Four friends recently joined forces to sponsor the neighbouring villages of Dadease and Mpenya in Ashanti. Ashanti News 19 tells the story of how, having funded household latrines, they set up a small jewellery-making business for the women in Dadease and are now selling bracelets and necklaces in the UK.
It’s hard to think of a practical way of providing clean water for these two villages. Boreholes are unlikely to be successful and rainwater harvesting is extremely expensive. The four friends are now experimenting to see whether local people can be persuaded to use filters for their drinking water. This is certainly not a perfect solution, but it’s a lot better than drinking polluted stream water and if the experiment is a success we’ll apply it in other Ashanti villages.
Finally, two of them, Dawn Williamson and Paul Bloch, plan to ride tandem through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam following the Mekong, starting in January. They have set up a page www.mycharitypage.com/mekongtandem to raise money for their villages. They would really appreciate any contribution you could make.