Meet our community members - Mensah
If you have never been to one, it might be difficult to imagine what it is like to live in a rural community in Ghana. To give you a glimpse of what daily life in Humjibre looks like, GHEI will introduce you to its community members in our new blog series ‘Meet our community members’.
What are the hopes and dreams of a junior high school student? What do first-time mothers struggle with when raising their baby? Who runs the local drinking spot? How do GHEI’s local staff feel about their work? Read it here! Meet Mensah, GHEI's Health Program Administrator - Sunday, June 3rd, 2018
It is weekend, so Mensah spends his time at home, in Soroano, where he lives with his wife Joyce and her daughter Mary. Soroano is a small village, with about 800 inhabitants. “‘Soro’ is the name of the river that flows through the village and ‘ano’ means ‘behind’, so we are in Soroano, the village behind Soro”, Mensah explains. It is about a 25-minute taxi ride away from Humjibre, where GHEI works. Mensah’s house is on the hillside, offering a great view over the rest of the village spread out below.
In the morning, Mensah’s wife Joyce is making palm nut oil. This is a lengthy process. First, she has to get the oil fluids from the palm nut fruits. The extract is then boiled in a big pot. Then, it is pounded, only to be cooked again. After the second time of cooking, the oil is extracted, which is then cooked for a final time. While Joyce is busy extracting the palm nut oil, Mensah sits on his porch and fills out a stack of documents.
“The district has asked me to distribute the Mectizan medicine in Soroano. The medicine is used to prevent and to fight parasites that are spread by black flies.” The number of tablets each community member has to take depends on his or her height. In his notebook, Mensah keeps track of who received a tablet, and how many. Then he reports back to the district.