Forty-five households in Tamale Metropolis receives 224 ruminants

Forty-five households in some selected communities within the Tamale metropolitan area have received over two hundred and twenty-four ruminants under the USAID Resiliency in Northern Ghana (RING) project through the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.

Each household will receive thirty ruminants to help improve livelihoods of beneficiary communities and households. The beneficiary communities include Baglahi and Junu both in the Tamale metropolitan area.

The USAID supported initiative, Resiliency in Northern Ghana project is focused on vulnerable families, helping to improve the health status of families and enabling them to better resist unforeseeable shocks, such as droughts, floods, and fluctuating food prices.

Presenting the ruminants to the farmers mainly women, the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, Abdul-Rahman Hanan Gundadow said the presentation is intended to enable the beneficiaries’ rear the animals and fend for their own livelihoods.

The Mayor stated that in the selection process of beneficiaries of the project, the assembly ensured that more women featured, since women play a very crucial role in the upbringing of children and management of households especially in the metropolitan area.

He said the intention of government and for that matter the Assembly and its partners RING is to scale up the number of communities benefiting from the project to help alleviate poverty from the metropolis.

Abdul-Rahman Gundadow however appealed to the farmers to take very good care of the animals and ensure that they are not left to loiter around indiscriminately.

The metropolitan Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Chalse Adams says the animals are purposely meant for breeding and not for any other purpose.

He said to ensure effective and sustainability of the project veterinary officers will periodically visit the farmers to monitor to ensure that the animals are in good health.

Mr. Adams implored the farmers to take good care of the animals. Meanwhile, the animals have been vaccinated and deworm.

One of the beneficiaries, Nafisah Iddrissu thanked the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly for supporting them with the ruminants to start-up their lives saying it will go a long way to complement in the upbringing of their children.

He also promised that they were going to use the animals for the intended purpose.

Consistent with USAID principles of supporting local development solutions and providing direct support to host governments to the maximum extent possible, RING is implemented through a collaborative approach with the District Assemblies in Northern Region and with the Northern Region Coordinating Council. For participating District Assemblies, USAID funding for the implementation of interventions at the community level will go directly to the District Assemblies.

In a joint planning exercise in partnership with the Northern Region Coordinating Council and USAID, District Assemblies will select planned interventions from their Medium Term Development Plans and Community Action Plans to develop RING work plans and budgets.