reactions from government, philanthropists and civil society groups after it was aired. Months after the documentary run, government began work on roads leading to Nyitavuta. A US-based NGO moved in to empower residents in alternative sources of livelihood. The Rotary Club moved in to drill boreholes for residents. Charity organisation Cooper Union led by Prof. Tode Cumberbatch visited the community to provide residents with solar lamps and a solar panel.

Also, the borehole project at Atsivikope which had been abandoned by the District Assembly was fixed and the DCE went to commission it. A three unit classroom block has since gone up in the Bincha community in the Nkwanta South District. The District Education Directorate posted a trained teacher there and provided pupils with desks. All following the airing of the documentary. Akwasi was right. Journalism is really about the fate of the people, and changing it for the better. I dare say that journalism could be a more powerful tool than all the might and riches of central government combined, and this is the evidence.

So, today, I write to dedicate the award given me by the GJA to the millions of poor people in this country who are still surviving without one basic amenity of life or the other. In the hope that in a nation as rich and wealthy as ours, a day will come soon, when poverty would be eradicated from our land. In the hope that someday, every child born in this land would be blessed to live in a comfortable home, have access to portable water, health care and electricity, pursue stress free education, and live to fulfill all their wildest dreams.

I woke up this morning thousands of miles away from home and felt like re-telling the Jungle Poor story with some personal touch. So, I started writing. No flowery words, no rhythmic language, no colourful stringing of sentences. Just words put together to share the glory this award brings with all those Ghanaians who remain hopeful that the deep-seated poverty that a large chunk of our population find themselves in, can be wiped off from our land someday. And also to make the point that in this profession I find myself, there are no heroes. No one produces a good story by him or herself. It took the sacrifice of cameramen like Samuel Asante, video editors like Ernest Larmie, colleagues like Ivy Setordjie, Fiifi Koomson and Martina Bugri, ‘big men’ like Elvis Kwashie, and off course, the hundreds of folks in the Joy news room to make Jungle Poor an award winning piece. Ayekoo to you all. And congrats to Seth Kwame Boateng, Beatrice Adu and Benedict Owusu on your awards.

Below are the links to the audio and video versions of the documentary for your listening and viewing pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_8AwTwL58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhxtP4tzASY

https://soundcloud.com/joseph-opoku-gakpo/poverty-hotline

https://soundcloud.com/joseph-opoku-gakpo/jungle-poor-part-2

By Joseph Opoku Gakpo / www.josephopokugakpo.wordpress.com