Author: Penny

Cataract operations were carried out at the start of the month in the Ashanti Development eye clinic at Gyetiase. It rained throughout and many roads were impassable, so our Ghana Director spent the day ferrying patients to and fro in his 4 x 4. The pictures show some of the patients on the day, when few can walk without support.

Last Saturday we held our annual Taste of Ghana party, when Ashantis living in London cook us a meal to thank us for all the work we’ve done for them. Thanks to those that attended, it was lovely seeing everyone and enjoying such delicious food together. Here are some of the photos.

The photos show staff at Nsuta Clinic joyfully accepting delivery of a radiant baby warmer, a foetal ultrasound and a printer. The clinic – not one of ours – is the main health facility in its District and deals with 3,000 antenatal clients and over 2,700 baby deliveries a year. We hope the new equipment will make a major contribution to this work.

Since 2004, we calculate that Ashanti Development has sent the equivalent of just under £3million to Ashanti in today’s prices. With this, we have given 70,000 people water, sanitation and hygiene training, as well as help with education, health and livelihoods. A little goes a long way in Ghana.

Worms can have serious health implications. Our team is back at it working hard to reduce these impacts. We work closely with District authorities to do so, the pictures show District health officers distributing 11,000 de-worming tablets to children. We’ve kept back another 6,000 to be distributed next term or reserved for very bad cases.

It’s the time of year again for our Annual Summer Party! If you are around please pop by and chat with us about the work we do and to celebrate just how far we’ve come. Hope to see you there!

Life is busy in Gyetiase village, where Ashanti people have been planting fruit trees round our headquarters building, not least to prevent erosion.
The photos show the result – watermelon, cocoyam and other plants are all doing well, while mango, avocado, guava and apple are planted on the other side of the building.
The single tree is a pawpaw, planted by some of our medics when they visited earlier this year.

Worms cause serious harm to Ashanti children, including discomfort, constipation, diarrhoea, malnutrition and mental dullness. Where the infection is gross, children develop huge protruding bellies that leave them hardly able to walk. They can lead to profound mental and physical retardation, and even death.

The photo shows Ashanti Development volunteer Belinda Ottu presenting 17,000 doses of de-worming tablets to the local authority health department for children under the age of twelve.