The Slippery Patch by Mr. Oliver Frimpong

Most community mobilisers are often confronted by what is sometimes described as the ‘slippery patch’. This is the last bit of project activities when project promoters start rethinking the project as a whole. The slippery patch has three elements– the final decision of project implementers; the weighing up of the project; and the final determination and decision for the project. While the community mobilisers work hard to end the project on what has been originally planned for them, sometimes they are caught up in the slippery patch when the promoters either do not put in place what has been started off or try to change what has been agreed on in the original plan. When this happens, the community mobiliser is left in a dilemma—he has go back to the community and tell them why the project has not materialised the way it was supposed to. In most cases, while the promoters are left trying to take decisions, the community mobilisers always feel reluctant to go back to the community members and explain what is really taking place for fear of being labelled liars. This is because the worse thing that can happen in a community is when their hopes in a project are dashed, especially, when they have invested in time and resources. When project promoters eventually decide not to go ahead with the project, the community mobilisers end up as fugitives in the community. I have on three occasions experience this slippery patch. The first instance was at Savelugu Nandon. The planned project could not be executed after 2 solid years of mobilisation. In the second instance, the project ended at a time when the communities had geared themselves up for group formation for health promotion. The Third instance was when the project objectives had been carried out to the latter, the project promoters refused to allow their own men to take charge of the project in the spirit of community ownership and management. In view of all these things, the mobiliser slips and fall in the slippery patch, no body ever comes to his or her rescue. To avoid this fall on the slippery patch, it beholds the community mobiliser to hold constant consultations with the promoters of projects in the course of projects’ growth so that beneficiary communities will understand the various decisions and changes being made and effected.