Hostel facilities for female porters

Story: Salome Donkor
RAMPANT fire outbreaks in some slum dwellings in Accra often result in the destruction of property, and the loss of lives.
In January this year, a female porter and her child and another, perished in a fire outbreak that happened at ‘Sodom and Gomorah’, a slum at Old Fadama in Accra.
Over the years similar incidents had occured in the area, which is the largest slum and informal settlement in the country, as well as slums like “Abuja” at the Cocoa Board Station and the slum along the railway line at Odawna.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the slums are crowded with wooden structures occupied by mostly young girls and children, which are exposed to naked fire due to cooking and other domestic activities by the residents.
Despite repeated public concerns raised on the activities of squatters and slum dwellers, the uncontrolled exodus of female porters, popularly known as “Kayayei” from the three northern regions and other rural communities, to Accra,affect the growth of these slums.
Some of these porters who have no accommodation sleep at lorry parks and in front of shops in the central business district of the city.
In order to find solutions to the problems confronting slum dwellers at Old and new Fadama following eviction notices to them from the government, the residents formed the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor in 2003.
The federation works in collaboration with the People’s Dialogue on Human Settlements to establish savings and build a federation of urban poor communities in Ghana that would be linked to Slum\Shack Dwellers International (SDI).
The People’s Dialogue on Human Settlements is a community-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) which is registered with the Department of Social Welfare and works with the urban poor in Ghana to alleviate poverty and improve their living conditions, as well as explore alternative solutions to forced evictions.
The federation, is a network of community-based organisations participating in community-led savings and loans schemes for housing infrastructure development and livelihood improvement. It operates in about 100 communities in the country in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Western, Volta and Eastern regions.
The federation is working as one of the partner organisations that is collecting data, mobilising information and undertaking community-led mappings, to collate needs assessment of the settlers of Sodom and Gomorrah following eviction notices to the residents by the government.
It is also studying the means and affordability capacities of the people to come out with a comprehensive information, as well as technical and professional advise on resettlement programmes for the people.
Pending the take-off of the resettlement programme the Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlements supervised the design and construction of two hostels at a cost of GH¢20,000 put up by the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor.
The hostel has five rooms and each room can accommodate between 10 and 15 people.
Mr Haruna Abu, the co-ordinator of the federation said the fire outbreak in the area in January is a major consideration for putting up the hostel to offer decent accommodation for some of the head porters.
He said the facility with a bathhouse, which is manned by a warden also offers a safe place for the head porters who pay 10 GP per day per head and provides them a place to keep their belongings.
He said the federation started a survey in the area to find out the number of residents in the area and their needs assessment and had so far covered almost 7,000 households.
He described the project as very successful and said head porters who make use of the facility have been educated on how to properly maintain the place.
Mr Faro R. Braimah, Executive Director of People’s Dialogue Human Settlement said it was the commitment of the organisation to find solutions to housing, which was a basic necessity in urban and peri-urban communities, and also tackle the issue of poverty.
He said this would be done in co-operation with governmental and non-governmental organisations, using dialogue and negotiations.