ISODEC assists flood victims

Tamale, Dec. 15, GNA - The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), an NGO, has sourced a total of GH=A2312,000 (3.12 billion cedis) as an emergency relief package for victims of the floods that hit the three northern regions this year. The money would be used to help re-stock basic school teaching and learning materials, disinfect drinking water sources, reconstruct houses and acquire fishing nets for some of the affected communities to improve their standard of living. The intervention will focus m ainly on three most affected districts: West Mamprusi in the Northern Region and Bawku East and Builsa in the Upper East Region. The programme is to work through ISODEC girl-child and reproductive health partners to help reconstruct the affected communities to mitigate the plight of the people.

Madam Rosemond Kumah, Northern Ghana Programmes Coordinator of ISODEC announced the package at a press briefing in Tamale on Friday. Madam Kumah said the money, which was sourced from "Oxfam NOVIB" of the Netherlands, would provide 40 communities with GH=A22,400 (24 million cedis) each for educational infrastructure improvement and to rehabilitate school structures that were destroyed by the floods. She said a multi-stakeholder disaster relief committee would be formed, which would work with ISODEC staff to ensure that the money was properly utilised.

The committee, Madam Kumah said would be composed of representatives from the beneficiary district assemblies, district offices of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Ghana Education Service, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, as well as community-based organisations.

Madam Kumah said since 1990, Oxfam NOVIB had supported the people of the North, mentioning its intervention during the 1999 floods, during which the organisation provided funds to implement relief programmes in the Builsa and West Mamprusi districts.

The ISODEC Programmes Coordinator commended the government for the establishment of a 250 billion-cedi Northern Development Fund and expressed the need for a national discussion on how to address the imbalance between the north and the south. She said there was the need to subject the Northern Ghana Development Plan, which was currently in its development stages, to a stakeholder critique for a review if necessary, to ensure that there was a comprehensive plan that would benefit the north in particular and the country as a whole. 15 Dec. 07