Category: News

Money to drill and mechanise a borehole at Mpantuase was raised by M. Pierre Petitjean of Switzerland. He switched on the water a few days ago, and it is now available to the community.

Mr Petitnean first visited the villages when he was working for a Swiss donor, BasAid, who sent him to inspect the projects they’d given us funding for. He found them all in good order, and really liked the area – as well as having confidence in Nicholas to carry things out. Now he plans to build a pump caretaker room, store and shed.

Mpantuase village used to reproach us for not remembering them.  Let’s hope they’ve changed their tune.

The Rotary Club of Leigh, who sponsor Bimma village, recently gave us £1,000 to spend on mosquito nets. The main beneficiaries were to be the Bimma community, but any nets left over could be given where most needed.

First a community meeting was held, to tell people where the nets came from. The meeting also discussed sanitation in the village and strategies to reduce mosquito spread.

Nicholas and two volunteers then visited every household to distribute the nets and train people in their use and maintenance. So far 350 nets have been distributed and, as shown in the photos, the people of Bimma were very pleased and grateful.

This is to introduce the village of Brofoyedru, which has just been sponsored for sanitation. Nicholas says the community is very excited as for some time now they’ve been watching nearby villages getting sponsors and wishing they could have one too.

They don’t look very excited in the photo, but I’m sure they are. And there in the background, you can see our new vehicle (the old one’s been sold on). FYI, she’s a girl, and she’s called Daphne.

Sekyere Central District recently asked if we would build some latrines for patients at Kwamang Hospital in the south of the District. In similar circumstances in the past we’ve built big, concrete latrines, all very expensive. David decided to see if normal household latrines, built close together, might not do the job at a fraction of the cost. The photo shows the very start of the work.

Here are before and after photos of the Ashanti annual sponsored walk, which was held at the end of last month. Twenty of us walked from St Pancras Old Church in central London, down the Grand Union Canal as far as Limehouse.  Then we adjourned to a pub, and finally caught the river bus home.

So far, the walk has raised nearly £1,500 and there’s probably more money to come.

Mpantuase has found itself a donor who initially decided to build himself a house in the village, and spend some months each year in Ashanti.  Later he changed his mind and asked if he could use Ashanti Development accommodation when he visited instead.

He also decided to give Mpantuase a new borehole, and to site it at a place where our hydrogeologist thinks it will hit water.   A borehole would make a huge difference to the community, so let’s hope he’s right.  The photos are of the geophysics team, doing the preliminaries.