Progress is made
on VSO in Ghana (Ghana), 18/Jul/2011 11:08, 34 days ago
The work in the Upper West Region has progressed enormously, and we extend a great big thank you to our friends in Ghana, Ruby Yap and Justus Aatayaba for all their hard work in ensuring that the various projects come to fruition.Building a school in Naku:An after school club in Nako, pictured below, is encouraging young people to visit the site to see the progress on their new school.Just look at the school now:One day there is a roof under construction.Two days later, a roof is in place.Recently, windows have been added and plastering is taking place, ready for the school opening in September.Justus has been meeting with officials from the Local Education Department to ensure that teachers are allocated to the school. He turned to his left to go to the education offices after this picture was taken - not to his right!!Here he is with the Assistant Director for Human Resources, discussing the allocation of teachers to the school. In Ghana, it is the Education Service that allocates teachers.Well done to all involved on such excellent progress with this project.Provision of electricity:In Wa, Ruby carries on the good work, with more and more projects sourced from our funds. The Coalition of School Management Committees and PTAs decides on priorities. Ruby vets applications, and funds are granted through the Coalition Committee. Each community is expected to contribute something towards projects. This is often their labour.At a recent handover of a generator to the village school in Jonga, many villagers turned up, headed by the Chief of the village. Ruby can be seen in the centre of the picture.A wonderful Education Officer, Imoro, can be seen speaking to the gathering to explain how the generator is to be used and how it well help the young people of the community to access computer technology. Another VSO volunteer, Sandra Scantlebury, inspired the community and the school administration to make good use of the electricity to promote quality learning and teaching. The Chief spoke on behalf of the village and said that, "because of so much happiness, they couldn't even speak".This school caters for a large number of children, as the village is the centre of five communities. The Coalition required the community to plaster a number of classrooms, before electricity would be provided. According to Ruby, when the generator was ready to be tested, "the children ran to their respective classrooms to witness the first lights to be turned on; it was overwhelming to see the children cheering loudly when the generator was turned on and the lights came on. One could see the happiness in everyone's faces, especially the children. They wanted to stay in the classrooms, because of the lights that were shining on them. The light will change their lives for the better."In the picture below, the electrician is showing the teachers how to operate the generator.Provision of desks:More desks have been delivered. As we mentioned in a previous blog, Ann Brougham, a wonderful colleague with whom we have worked in the UK for many years, sadly died recently. Just prior to her death, she donated money to be specifically spent on desks. She was very moved by pictures of students having to sit on the floor for their lessons, whether outside under a tree or in a school building. The first set of desks has now been produced, and all the desks bear Ann's name. While we were living in Ghana, Ann regularly emailed us with lots of supportive comments, as well as news from the UK. It is therefore a great pleasure for us to be able to mark her memory in this way.Provision of bore-holes:Ruby is currently exploring the use of funds to provide a borehole to a needy village. She indicates that there are real problems, because the ground water is now so deep down in many areas, that the available machinery is unable to reach it. She continues to look into this, and is also considering the provision of a stand pipe as an alternative.Aylward Academy is Enfield has decided to adopt fundraising for Ghana, as its annual charity. We have given presentations to all year groups about life in the North of Ghana and students have been learning about various aspects of the history and geography of Ghana in their humanities lessons. The student council has decided that they would like to raise funds for a borehole, since they were very concerned to learn that children, especially girls, do not attend school, as they have to spend their days walking to and from the borehole to collect water. Ruby has identified a particular village, Hamile, where the children have to walk 10 kilometres to reach the nearest borehole. She will carry out further research to look at the possibilities of providing a borehole to this village.The Aylward students have already started to raise money. They are carrying out a number of activities, including raising funds from the programmes that were produced for their recent production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. At the end of this performance, we were presented with a cheque for£1,300. On 20th July, they will be holding a "Ghana" day, when the whole school will be involved in raising funds.We are delighted that work on all projects is progressing at this pace and we are very grateful to those in Wa who are working to establish priorities, monitor progress and ensure that beneficiaries value the developments, and make their own contributions to their success. The Coalition of SMCs and PTAs is a model for investment and development, of which VSO can be very proud. Ruby should be recognised as a truly innovative community activist. Her achievements in her time in Ghana are quite outstanding.