News

The figures are showing the number of people who have affected by the Covid19 in Ghana since the start of the pandemic.

In Saviour Benin, the only source of drinking water was a shallow polluted stream.  Then Izzy generously funded a borehole, which we tried to drill a few weeks ago, but the drill rig got stuck in the mud.  The weather let up for a while recently, and we had another try.  It took all day but finally, just before midnight, we hit water.  The community is ecstatic.

The photos show a brand new delivery bed which one of our Directors (in fact, David Rees himself) has just funded for the David Rees clinic at Ankamadua.  According to Madam Mercy, the midwife in charge of the clinic, it will make deliveries much easier and there will be fewer complications.  Madam Mercy is full of praise and thanks for David.

Ashanti Development has been given a share of a stall in Camden Market.   It’s located in the new Bucks Market – down a corridor to the left of the photo with Bucks Market written up.

Martha Boadu, who’s running the stall, is Ashanti Development’s founder.  She’d love it if you could drop in for a chat but best check with us which days she’ll be there before going.

We just had two very successful drillings at the villages of Aframano and Asarenkwanta, and then disaster struck!  We were trying to drill a third borehole at Saviour Benin in Sekyere Central District, but the drill got stuck in the mud and the attempt was abandoned.  We won’t get another try until October/November when the rains stop.

Asarenkwanta:

Aframano:

Saviour Benin:

Nyinampong is lucky enough to have found a donor to ‘mechanise’ its borehole The water will be pumped up by electricity into overhead tanks, and then it can be accessed by simply turning on a tap. The photos show the overhead platforms which the tanks will sit on. There’s a road down the middle of the village, so there will be fetching points either side of it. No need for anyone cross the road.

The photo shows the school we’ve just built for the little farming village of Esereso and the homemade structure that served as a school before.
When the Chief first learned that we were offering to build a school, he made a long speech. He said that now he wished he was a child again. His generation were living in poverty because they never went to school. Things would be so much better for today’s children, he said. The assemblyman wept.
The school will accommodate 120 children who are not yet old enough to walk the 6km to school at Kwamang, and 6km back. Without it, young children are already far behind with their school work before they apply to Kwamang, and the school there will not accept them.

This week, a geophysics team visited the villages of Timber Nkwanta, Asarenkwanta and Nyankomam. They managed to locate good places to drill for water in each village, but the question remains as to whether the water is too deep. If not, all three villages will have their own boreholes in a week or two.
The man in the photo is the chief of Asare Nkwanta, who stayed with the drillers all day.

Lock-down has been lifted in Ghana, not least because of so many people need to go to their farms if they are to eat.  That aside, Ghana seems to have got off lightly from Covid19, with under 100 deaths – though so many people are innumerate that it’s hard to have confidence in the figures.

Earlier this week Ashanti Development organised a communal meeting at Nyinampong where, as shown in the photos, everyone observed social distancing.  We explained we needed to do a pump test on their borehole to see if there was enough water in it to allow us to mechanise.  The pump test was agreed and carried out, and everyone was overjoyed to find the borehole had more than enough water to justify mechanisation.