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Our Story
Martha Boadu came to the UK in 1982 but never ceased to worry about her home village, Gyetiase – one of many tiny villages scattered across the scrubland of Ashanti. She described how the villagers had to walk up to six hours a day for water to wash, drink, cook and give to their animals. She remembers how they were always tired and later realised this was the result of constant diarrhoea from drinking polluted water.
A Shocking Return
Martha went home for the first time in 2000. She said she was shocked by what she found. She had left a thriving community of cocoa farmers, but in the intervening years climate change had set in and it had become impossible to grow cocoa commercially. The people had diversified into ‘Sahara crops’ like yam and cassava, but without much success as they had no tradition of growing these on a large scale.
Most of the people were hungry most of the time and many of Martha’s classmates were forced to travel abroad to work as prostitutes in order to feed their families. Some brought back HIV/Aids.
Most of the people were hungry most of the time
The First Big Step: Water
Martha eventually obtained an estimate of £32,000 for attaching Gyetiase to the mains water supply, and asked her neighbour, Penny David, for advice. Penny talked to David Williamson, consultant water engineer at WaterAid, who offered to fly to Ghana and try to bring the estimate down. With his help, enough money was raised and the taps were turned on in April 2005 amid great rejoicing.
Acting on David’s advice, a Ghanaian charity founded by WaterAid was commissioned to teach the villagers health, hygiene and how to build one outside, stand-alone lavatory for each household.
The difference these three key benefits made was enormous. No-one in Gyetiase any longer suffers from hunger, as the villagers have a lot more energy to look after their farms. Whereas the rate of infant mortality from water-related disease used to be astronomical, babies rarely die nowadays. Families are becoming smaller as parents become more confident their children will survive and be able to look after them in their old age.
Growing the Work
Since then, Ashanti Development has provided the same benefits to many other villages. We have also recruited many volunteers who are often highly skilled in their own fields, and in consequence, we now offer help with education, healthcare and livelihood support.
There are still thousands of Ashanti villages that need this kind of support, so our story is by no means finished.
Ashanti Development is staffed in the UK by 100 percent volunteers and pays no fees or expenses in the UK. This means that every penny we are given goes toward our work in Ghana, particularly through our Develop a Village.
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Ashanti Development