We’re looking for new outlets to sell the goods produced by the women who attend out dressmaking school in Ashanti. Most of these women are single mothers – a lot have twins – and their lives are incredibly hard but once they have graduated from our school they can make a good livelihood for their families and themselves. The photos show some of their work.
The picture is of Abena Mansah of Asare Nkwanta, one of the villages benefitting from Ashanti Development’s farm support project. Abena is growing rice. Her Farm Support Officer reports that the rice is currently at the flowering stage, that she is controlling weeds well throughout the farm, and applying fertiliser correctly.
We aim for at least half of all the farmers on our project to be women, and we hope for as many disabled people as possible. Our aim is to leave no-one behind.
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Ashanti Development’s scholarship scheme currently provides for 24 boys and 24 girls to continue their education in senior secondary school. Results so far showed that all 48 would have qualified for university if they’d applied, but unfortunately their funding ended after four years and so too did their education.
We therefore decided to look for donors who’d continue to support them through university at a cost of £277 a year for a minimum of four years. The good news is that so far we’ve found sponsors for at least five children. The cost is very low by comparison with the benefit and we’re hoping that many more sponsors may join them.
The pictures show Ashanti Development’s Museum at Gyetiase. Its intention is to show how life was before the village was opened to outside influences. For example, it will have a small house, built by traditional building methods .
One of these days soon, we will employ a caretaker and open it up to the public. With luck it will generate a little income for Ashanti Development.
All our gratitude goes to the team of eight Spec savers opticians from Leicester, headed by Mr AB Roy, who have just come back from Ashanti to the UK. While in Ghana they screened 200-250 people’s eyes every day, prescribing hundreds of second-hand prescription spectacles, which they’d collected and graded in advance. They ended their visit by financing seventy-one cataract operations. When the bandages were taken off the patients’ eyes, they jumped and sang, or wept, for joy. What an amazing gift to the people of Ashanti.
Queuing For an Optician.
Examining
Looking for the right prescriptions
Waiting for glasses
Perfect Prescriptions
The Team
We advertised in the last issue of Ashanti News for donors who would sponsor poor students through university. Our existing sponsorship scheme provides funds for the last three years of their education, but until now we’ve had no money to give them for university costs. Our appeal for funding has generated promises covering five students and we’re still hoping for more. This is a great result and we’re very grateful to all the donors – under both the new scheme and the old.
The pictures show the welcome given to our amazing donors, Gill and John Griffiths, when they visited the village of Dome a few days ago with two of their grandchildren. Gill and John have funded a large clinic building at Dome, which will serve twelve nearby villages as well as many migrants driven south because of climate change – but it’s too soon to estimate their numbers or gauge their health needs.
Dome Village held a ceremony with speeches and dancing and made Gill and John honorary citizens of the village. They’re considering coming back next year to see the clinic in operation and the village will be delighted to see them again.
The first photo shows the volunteers’ accommodation which we’re building alongside our new clinic at the village of Dome. At present the structure is complete and plastering is being carried out inside the building. The second shows the platform which is being built to accommodate the water tower.
The photos are of Ashanti Development’s annual summer party, A Taste of Ghana in England.
