RURAL FARMER CARE INITIATIVE (RFCI) STORIES FOR GNA

Story 1: The Farmer Struggling with Difficult in Hearing and Seeing
The power of vision and audition are two main senses that one cannot live without in a modern era where our entire lives revolve. However, this is not the same for a single 35 years old vibrant farmer called Norbert Mireku in Miaso – Pillar 10 in the Kwahu East District of Eastern Ghana. For the past years, Norbert has been struggling with difficulties in hearing and seeing as he tills the soil to contribute to putting food on the table for his aged parents.
A local Non-Governmental Organisation called Rural Farmer Care Initiative (RFCI) at Kwahu Obomeng identified Norbert in the forest of Pillar 10 where he stays with his parents and his senior brother. According to his senior brother, Norbert started complaining of his vision at an early age but due to financial difficulties, his father started using local herbs to manage any time Norbert complained. Later, they started visiting the hospital for medical attention but due to the huge costs involved, they stopped. Sadly, it was during one of such visits that he was informed to have glaucoma, which is one of the leading cause of blindness. Occasionally, they will visit the facility for medication but as time went on, the distance and availability challenge this movement so they had to stop. This situation led to the further deterioration of his sight, which he is currently battling together with his hearing impairment.
Concerning Norbert’s hearing difficulty, he told the Coordinator of RFCI that when he was young, he suffered from a boil in the left ear and after he was treatment with local medications, he realized he was having difficulty hearing. As a farmer with these difficulties, I wanted to know how he manages to farm with his condition. He said his condition affects his activities since he ends up turning down cassava sticks and leaves some field portions unplanted thereby affecting his productivity. In addition, he has to contend with snakes, poisonous insects, stepping on young plants etc. due to his condition. Norbert said his senior brother who is also a farmer occasionally assists him to carry out some on farm activities.
Ironically, losing one sense organ is better than losing both two senses. As a result, RFCI transported Norbert to a health facility for further eye and hearing assessments. Concerning, his visions, some eye drops were prescribed for management whilst the next option is surgery. The hearing assessment results revealed that he is losing his right ear in addition to the left one. The specialist recommended the use of hearing aids to augment his audition to enhance communication so that he can improve his farming activities. According to the specialist, the two hearing aids are between GHC 16,000.00 – GHC 20,000.00. Norbert is pleading with cooperate bodies, individuals etc. to assist him secure the hearing aids so he can also contribute to sustainable agriculture and also support himself in his own capacity so he does not become a burden to his poor family. As a local NGO with no external partners, we also second Norbert’s request and appeal for your diverse support to scale up our impactful activities to the underserved populations.

Compiled by
TeamRFCI