Vulnerability

Programme for the Vulnerable and the Excluded
Introduction

The Department of Community Development is one department that caters for the vulnerable and excluded in the Municipality. The Department does this through the following programmes:

Adult Education

This programme is one of the avenues through which vital information on Government Policies and issues affecting the communities themselves are looked into in the form of talks, discussion etc to get the local folks to take local action to better their lot.

1. Study Groups: Study groups meet in small group (about 15-20 people) to discuss issues of local development to take action on them. We have three study groups of 48 members.
2. Mass Meetings: This activity involves organizing the people in the communities in large groups, for education on various issues. In the previous quarter, only nine meeting were organized with total audience of about 2,000 people.
3. Adult Functional Literacy: The staff talks to people in the communities about the importance of literacy. They also use this programme to stress especially on how it could assist in the improvement of their performance in their spheres of work.
4. Home Science Extension (Women’s Work): - This programme offers training for village women and the deprived on better methods of managing their Homes, handling food and caring for their children. The women are also educated on economic ventures, personal and environmental hygiene all aimed at helping them to be effective contributors to their homes, communities and the nation. We have seven women’s groups in the municipality. This laudable programme is also hindered by lack of funds to give adequate training to the groups, inadequate staff to establish more groups and lack of necessary logistics like transport.

Technical Services

The Technical Division helps communities that are in self-help projects with technical advice and where necessary technical assistance. The Technical staff also train local artisans in the construction of household sanitary facilities, hand-dug well etc.
Women’s Training Institute.  The institute trains women in various skills to make them employable. The trainees at the end of their training take the National Vocational Training Institute Examination (grade II & I). The duration of the course is 3 years. 

Social Welfare Services In The Ho Municipality Justice Administration

Probation

Probation services continued to be rendered by the Department of Social Welfare through the Probation Office. The efforts put together by the department, the Police and the Judiciary have contributed greatly to decrease the use of custodial sentences in the reformation of juvenile delinquents in the municipality. The constraint however, is that the Probation committee has been dormant.

Juvenile Courts

The juvenile court functions actively with a staff of the Department, being a panel member of the Community Tribunal when it sits as a Juvenile Court. The Probation Officer prepares Social Enquiry Reports on juvenile delinquents who plead guilty or are found guilty by the courts. These reports always contain recommendation for suitable types of treatment for the offenders.

Aftercare/Prison Welfare

Aftercare services are rendered to inmates discharged on licence from the Industrial schools, Prisons and Borstal Institutes. Services rendered under the Prisons Welfare msub-heading are in the areas of contacts made on their behalf with relatives, friends, employers, the Police lawyers and courts, payment of boarding out fees, being assisted with clothing and collection of salaries and fines etc. The Prisons Discharge Board has, however, not been meeting.

Family Tribunals

There exists in the Municipality a Family Tribunal in Ho, which redresses unsuccessful cases handled at home, or at the Department of Social Welfare. The Tribunals have been active.

Remand Home

Even though a Remand Home exists in the Municipality under the control of the Regional Directorate, it has not been functioning. This situation is in the interest of juvenile offenders as those who are not granted bail are remanded in prisons custody where they mingle with hardened criminals and get more contaminated.

Municipal Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation

This committee is there to give advisory support to Rehabilitation Programmes in the municipality. The committee has been dormant for some time now due to financial constraints, which make it impossible for meetings to be convened for programme discussion.

Registration

The department identifies and registers people with disabilities of all forms. The number of registered physically challenged persons in the municipality stands at 155. The department continues to make follow - ups /Aftercare /Vocational /Counselling or Guidance visits to people with disabilities and their families. Also services in the form of referral of physically challenged persons to various agencies are rendered by the department. Some of these agencies include Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Rehabilitation Centres, Orthopaedic Centres, etc.

Assistance to Persons With Disabilities (PWDs)

The department renders services by way of assistance in cash or in kind to People with Disabilities. For the past one and a half (1 Vz) years, however, no such assistance was rendered due to lack of funds.

Community - Based Rehabilitation

The ultimate aim of this programme is the enhancement of total integration of people with disabilities into the various fields of endeavour where their abilities and the community resources would permit. These include the exposure of the physically challenged persons to academic, social and economic opportunities available in the communities, which are to be tapped to their advantage.

For now, the programme is still being carried out in the four (4) communities of Anyirawase, Sokode Gbogame, Tsawenu and Awudome - Kwanta and the objectives are being achieved. Plans and programmes are underway for the Extension of the programme to other communities in the municipality. Very Soon Zonal Council and Unit Committee members would be trained to take over the roles of the Local Supervisors under the new approach of the CBRDP.

Hospital Welfare Services

The department renders services to patients, especially, the in patients through counselling in the administration of drugs, collection of salaries for workers who are hospitalized, writing of Social Equity reports on destitute and coming out with recommendation on them.