Viewing the Globe - Research Paper Example

Viewing The Globe: Fuman, Ghana My is Agyei Kwadwo and I live in a small rural village called Fuman (population of 200), which is located in Ghana’s Volta Region, 30 miles north of Volta’s regional capital, Ho. My family consists of a large extended kinship network, which includes my wife and our 6 children, her elderly mother, and my younger brother, who I have raised since he was 12 when our parents died from cholera. We have 6 children because I’m a subsistence farmer and need free labor to help on our farm.

We also don’t use contraception because we’re strict Roman Catholics. Finally, high infant mortality rates in Ghana means that having more children increases the chances that some will survive into adulthood, and care for us in our old age. I’m primarily a subsistence farmer, which involves growing enough crops and rearing livestock for my family to live off. I also work 8 hours a day on a local cocoa plantation, but pay is poor, and I only earn $3 per day. In the evening, my wife prepares our family meal.

My favorite dishes include stews and fufu, which is a dough-like combination of plantains and cassava or yams, sometimes accompanied by freshly made soup if we have enough food. Vegetables and rice are other important staples of my family’s diet because they are cheap, easy to grow and high in energy. My family rarely buys groceries in shops because we can’t afford them. However, we trade items to get household goods we need. For example, my youngest daughter caught a virus last month, and I traded 8 pints of milk with the local chemist for the medication she needed.

The weather is a big challenge and threat to our subsistence farming. The dry season occurs from November-March, with temperatures exceeding 30°c. Last year, an extended draught destroyed half of my crops, which sadly resulted in our youngest child dying of malnutrition. Livestock on our neighbor’s farms also died due the desertification of land and nowhere for animals to graze. The wet season occurs between April-November, with over 80 inches of rain. This helps the crops on my farm grow, and provides grazing land for livestock.

However, hunger and famine return in the dry season because we don’t have the means to preserve our food. I also worry about the spread of malaria due to the warm damp conditions mosquitoes thrive in. I’ve bought 3 mosquito nets to protect my children, but I can’t afford to buy anymore. Water borne diseases such as cholera also threaten my family’s health. My neighbor recently died from cholera, and as result, the village’s fresh water supply has been cut off. My wife and eldest children now have to walk 3 miles to a neighboring village to collect water for our domestic and agricultural use.

There is also no electricity in our village, and so television and other forms of communication with the outside world are limited. However, there’s a great community atmosphere within the village. There’s plenty of local entertainment including singing and dancing to traditional Ghanaian music in the village square. Local kids also play soccer in the streets and where David Beckham England shirts. Overall, I fear for the future of my children. None of them regularly attend school because it’s too far away, plus we need their help on the farm.

Therefore I see little hope of their quality of life improving. I therefore believe the government needs to provide aid programs to help the poorest people in Ghana tackle poverty issues in order to improve lives.