Geography
While you sit in a comfy chair next to a blazing fire with a warm melt in your mouth hot chocolate, do you think people who live in Ghana do? They don’t. That is because they barely have any money! But why? Well, some of it has to do with the geography.
Ghana is located in West Africa, just a few degrees north of the equator. This location provides a very hot climate, which isn’t too good for our entrepreneur Salifu because some of her millet crops will have a better chance of dying. If you think about it, she doesn’t have many millet seeds to begin with, but if the ones that she has die, where will she get more? The answer is you!
Ghana is bordered by Burkina Faso on the north and northwest, Togo on the east, Cote D’ Ivoire on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the south. These countries are less likely to start wars, which is good for Salifu. The capital city is Accra, which is located on the southern tip of Ghana. Accra is loaded with people, but none of those people will go buy Salifu’s millet because her town, Abura, is nowhere near Accra. This small country of Ghana is slightly smaller than Oregon, and has a total population of 23.4 million. That’s a lot of people for such a little space! For the math, that is 266 people every .39 square miles! This causes each individual to have less space, and more competition for farmland. This will cause Salifu to not be able to plant as many crops, and she won’t earn as much money to help feed and take care of her family.
The land consists mostly of low plains with the Kwahu Plateau in central Ghana. The plateau will cause more competition in the low plains because the mountains are right on top of the plateau. Ghana is mostly made up of grassland and forest, which means that she can’t farm in the forest area.
There are definitely a lot of landforms in the country of Ghana, too many to name! But I’m going to start with the Akwapim-Togo Mountain Range, which starts at the border of Togo, and stretches all the way to immediately west of Accra. As I have been saying after most of my facts, the spaces there are of no use to Salifu. Most of the citizens of Ghana earn money from agriculture, but there isn’t 100 percent farmland in Ghana. The Kwahu Plateau is a 160 mile long piece of risen land that separates the two main river networks in Ghana. She doesn’t really live close to these two water sources, so they don’t really affect her at all. Cape Three Points is one of the most beautiful places in Ghana. This will take your breath away, and is one of the most amazing surfing destinations in the world! It is also known for its lighthouses, which are scattered throughout the peninsula.
One of the not too well known landforms in Ghana is the highest point of Mount Afadjato, at 2,950 feet. Like I said earlier, a small percentage of people visit there, but the people who do sure get a sight! From the peak of the small giant, views stretch all the way to Lake Volta, over 10 miles away! Lake Volta is huge, with a deepest point of up to 75 meters! Wow! Located in the vast forests of central Ghana, it has a total shore length of 2,980 miles long. That’s equivalent to 52,448 football fields! That left my mouth hanging! This lake has many streams and rivers that flow out of it that could be converted to electricity at some point.
Ghana owns five National Parks, two of which are also game reserves. This is good for the people of Ghana who need help feeding their families, but not beneficial for Salifu because she doesn’t live near them.
Ghana, as I said before, is bordered on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. There is a total length of 539 kilometers along the coast. Behind the white, sandy coastline beaches are little refreshing streams and rivers that could be used as a source for drinking water and bathing. With some help, the bigger-sized rivers can be converted to a power source. Both of these theories are good for Salifu, because she lives right near these cool little streams.
Just north of the shore is a big belt of rainforest. Rainforests contain a lot of natural resources such as cocoa, timber, and many other minerals. The benefit from these is that she can use these to help get her business started. Since Salifu helps her community and supports her family, she deserves your donations. She only needs a little bit of money to get her business of selling millet up and running. And that money needs to come from you!