Mankoadze Village

It’s a beautiful place – on the sea, with palm lined beaches. It’s about an hour and a half by car from Accra - the journey used to be more than three hours before the coast road was built by the Japanese. Turning left off the main coast highway the tarmac ends and becomes a dark red dirt track which eventually comes down to the sea. There are fishing boats – really big and heavy that the men use to fish. The fish have got smaller and smaller in the time that we have been going there, and this August they are not allowed to fish at all to try to give stocks a chance to recuperate. Whilst the beach is beautiful, the sea is actually very dangerous – there’s a very significant undertow. It has a population of about 2500 people of all ages. Life in the village is hard. Most of the ‘homes’ are built of breeze blocks and are really small. They have little furniture, and families often sleep on mattresses on the floor. Because the weather is so uniformly warm, they spend most of their time out of doors; cooking is nearly always with a wood or charcoal fire outside, and many people find sleeping outside more comfortable too. There is some electricity, but most homes are without power, water or sanitation. There are far more women than men in the village. A lot of the men work in Tema (near Accra). Families usually include the older generation.