What strikes you as you travel to Gundaa is its distance. It is located a long way off from Tamale, where the CCFC Country Office is located. Another thing that strikes you as you make an entry into Gundaa community is its very narrow and dilapidated road, as well as the weedy nature of the community. Yet still, one more thing that hits you as you make entry is the very large and unmistakable dam located conspicuously within Gundaa.
Gundaa is located about 35 kilometres from Tamale on an unpaved road in the Tolon Kumbungu district of the northern region of Ghana. CCFC works in Tolon Kumbungu through the Baptist Child Development Program. It has a population of about 1 186 of which 562 are male and 624 are female. There are about 639 children located in Gundaa, out of which 151 are in school. Gundaa has only one school called Gundaa Methodist Primary School and only one source of drinking water, which is the dam. It has no sanitation facilities at all and that explains the weedy nature of the community. The community is listed among the most guineaworm endemic communities in Ghana whiles Ghana is rated second in the world, only behind Sudan, in terms of guineaworm infestation.
It is to this community of Gundaa that 10 year old Tahiru Haruna belongs. He is a grade four pupil of Gundaa Primary school and is happy to still be in school despite the challenges. “I am glad this year that I have not got down with guinea worm yet. Whenever I get guinea worm, I don’t go to school at all”, he reveals.
“My school has no source of drinking water so my friends and I rely on the water from the dam nearby. So when I am thirsty in school, I simply dash down to the dam to get a drink. I sometimes develop stomach from drinking the unwholesome water as well dysentery, diarrhoea and sometimes cholera. When this happens, I skip school and this affects my performace”, Haruna states.
The grade four pupil also discloses that “worst still, there are no sanitation facilities in the school so we use the nearby bush as a place of convenience. I know this is not good but there is no other place to go to. I am aware that some of this faecal matter washes into the dam and that is why most times I get sick”.
It is interesting to note that the dam that Haruna refers to is called Gundaa Lorni. It is an unguarded dam from which the whole community gets its source of water. Funny enough, members of the community use the overgrown bush around the dam as their place of convenience and this definitely washes into the dam. This accounts for the high incidence of cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea and guineaworm among members of the community. But children, especially school going children like Haruna, are the most affected when diseases strike. They are forced to miss academic work in school and thus their human potentials are not fully realised.
“I wish my school had a clean source of drinking water and some sanitation facilities. I would not have to run down to the river to drink water or use the nearby bush to defecate. When I run to the river to drink water, I come back tired and unable to concentrate in class. Also, when I develop stomach ache, diarrhea or some other water borne disease, I miss school for several days and weeks. This does not help me in my performance in school and this is hampering my ambition of becoming an academic professor in future”, Huruna says.
Speaking on the same subject, the headmaster of the school, Zakaria Iddrisu moans that “sometimes the school is almost empty of school children. They are either down with guineaworm, dysentery, cholera or diarrhea and this affects teaching and learning in the school. The teachers of the school themselves are not sparred. Consequently, the school’s performance is not encouraging and I do believe it is for some of these reasons that school enrolment by children in the community is low. If there was a way of stopping the children from going down to the river to drink whiles school was in session, then it would enhance our performance”.
“Another discouraging trend is there are greater numbers of pupils in the lower grades as compared to the upper grades. For instance, there are 68 pupils in grade 1 as compared to 12 pupils in grade 6. There are 25 in grade 2, 20 in grade 3 and 13 in grades 4 and 5. The numbers keep dwindling as the children climb up the grade ladder and this is attributable to the constant diseases they go through whiles in school”, the headmaster articulates.
Ten year old Tahiru Haruna is a member of the 13 pupils of grade 4 and everything should therefore be done within the means to keep him and his colleagues in school through the provision of potable water and sanitation facilities in their school.
Gundaa is located about 35 kilometres from Tamale on an unpaved road in the Tolon Kumbungu district of the northern region of Ghana. CCFC works in Tolon Kumbungu through the Baptist Child Development Program. It has a population of about 1 186 of which 562 are male and 624 are female. There are about 639 children located in Gundaa, out of which 151 are in school. Gundaa has only one school called Gundaa Methodist Primary School and only one source of drinking water, which is the dam. It has no sanitation facilities at all and that explains the weedy nature of the community. The community is listed among the most guineaworm endemic communities in Ghana whiles Ghana is rated second in the world, only behind Sudan, in terms of guineaworm infestation.
It is to this community of Gundaa that 10 year old Tahiru Haruna belongs. He is a grade four pupil of Gundaa Primary school and is happy to still be in school despite the challenges. “I am glad this year that I have not got down with guinea worm yet. Whenever I get guinea worm, I don’t go to school at all”, he reveals.
“My school has no source of drinking water so my friends and I rely on the water from the dam nearby. So when I am thirsty in school, I simply dash down to the dam to get a drink. I sometimes develop stomach from drinking the unwholesome water as well dysentery, diarrhoea and sometimes cholera. When this happens, I skip school and this affects my performace”, Haruna states.
The grade four pupil also discloses that “worst still, there are no sanitation facilities in the school so we use the nearby bush as a place of convenience. I know this is not good but there is no other place to go to. I am aware that some of this faecal matter washes into the dam and that is why most times I get sick”.
It is interesting to note that the dam that Haruna refers to is called Gundaa Lorni. It is an unguarded dam from which the whole community gets its source of water. Funny enough, members of the community use the overgrown bush around the dam as their place of convenience and this definitely washes into the dam. This accounts for the high incidence of cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea and guineaworm among members of the community. But children, especially school going children like Haruna, are the most affected when diseases strike. They are forced to miss academic work in school and thus their human potentials are not fully realised.
“I wish my school had a clean source of drinking water and some sanitation facilities. I would not have to run down to the river to drink water or use the nearby bush to defecate. When I run to the river to drink water, I come back tired and unable to concentrate in class. Also, when I develop stomach ache, diarrhea or some other water borne disease, I miss school for several days and weeks. This does not help me in my performance in school and this is hampering my ambition of becoming an academic professor in future”, Huruna says.
Speaking on the same subject, the headmaster of the school, Zakaria Iddrisu moans that “sometimes the school is almost empty of school children. They are either down with guineaworm, dysentery, cholera or diarrhea and this affects teaching and learning in the school. The teachers of the school themselves are not sparred. Consequently, the school’s performance is not encouraging and I do believe it is for some of these reasons that school enrolment by children in the community is low. If there was a way of stopping the children from going down to the river to drink whiles school was in session, then it would enhance our performance”.
“Another discouraging trend is there are greater numbers of pupils in the lower grades as compared to the upper grades. For instance, there are 68 pupils in grade 1 as compared to 12 pupils in grade 6. There are 25 in grade 2, 20 in grade 3 and 13 in grades 4 and 5. The numbers keep dwindling as the children climb up the grade ladder and this is attributable to the constant diseases they go through whiles in school”, the headmaster articulates.
Ten year old Tahiru Haruna is a member of the 13 pupils of grade 4 and everything should therefore be done within the means to keep him and his colleagues in school through the provision of potable water and sanitation facilities in their school.
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