Naku School Nearing Completion

It is now just two years since we first went to Ghana. Most of those who went out with us are now back in their home countries and settling to a very different life. Very best wishes to them all and every success for the future. We all have amazing memories of such a life changing experience. We shall also never forget the people we met in Ghana, and we know some relationships built in the last two years will last a lifetime.

The school in Naku is approaching its formal opening later in October. In August the building structure was completed.

Windows were installed.

Furniture was made.

Play quipment was produced.

Painting was done.

- and the gates finally installed.

Few schools have such good toilet facilities as this one.

We are delighted if this project can be a model for others.

None of it would have happened without the young man, Justus, pictured below with his wife and child. He was not only persistent in securing our interest in the plight of the population of the village of Naku, he engaged the architects on a speculative project which may not have been funded. He maintained contact with us on our return to the UK. He worked with a Catholic brotherhood in the area to manage the finances of the project. He has managed all aspects of the project from start to finish. He is studying in Wa at the University of Development Studies. He will, we are sure, continue his philanthropic approach to life, building the capacity locally for self-improvement. He is a remarkable young man and we are the richer for having met him.

Local children came to visit the school before the start of term.

Meanwhile back in Wa, Ruby carries on her excellent work with the local Coalition of school management committees, supporting them in finding funding for improvements to their communities.

The Aylward Academy in Enfield has just presented us with a cheque for £2,797.95. This will soon be on its way to Ruby and another village should be getting a bore hole earlier than they might have hoped. Once installed, the children of that village should be able to attend school more regularly, as the daily chore of collecting water will have been made so much easier and less time consuming. Collecting water is one of the key reasons why some students, especially girls, fail to attend school.

Progress is made

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. 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 in 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.

Nako School: Initial construction is underway.

The work to build a school in Naku is well underway. A number of stakeholders attended the ground cutting ceremony. Pictured below are representatives from the District Education Office, and the Local Government Assembly. The Chief of the village and school representatives took an active part in the ceremony.

The local government representative praised all the organisations involved in supporting the development of local communities. The chief of Naku said that all the people of the village are very glad to see that generations of local children will benefit from this investment. The community leaders have promised to ensure that "no child is left roaming around the area or farming during school hours". They will take an active interest in the smooth running of the school.

The Anglican Church representative added his voice, emphasising that "we are all partners in development". The Circuit Supervisor (Local Education Inspector) assured the audience that the local officials are ready to help find personnel for the school.

The Chief of the village thanked everyone invovled for their generosity and pleaded with the Assembly to link another village, Kpasegra, with the school. The Naku school will now be the nearest school to Kpasegra.

The work then got underway at a pace, as illustrated in the pictures below.

Toilets are a rare asset in rural schools. The school at Naku will have a toilet block, which is pictured under construction below.
The Headteacher's Office is also under construction.
The classrooms are taking shape:
The workers take a break:

Three of the key players in bringing this project to a successful conclusion are pictured below. On the left is Justus, the leader of the Catholic student group that is focused on developing poor communities. It was he that first took Haydn to the village when we were in Wa. He is the one who has inspired us to raise the funds for this project. On the right is Richard, the local Anglican representative and in the centre is the project developer, Olsen.

The villagers are so pleased with what is building before their eyes that they donated two goats to the leaders of the project. Justus intends to use his goat for breeding, so that he can raise more funds for development projects.

Education Support Continues

A number of the funded projects in Ghana are now well underway. Building a school for the village of Nako: £25,000 has now been forwarded to Ghana for the building of a school at Nako. The plan is that this school will be ready for use by students in September 2011. The building is being erected at a rapid pace. The people of the village volunteered to provide their labour under the supervision of a trained architect.

In the very near future there will be a sod-cutting ceremony attended by the adults and children of the village. A number of dignitaries have been invited, including the Anglican Bishop, the regional Director of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the District Director of Education and the Chief of the area.

Great credit must go to our Ghanaian friend Justus Atayaaba Triumph who has worked long and hard to support the people of Nako, and who is continuing to oversee the building of the school.

Provision of desks to schools:

The Coalition of PTAs and School Management Committees in Wa (composed of elected Ghanaian representatives) decided that Charingu Primary School should be the beneficiary of desks. This is one of the poorest schools in the area and its remote location makes it inaccessible to outside assistance, even from the Ghana government. A local “bone-shaker” transports the women to market in the dry season, but the route is impassable in the rainy season. The Government has provided a 3-room classroom block for the village, but this is not sufficient for the number of children, and people in the village have built a makeshift classroom to accommodate more of the children. All classrooms lack furniture and it has been decided to provide furniture for the youngest students.

The Coalition has required the people of the village to plaster the walls of the classroom and extend its size with good ventilation as their contribution to the improvements. The following pictures shows the children in their old classroom.

The following pictures show the making and transportation of the desks.

The new, extended classroom can be seen in the pictures below, together with the children sitting at their new desks. The people of the village came out for these pictures, in order to express their gratitude to everyone in the UK who has contributed to the provision of desks for the school.

Provision of Electricity:

The Coalition decided that the beneficiary of wiring and electrification should be Tampieni Primary and Junior High School. The village of Tampieni is only accessible during the dry season and, because of its remoteness, there is no possibility that electricity will be provided by the Government in the foreseeable future. In order to receive a generator and wiring, the village was required to clear rocks from the road to the school and to plaster the classrooms. The pictures below show the school itself, as well as the receipt of the generator by the students and the adults of the village.

Support for Women’s Groups:

Two women’s groups are being supported in the setting up of income-generating projects. These groups are in the villages of Nakori and Biihee.

Members of the groups have worked together to decide on their objectives and activities. The women will be engaged in a number of business undertakings including: stone quarrying, sale of cooked food, sale of firewood, rice processing, dry season gardening (irrigated cultivation of vegetables) and small scale cash crop farming (including cassava, maize, groundnuts, chilli peppers and soya beans).

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to these projects, and a very special thank you to VSO volunteer, Ruby Yap, who continues to give of her energy and expertise to work with Ghanaian colleagues in support of all these developments – She is achieving remarkable things!!

The Classroom block at Dodyirii Primary School, is now complete and plastered as shown below.

Altogether, we have now passed almost £10,000 to Ghana to fund a wide range of projects. Our friend Ruby has a number of activities underway. She has helped individual girls with school fees and equipment to get them through school. We are delighted to see Ruby working with the local communities to help them make applications for funding and then to manage the funding so that there is accountability. In the long term, we hope that the skills demonstrated and practised will be of use within the community and will help them to access further funding. There is no doubt that having the skills to write proposals, and report on the impact of funding, are fundamental skills required by those making applications for funding. At Nakore Chansa Junior Secondary School, an iron gate has been erected with the funds provided. This will provide security, when they obtain a computer.

At Tampieni Primary School, the community committee has arranged for the school to put wiring throughout the nine classrooms and into two rooms set aside for teachers.

The community will soon be provided with a generator, and once it is all set up we will no doubt be able to show some pictures of the end result. In the meantime we do have a picture of the village leaders discussing the way forward with the donated money.

The District Coalition of PTAs and school management committees is overseeing the spending of all the money. The chair of the Charingu School Management Committee has liaised with the Chair of the Coalition, and work is now in progress to build desks for classrooms, as shown in the picture below.

Ruby has met with the leaders of the Nakore and Bihee women’s groups, in order to plan a way forward to use their funding to develop small scale industries and farming projects. Raising awareness about the importance of girls' education forms part of all developments .

The Nakore women's group is pictured below:

We will receive reports on progress from Ruby in the near future.

Building in progress

Happy New Year to everyone who reads this blog. We do hope that 2011 will be a wonderful year for you all. Thanks to everyone who has donated to our Ghana Fund so far. We have sent out £2,500 so far. £1,000 is being used to set up the women’s project, £1,000 on providing electricity to schools and £500 towards school furniture.

Money that we previously donated to specific schools is now having an impact. This first picture shows building work that is taking place at Nakore Primary School.

This building will enable the Kindergarten class to be taught in a room, rather than under the mango tree as they are presently. The picture below shows the kindergarten class where they are currently taught. The lack of a building means that they are unable to attend school for most of the rainy season.

Nakore is a lovely village just south west of Wa. It is the place to which we made one of our very first excursions on our bicycles when we first arrived in Wa. The blog entries of 24th October 2009 and 6 March 2010 give more details about Nakore.

A big thank you to all who have contributed to our fund. We now have another £2,000 to distribute thanks to the generosity of our family and friends this Christmas. As soon as Ruby returns from her trip to the Philippines, we will arrange the transfer of the money and get an update on what is happening on the ground. This donation will contribute to the building of boreholes in isolated villages.

This term we will be delivering assemblies in a school and giving a talk to a local Rotary Club, in order to promote the work of VSO and, hopefully, to raise additional funds.