The Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF), Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng has urged the newly constituted Community Monitoring Team (CMT) for Greater Accra to be the voice of the homeless and other poor persons in the nation’s capital.
He said due to the vulnerability of homeless and poor persons, they are usually unable to make their voices heard on issues affecting them.
Mr. Kwarteng said this when he presented five smartphones to the CMT created by the Foundation for the Accra Metropolis, Ashaiman, Weija-Gbawe, and La Nkwantanang Madina Municipalities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
The provision of the devices to the CMT forms part of the implementation of the organization’s “Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and Advocacy” project in twelve (12) Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Greater Accra, Central and Ashanti Regions of Ghana.
Presenting the phones to the CMT at the CCF Office in Accra, Mr. Kwarteng said, the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are mandated to provide social amenities to citizens within their jurisdictions but some of them have failed.
According to him, coupled with a weak social welfare system and high illiteracy, some of the poor and homeless citizens often become victims of the various bye-laws meant to regulate local affairs.
He expressed optimism that equipping the CMT would enable them to monitor and identify issues affecting the homeless and other poor persons for action, in line with principles of citizens’ journalism.
About the CCF-OSIWA Project:
CCF is a crime prevention and human rights advocacy organization in Ghana. The Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and Advocacy project is funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). The project seeks to create an enabling environment for vagrants (the homeless and other poor and voiceless persons) to know, claim and exercise their rights to end criminalization of vagrancy or homelessness in Ghana.
About OSIWA:
Established in 2000, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is a grant-making and advocacy organization focused on equality, justice, democratic governance, human rights and knowledge generation. It is part of the global network of Open Society Foundations spread across 37 countries around the world.
