The poor: Trapped in the realities of life

Twenty-six years ago, I was born in a community called Agotime Kpetoe; I grew up to have so much interest in the sustainable development of the entire district. Flash back to memory lane, I have witnessed what the poor goes through each day to fight for his/her daily bread. The realities of life have not spared anyone in this category of poor status. In short, life isn’t easy for those who have been categorized as the rural poor.

The realities of life, have hit them so hard, to the extent that they can only stay on zero-zero-one or one-zero-zero or zero-one-zero meal per-day. Is this not unbelievable? But that’s what the poor must go through. This also, undoubtedly happens in cities and those who are usually the victims are the migrants who migrate from the rural areas to urban centers for jobs. When these migrants are been hit in the face with the realities of life regarding job situations in the urban centers, they become hopeless, but continue to hustle to feed one-self.

Believably, majority of the world’s poor lives in developing countries where farming is a dominant land use. One will ask, so what has gone wrong, that we cannot improve our lives with agriculture? A sector that has been the backbone of Ghana’s development has suddenly declined.

As a country, we seem to produce less of everything consumable. This has resulted in over reliance on food importation and food becoming too expensive for the average Ghanaian to buy. It will only take a leader, who is willing to lead for his people than himself and families, to ensure the realities of life will not continue to trap poor.

Removing the poor from the trapped realities can be achieved by man. This corroborates with the statement from, Nelson Mandela, “Poverty is not an accident like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” Prioritizing investment in Agriculture is the only way to improve the livelihood of the people in the rural areas. Will African governments continue to watch the poor trapped in these realities of life without taking anti-poverty development actions? Aahh well!!

Watch out for Part 2

Vozbeth Kofi Azumah

Founder/President of reality Ghana

vozbeth020@gmail.com