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.
Millions of thanks to Kevin Ford, who just completed the Thames Path Challenge, walking 100km to raise funds for Ashanti Development. He got terribly injured feet, completely exhausted himself, but raised a fantastic £1,000 for us. See the video here http://vimeo.com/106176098
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.
