Our wonderful sponsors, IT company Softwire, have offered to fund a Mothers and Babies Unit at Mampong Maternity Hospital in Ashanti.
The Maternity Hospital caters for 2,000 deliveries a year and is the principal point of referral for seven large clinics and many other, smaller ones. The new unit will cut out the need to transport sick mothers and babies to Kumasi Hospital, 54km away. Most of the babies die on the way.
The pictures show the bush being cleared prior to building. Meanwhile, the hospital is in a state of rejoicing.
We’re trying to persuade Mosi-Kura to dig pits for household latrines, but they’re not keen. The village just doesn’t believe that latrines and hygiene training will radically improve their health, that they’ll stop suffering from constant diarrhoea and regain lost energy. If I were in their shoes I’m not sure I’d believe it either.
We had the same problem when we started giving latrines to villages in other parts of Ashanti. We asked local people to contribute to the work but they really couldn’t see the point. They kept asking sensible questions like why wouldn’t we give them something useful instead, like televisions or cars. But when the effects finally became apparent we had delegations from many communities asking for latrines.
Unfortunately Mosi-Kura is far away from anywhere we’ve worked before and the message hasn’t reached it. The raw materials, sand and stones and wood, have all been delivered (see picture) and the craftsmen are ready, but no work’s been done. If any of the Ashantis who follow our page come from Mosi-Kura we’d be grateful if they’d have a word with the village hierarchy.
Do you remember that geophysics couldn’t find water anywhere in Mosi-Kura, so we had to abandon the idea of giving the village a borehole? Then we came across an old abandoned borehole in the village and wondered if it would be possible to repair it as an alternative.
The news is great. The borehole has been repaired by our engineers and initial results look promising. All the old pipes have been removed and will be replaced. The water will be tested for quantity and quality and provided the results are OK, we’ll install a handpump.
For some time now we’ve been encouraging local people to use tippy taps, a hands-free way to wash your hands when you don’t have a basin or ordinary taps. Here’s a picture.
We’ve never had much success in Ashanti, partly because the village children always knock the tap over within a a few days of it being set up.
Now we’ve found a second reason. In Ashanti they prefer to use Veronica buckets, which have a tap attached. You can knock it open with your elbow and let it run for just the amount of water you need. .
Lots going on in Ashanti, not least the extension of our microcredit scheme which gives women business training and access to small loans for trading purposes. It’s wildly popular, and we often get lobbied by women asking for it to be extended to their villages. When the loans are repaid they can be lent on to other women, perhaps in other villages, so the whole system is very good value.
The picture shows a meeting yesterday in the village of Pentem (famous for making excellent, very loud drums). The women, all socially distanced, are being told that they’re going to have a chance to join the scheme. Apparently they’re very excited.
A few months ago one of our donors was kind enough to fund a mechanised borehole for the village of Saviour Benin. Just a few years ago this was a very deprived village, but with the help of clean water, latrines and hygiene training they’re beginning to get on their feet.
The photo shows the bucket queue for water, and also the way the village has organised itself to sell water to other nearby villages. The borehole was very good, and they have plenty of water to spare. They will save the money for maintenance and repair, and will probably soon have money to spare for some project – building a kindergarten for example.
Three years, Swiss charity BasAid helped us run a major drive to tell people about the harmful effects of using battery-powered lamps and kerosene. BasAid funded the distribution of solar lamps as an alternative. Today, the lessons seem to have been learned. Many people have switched to solar power, which of course they can also use to charge their mobiles. These pictures were taken in the villages of Galiba and Mantukwa.
While we’re waiting to know whether Mosi-Kura village’s abandoned borehole can be repaired, the drill rig is getting busy. It will soon be drilling in Ebuoso, a little village in Mampong District that must have never thought it would get so lucky; in Domeabrea, which was recently sponsored for latrines but needs clean water; and in Nkwanta, thanks to the generosity of a new donor whose path we were lucky enough to cross. The rest of this work is funded by Softwire, our amazingly supportive sponsors. The photos show the arrival of the equipment. If geophysics is to be believed, the drilling seems likely to be successful in all three villages, but keep your fingers crossed – you can never be certain.
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