Author: Penny

Geophysics are on their way, the drill rig isn’t far behind and Ashanti Development has been given funding for boreholes in four new villages, all badly in need of clean water. We’re also funding latrines and hygiene in the village of Mosi-Kura (trans: Mosi’s Home), a community of settlers from Burkina Faso driven south by climate change. We called in last week and were told that their stream had completely dried up and they were having to collect water from another stream, five miles away. Mosi-Kura’s exceptionally lucky, as we’ve re-allocated one of our four boreholes to them. Luckily we hadn’t told the other village that we intended to give them a borehole but even so somehow or other we must try to make good their loss.

In memory of Seth, who for many years was our good and hard-working caretaker. He died last week and we are all so sad to have lost him.

The quarterly statistics below are patient-throughput figures for the four clinics (excluding the eye clinic) we have built in Ashanti. The first two, named after founder David Williamson and donor David Rees, are big buildings, designed to serve many villages. At first sight it’s puzzling as to why the Rees Clinic should have so many more cases of diarrhoea than the Williamson Clinic. The reason is that we have not yet been able to give the villages surrounding the Rees Clinic – Ankamadua, Fawoman and Amoaman – sanitation, whereas most of the villages near the Williamson Clinic, have already received it.

Mprim Clinic is situated in a shed originally used to house a cassava processing machine. The shed is small but nonetheless has almost as big a patient throughput as the two big clinics.
As for Adutwam Clinic, it is on the furthest reaches of our area so villages to its south have not been given sanitation, and hence the high figure for diarrhoea.
Ashanti Development must hurry up and expand so as to put an end to all this unnecessary sickness.

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Kyebi’s quite a large town in Ashanti.  We haven’t given it clean water or latrines and hygiene training because we always felt it was too big for us to tackle.  We were very glad to be able to help in another way recently and the photos show Nicholas delivering medical equipment to their clinic.  The staff say it will really help them deliver quality care to their patients.

It doesn’t show on their faces, but this is the moment the people of Krobo have dreamed of.  For years the community has been asking us for latrines and hygiene training, and  this  meeting has been called to announce that their day has finally come and work will begin quite soon.

Krobo was the family home of General Kofi Afrifa, once President of Ghana.  General Afrifa took part in the 1966 coup which replaced Kwame Nkrumah with General Akofu.   In 1968 there was a second coup within the ruling party, and General Afrifa was installed as the new head of state until he was overthrown by a third coup in 1971.  At that point, he retired to Krobo where he rebuilt all the houses, as well as schools and a clinic, and laid out wide streets.   Unfortunately, not many people understood the importance of latrines and sanitation in those days, so he built none.  

The borehole at Nyinampong has just been mechanised, so now people can turn on a tap and have the water pour straight into a bucket for carrying home.