Thank you to everyone who came to our party last Saturday. The rain held off, the sun came out, the food was great – and it was so good to see so many donors and volunteers and supporters again.
Thank you to everyone who came to our party last Saturday. The rain held off, the sun came out, the food was great – and it was so good to see so many donors and volunteers and supporters again.
There’s been a long-standing debate about two different points of view in relation to our clinic at Gyetiase-Nsuta. One part say it’s essential to build a wall round the clinic. Otherwise, they say, the animals will rub up against the existing walls and leave them very grimy.
The second part says that walls are scary, people may be frightened to come to the clinic if it’s got a wall right round it. Better to leave it open.
For now, we’ve reached a compromise. We’re going to do a bit of landscaping, plant some trees and see how we feel later. Any views would be welcome.
Our clinic at Nyinampong, which opened 18 months ago, now has electricity, clean water in every basin, six trained nurses and a midwife.
The clinic serves 8,000 people. In its first three months it treated 530 people, some more than once. They included 88 pregnant women, 17 of whom gave birth, 179 malaria cases, 25 cases of dysentery/diarrhoea and one suspected HIV/Aids.
Well done Nyinampong. It sounds like you’re doing a great job.
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. .