SANQUIN, Sinoe – Nearly one year after the Support Climate Change Sensitivity and Adaptation Strategies in Liberia Project was initiated in Sanquin, beneficiaries say the Welthunghilfe program is having a positive effect on their lives.
The German aid organization constructed a fish storage facility, a warehouse, a market center, and provided motorized canoes to residents. The efforts are meant to make the fishing community more resilient to climate change and increase the income of its members.
In an interview with The Bush Chicken, Prince Chebo, the operations manager of the fishing cooperative benefiting from the project, said the intervention was improving the living conditions of people in the district.
“We are very much grateful and want to use this time to appreciate [Welthungerhilfe] for the assistance to the county,” he said. While the program has not been without challenges – a financial officer trained by Welthungerhilfe has not yet been replaced – Chebo said the program is moving forward.
“Before the coming of this program or project, some of us – and especially the community – was living on kiss meat and coconut production for daily survivability, but now as we speak, we generate our own money on a daily basis through transporting goods and people from one end to another using the canoe that was given to us by [Welthungerhilfe],” he added. “We have our own bank account with the GN Bank in Greenville and we usually take our money there for safekeeping.”
Chebo continued, “On a daily basis, people are coming in here to buy fish. We have our own canoe and storage facility.”
Andrew Doe, county coordinator of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, said his agency had noticed that since Welthungerhilfe turned over the coastal fishery project, the lives of community members have been changing for the better.
Doe said NaFFA was working closely with the personnel trained to manage the project to ensure that the project continued to achieve its intended purpose.
“It’s actually helping our people and we hope that this will not be the end of [Welthungerhild’s] support to our people,” Doe told The Bush Chicken.
Welthungerhilfe says the project aims to assist fishing families to weather the effects of climate change by “expanding their skill sets and strengthening their resilience.” It supports sustainable fishing practices at different levels of the value chain, including production, processing, and marketing.
Launched in 2020, the project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Featured photo by Teahwleh Clarke Geeplay
