Author: Nathan

We are very sorry to announce that Mr HK Marfo, otherwise known as Master, died ten days ago in Kumasi Hospital.

Master was Ashanti Development’s first volunteer in Ghana, and worked for us for many years, initially with no pay. At first he was responsible for all our work, from building the ground floor of the clinic at Gyetiase, to acting as line manager for staff, organising free school meals and looking after incoming volunteers. As a former headteacher, he was always specially concerned about improving education in the villages and delighted when we began to try to address this problem.

Master’s role as Ashanti Development’s representative in Ghana was sometimes difficult, but sooner or later he won everyone round through his steadfastness and persistent good humour. He was 100 per cent honest and reliable and always did exactly what he promised. In all these ways, he gave Ashanti Development a flying start in life. We shall miss him greatly in the years to come and never forget him.

If you would like to send a message to Mrs Marfo, please do so below and we will see she gets it.

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.

Six members of the Leigh Rotary Club visited Gyetiase last week to inspect the work Ashanti Development had done for them at Bimma Village.  They seemed well pleased with the 108 household latrines, the kindergarten and food processing plant, the free school dinners, the farm support scheme and school playground they had funded.  For its part, Bimma was delighted to see them and held a grand durber in their honour.  The festivities  culminated with Barrie Coates, the moving force behind the project, being made a Chief of Development.

Here in Gyetiase, Dave Banks is working as a teacher-trainer to the Junior High School.  He’s volunteered for one year.  He’s doing a fabulous job (see the forthcoming Ashanti News) and we’d love to find some TEFL teachers or other teacher-trainers to support him.

We’re also glad to have Ruth and Sheila with us.  Ruth is a nurse, who worked in Mampong Hospital many years ago.  She is rather shocked to see the changes there have been since then.

We visited the sites of all our active projects, including Awanya to see the new latrines financed by a Crowdfunder project, and Aduntam, to see the clinic, financed by Ashanti Development Italia.  The Adutwam Chief told us “how happy the community is with what is happening and with all the developments.”

We also visited new villages, and now have a list of 26 who would love to be sponsored.  Prices for the baseline survey and household latrines for these villages (we ask donors to finance these before anything else) range from £1,500 to £65,000.  More information will appear under the Develop A Village page of this website.

The two couples who jointly sponsor Dadiase and Mpenya villages are also with us and work on the baseline and household latrines for these villages will start soon.  In the meantime, the sponsors are busy setting up a jewellery-making business and investigating ways of providing them with clean water nearer to their homes.

Background to everything is the forthcoming General Election.  This particular election is  crucial to the country’s future.  The current uncertainty is causing havoc in the villages where we work, and where people of one political party are often unwilling to work with the other.

Low rainfall this summer meant that many saplings, planted as part of our tree-planting project, didn’t survive.

The project depends on children in their last three years of school being given a sapling to look after, with prizes for the best. The photos show enthusiastic school children queuing up for or planting their replacement saplings.

We hope you will join us at our 2012 Gala to raise awareness and funds for Ashanti Development, and enjoy an evening of beautiful ballet and music.

 

 

A stroll down the canal

Abhijit Roy and his SpecSavers shop sponsor the neighbouring villages of Mpantuase and Nkwabrim in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.

On a 50:50 basis, Ab and his staff have donated enough money to provide the villages with one latrine per household, to train them in health and hygiene, and to work with their existing organisations (elected village council, chief and elders, water and sanitation committee etc) so they are strong enough to maintain the improvements when Ashanti Development are gone.
The villages are mega-grateful, and when Ab visited recently they made him a chief. So from now on, those in the know call him ‘Nana Ab.’

White Arrogance – What the Africans say about what the Whites think of them
e-book by Antonella Sinopoli, in Italian with links to original articles in English.  4.10 euros

Antonella Sinopoli is a journalist and documentary maker as well as being founder of Ashanti Development Italia.   Her latest work, White Arrogance, is an ebook which aims to highlight prejudices spread by the Western media about the African continent.

Published by Quintadicopertina, the text is based on direct evidence from the web, blogs and social networks.  It is part of a collaborative publishing project by organisations active in human rights and freedom of information (website reference to Ping the World)

White Arrogance will be available soon in ePub, PDF and Mobipocket and at Amazon and all major on-line stores.  Antonella is generously offering half the profits to Ashanti Development.

Awanya village will benefit from volunteer Paul Kalinauckas’ project to raise £5,000 to Develop A Village in Ashanti.

Somehow or other, Awanya has learned the connection between hygiene and disease, and is desperate to have household latrines for the whole community. It’s now ringing two or three times a week to see how much money has been raised so far. Please contribute – £10 is enough – by going the Crowdfunder website.