PHOTO: The harvesting in progress
By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue82@gmail.com
VOINJAMA, Liberia- People of Betibah town, Voinjama district in the northwestern Lofa County over the weekend launched the harvesting of over 20 acres of communal upland farm, 394 kilometers from Monrovia.
The farming project is undertaken by the citizens is part of a three-year project called, Facilitated Collective Action Process FCAP implemented in Liberia by the Village Development Fund or (VDF) and Green Advocates International (GAI), with support from the Advocates for Community Alternative or (ACA) based in Ghana.
The Executive Director of VDF, Hawa Kanneh told www.newspublictrust.com that the project is currently being implemented in four of the six communities that are located around the Wologize Mountain in Lofa County.
She named the four communities as Betibah, Kpademai, Obeyeamai and Karza all within Voinjama administrative district.
According to madam Kanneh, each of the four communities under the Facilitated Collective Action Process FCAP Project received a mini-grant of five thousand United States Dollars ($5,000.00USD).
She said the three years project started with capacity building in village saving loan association activities or (VSLA) for the four communities and was followed by management and leadership training amongst several others.
According to Hawa Kanneh, there are plans to extend the project to Darbu and Bedayzebah towns that are also around to Wologize Mountain and possibly other towns in the district.
The Betibah citizens told this Reporter that their initial plan was to embark on a clinic project, but they later switched to food security due to what they described as un-readiness of the Ministry of Health for such project.
The citizens here have vowed to remain committed with a vision to turn their town into a small city within the forest based on the knowledge they acquired under the three years Facilitated Collective Action Proces,s FCAP Project implemented by in Liberia by the Village Development Fund.
They further expressed gratitude to the Advocates for Community Alternative for the support to the Village Development Fund for the project, describing it as rewarding. And they pleaded for an extension of the project activities in their community.
According to citizens in Betibah, potion of the proceeds from the communal farm will be sold while the rest will be kept for cultivation during the next farming season.
They also disclosed plans to shortly begin the planting of life crops, especially cocoa as a means of generating funds to implement projects towards the achievement of their vision.
Their vision is to transform Beitbah into a small city in the forest equipped with clinic, good roods, safe drinking water, good schools, guest house, electricity, latrine and modern houses.