The Training College at Gyetiase is nearly up and running, and the photos show the sewing machine tables being made. The sewing machines themselves have been bought from John Lewis, all different colours – pink, peppermint, red, purple. We hope the students will like them.
The pictures are of Bresua Village being given the news that Richard (who swam 70 lengths on his 70th birthday to raise money for Ashanti Development) had decided to sponsor them.
Get ready for some latrine-digging pictures when the work starts.
Well, this kindergarten must hold the record for quick building! It seems the reason they’re rushing is to beat inflation, since prices on imported goods like cement are going up on an almost daily basis.
At this rate, the building will be finished by the end of the month.
Mpantuase kindergarten is coming along in leaps and bounds, with the foundations now all but finished. Sponsors Ab Roy and his SpecSavers team are due to visit in October (Ebola permitting) and maybe the village is aiming to get it finished by the time he arrives.
Dawn and Paul, who sponsor two villages, have arranged training for local people in bee-keeping, and now there are four beehives at Gyetiase. One of the four has been colonised and we’re hoping that bees will find the other three soon.
Work on Mpantuase Village’s new kindergarten, financed by SpecSavers in the Midlands, is progressing at top speed to reduce the impact of high inflation on building materials. Prices are rising on a daily basis. So far, communal labour has been used to uproot tree stumps and level the ground with a bulldozer, and all building blocks have been moulded. The village is very enthusiastic, and are putting enormous effort into the work.
Nyinampong is a large, extremely poor village with very high rates of birth and infant mortality. We’ve been looking for a long time for a sponsor for them – they’ve also been lobbying us hard in case we forgot – but the village is too big for most people to want to take on.
Luckily, a sponsor was recently found for them and latrines are going up everywhere at the rate of knots. We’ve divided the village into two for the purposes of sanitation, and almost all the first half have now been constructed and roofed their latrines, so the masons can finish them off under cover in spite of the heavy rains they’ve been having in Ashanti.
Here’s a picture of one of them. You may think it’s not the most inspiring picture you’ve seen, but the latrine means an awful lot to someone.
Many of you know about the recent legislation to cut the number of Unit Committees in every electoral area. What’s more, whereas previously representatives were elected, they are now nominated by government. At many villages this change has wrought havoc. Former, possibly hard-working and responsible Unit Committee members are furious at having been displaced and many people refuse point blank to work with the new committees, who are in any case too small to manage all the work involved.
Examples are the three neighbouring villages of Patase, Sesease and Kokoben. Sometime ago, we gave them a palm oil press, but they were unable to organise themselves enough to use it properly. They’ve had many ‘last chances’ to do this, but never succeeded, so now we’ve removed the press and given it to Adutwam village, largely because Adutwam already have a shed in which to house it.
The photos show the press being removed from PSK, and the shed where it’s now housed. It’s very sad for PSK, and we’re specially sorry because Kokoben is Master’s home village. Let’s hope at least it serves as an example to any other village.
Nicholas reckons that Nyinampong is one of the poorest villages he’s ever seen, so there was great rejoicing last week when he was able to tell them that a sponsor had been found for their household latrines. The meeting was well attended, although many people were preparing for marketday the following morning. It was attended by opinion leaders including the queen mother
and the village elders.
Many people spoke of their appreciation of the sponsor’s generosity, and they promised to cooperate throughout the project, for which they will carry out all unskilled manual labour, such as digging 14 ft pits.
