The Bolgatanga Municipality has a total population of 131,550 accounting for 12.6 percent of the population of the Upper East Region. The Municipality has a male population of 62,783 constitutes 47.7 percent and females are 68,767 or 52 percent of the total population. Although urbanization is fast catching up with the Bolgatanga Municipality, the rural population still account for half (50.2) of the population. The Municipality has a youthful population with 37.0 percent of the population below 15 years. The aged (60 years and older) constitute 7.4 percent of the population. The Municipality has a sex ratio of 91.3 implying there are more females than males.
Persons living with disability
The Municipality has three out of every 100 persons living with one form of disability or the other. The types of disability in the district include sight, hearing, speech, physical, intellect, and emotion. Among those with disability, 28.9 percent have sight disability, followed by those with physical disability (23.2%), emotional (17.8%), and hearing (17.6%). The proportion of people with sight disability is high in urban areas (30.8%) than rural areas (27.7%). The proportion of males in the urban locality with physical disability is higher (23.4%) than that their female counterparts (17.4%). In the rural areas the proportion of females with physical disability is lower compared to their urban counterparts. More than half (54.6%) of persons with disability (PWD) are employed whiles 43.4 percent are economically not active. Females PWDs are more likely than their male counterparts to be economically not active. Educational level is generally low among the population with disability. More than half (55.1%) of PWDs have never attended school. Majority of persons with disabilities who have attended school have attained basic education (31.2%). Also, 10.2 percent of PWDs have attained SSS/SHS or higher education.
The population of Bongo District is 84,545 representing 8.1 percent of the region’s total population. Females constitute 52.4 percent and males represent 47.6 percent. Ninety four percent of the population is in the rural areas.
It is estimated that Person Living with Disability constitute about 4.8 percent of the district’s total population. The proportion of the male population with disability is slightly higher (5.0%) than females (4.7%). The types of disability in the district include sight, hearing, speech, physical, intellect, and emotion. Persons with sight disability recorded the highest of 38.5 percent followed by physical disability (23.3%). About 5.6 percent of the population in urban localities are with disability. A high proportion of the population with disabilities (71.4%) had never been to school.
Persons living with disabilities form part of the vulnerable groups in our communities. They are disadvantaged in so many respects and often socially excluded from community based programmes. Their marginalization in the society has often resulted in them living lives unbefitting of basic human dignity. However, despite their disabilities, these people have the potentials of changing a life of misery into one of hope and happiness if trained and supported. This intervention is specifically designed to offer skills training and support to the disabled persons living in some selected communities in the four districts of the Upper East region.
The Ghana’s Disability Law 2006 (Act 715) was passed in 2006 with the aim of ending discrimination against people with disabilities. All though their rights are guaranteed both by Ghana’s Constitution and by International Conventions, in reality these provisions have them very little protection against discrimination. People with disabilities in Ghana are often regarded as unproductive and incapable of contributing in a positive way to society. Instead of being viewed as assets, they are rather seen as constituting an economic burden on the family and the society at large, which leaves them in a vicious cycle of poverty. It is estimated that ten percent of Ghana’s population are Person’s with Disability (PWD). These people are vulnerable, marginalized and discriminated upon in society.
In view of this the Godly World International Centre (GOWIC) is seeking to enhance the capacity and resilience of the Disabled Persons to invest in organic agriculture whilst utilizing and transforming plastic waste into viable ventures. The ultimate aim is to clean the environment of plastic filth in Bolgatanga, and Bongo, communities in the Upper East region by building the capacities of disabled people to transform plastic waste to shopping baskets, ropes, hats, doormats, and raincoats among others. These items will be sold to generate income for the Persons with Disability to invest in organic agriculture and rearing of livestock to augment their income from the by-product of plastic waste trade.

Fig. 1 Persons with Disabilities attending a training workshop in Bolgatanga
1.3 Problem Statement
In spite of the high proportions of PWD in the project area, inadequate opportunities exist for these people to cope with the changing climate. They have remained the most vulnerable group in the region.
One major human activity that has significantly affected the project environment is the improper disposal of waste. Whilst some of the waste are biodegradable in nature, a chunk of them are non-degradable and can remain in the environment for a considerable length of time creating serious problems. In the past two decades, plastics have become the most favoured materials in the food and water packaging industry and contributing to the large rise in their proportions in the waste streams of villages, towns and cities. Polythene bags, plastic bottles, sachet rubbers used to package water have become widespread in the Upper East. However, the packaging revolution has not been correspondingly backed by appropriate plastic waste management policy. This has consequently led to many towns in the Upper East littered with plastic waste thus creating disgusting visual irritations and other health problems. The continuous generation of waste on a day to day basis has adversely affected the lifestyles of the poor and vulnerable disabled persons. Due to their peculiar conditions Peoples with Disabilities (PWD) are unable to cope with the poor environment.
Farming which is the mainstay of the Upper East is also being shredded with a number of challenges varying from non-availability of lands due to residential facilities, loss of soil fertility due to continuous farming and bad farming practices and also improper disposal of waste like littering of plastic waste everywhere. It is therefore a common phenomenon to see women and young children migrating from the region to Accra and Kumasi in search for non-existing jobs. This has often led most of them becoming subjects of inhumane treatment and also being exposed to the harsh weather conditions. Although agriculture has the potential to walk households out of poverty, the lack of adequate support by way agriculture extension services, transfer of technology and funds serve as an obstacle to people from this region engaging in meaningful agriculture. The PWD are victims of food insecurity and often resort to begging on the roads which creates high risks for their very existence.
1.4 Main Goal
The main goal of this project is to develop the capacities of disabled persons to cope with the changing environmental conditions by investing in sustainable land management, agroecology, and livelihood enterprises in plastic waste management.

Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the project are:

- To develop, empower and sustain the capacities of Peoples with Disabilities (PWD) to identify innovative practices, procedures and opportunities to invest in sustainable organic agriculture utilizing agroecology strategies.

- To assist the PWD farmer groups to invest in sustainable livelihood enterprise development utilizing plastic waste to use plastic waste to produce shopping baskets, doormats, raincoats.

2.0 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT OUTPUTS AND ACTIVITIES
2.1 Project Outcomes
The implementation of the project will produce three main outcomes:

1) PWD in Bolgatanga and Bongo Districts in the Upper East region embark on education awareness campaign to educate the local communities on environmental cleanliness.
2) Capacities of PWD developed for sustainable organic agriculture and conservation of natural ecosystems.
3) Entrepreneurship capacities of PWD developed in plastic waste enterprises development as alternative livelihoods.

Outcome 1: PWD in Bolgatanga and Bongo Districts in the Upper East region embark on education awareness campaign to educate the local communities on environmental cleanliness.

The PWD in the two districts would be mobilized into groups and trained in environment education. They will serve as trainers equipped with basic materials to go round schools, lorry parks, churches, mosque and radio to educate the people on environmental cleanliness especially plastic waste management and organic agriculture.

Outcome 2: Capacities of PWD developed for sustainable organic agriculture and conservation of natural ecosystem.
The project idea seeks to mobilize the PWD to engage in organic/conservation agriculture. The component activities will seek to develop the capacities of the PWD in conservation agriculture and mixed farming using improved small ruminants. Each members of the group will be encouraged to develop a pen for rearing small ruminants and utilizing the animal droppings for compost preparation which will be used on their farms. The project will negotiate lands for agricultural purposes for PWDs ? Group PWDs will undertake group organic agriculture and livestock rearing; and prepare lands for agricultural business. The project will provide resources needed by PWDs to undertake organic agriculture and livestock farming.
Outcome 3 Entrepreneurship capacities of PWD developed in plastic waste enterprises development as alternative livelihoods.
This component will provide support in achieving efficiency in the production, and marketing of plastic waste to produce shopping baskets, ropes, hats, doormats, raincoats among others. Each group will select people to be trained in the production plastic waste products. The trainers will be empowered to go back to their localities and set up production unit with the members. With the support of the District Assemblies each households will get containers to dump their plastic waste. The project will set up and train Community plastic waste collection teams to gather plastic waste from communities to the designated plastic waste collection centres.
The NGO Godly World International Centre will serve as the marketing unit to buy the plastic products and find market in the cities for the finished products.
2.2 Project Outputs:
The project intervention will produce three main outputs as follows:
Output 1:
- 30 PWD serve as resource persons to undertake sensitization programmes in climate change within the Upper East region.
Output 2:
- 60 PWDs supported to invest in organic agriculture and livestock rearing

Output 3:
- Two PWD business groups trained in each of the beneficiary district to produce shopping baskets, ropes, hats doormats and raincoats from plastic waste.

Description of Project Activities

Output 1: 30 PWD serve as resource persons to undertake sensitization programmes within the Upper East region.

Planned Activities
1.1 Compile baseline information on the PWD in Upper East region.

The Project, in collaboration with the Federation of Persons with Disabilities and the Department of Welfare will compile the baseline information about the PWD in the two district. Through this data the PWD would be categorised based on needs and capabilities. Those interested would be selected as project beneficiaries.

1.2 Select and train at least 20 PWD as information facilitators.
From the baseline data, the project will select 20 PWD to be trained as community information facilitators. The training will cover basic communication delivery skills and knowledge in elementary environmental science. The Department of Social Welfare, Forestry, Environmental Protection Agency and the District Environmental Unit would be the main resource persons. Each trainee would be given simple materials and communication facility to equip them in their education activities.

Output 2: 60 PWDs supported to invest in organic agriculture and livestock rearing
Planned Activities

Support PWD farm families in conservation agriculture

The project will negotiate lands for agricultural purposes for PWDs ? Group PWDs to undertake group organic agriculture and livestock rearing. It will prepare lands for agricultural business and provide resources needed by PWDs to organic agricultural and livestock farming. MOFA will train and support all interested members to practice conservation agriculture and organic farming. The ecology of the area will be improved with fast growing resilient and economic plants such as Moringa, Cashew, Mango and Cassia.

Train and assist PWD farmers to adopt improved technologies in soil fertility.
Some of the technologies to be adopted and promoted include preparation and application of composting, soil bonding, crop rotation, mulching, preservation and development of indigenous and threatened crop varieties and adoption of agro-forestry farming techniques. MOFA will be the lead institutions.

Output 3: 4 PWD business groups trained in each of the beneficiary district to produce shopping baskets, ropes, hats doormats and raincoats from plastic waste
Planned Activities

3.1. identify and train 10 disabled people trained as trainers of trainees per district
A training programme in using plastic waste to produce shopping baskets, hats, doormats and raincoats would be conducted to train 10 PWD.

3.2. Provide start-up capital for the trained PWD to start production units in the four districts

Each trained PWD will be supported to mobilise other PWD and constitute them into a business group. The project will assess and provide each group with basic equipment for the production of waste products.

Set up plastic waste collection centres in Bolgatanga and Bongo.
The project will help the PWD business groups to set up plastic waste collection centres. The waste plastic would be bought from the suppliers at an agreed price.

Provide revolving credit scheme for PWD through the village saving and credit schemes.

The project will establish a village saving scheme to raise funds for the revolving credit to PWD to support their livelihood activities. Four groups will be formed with 20 members each.