Landing in Ghana is an education for most. When experienced for the first time,
the organised chaos and obvious humidity are the first things you witness before
embarking outside the airport to random levels of existence on completely uparalleled scales.
Day 1 -
Arrival after 2 hrs drive from Tema
(itself 1 hour from Acra airport) we find Ada
and the Former home of HRH Princess Asie Ocansey, here
Andy is waiting for receipt of 1000 exercise books
which through Lear he has bought for the local Gorm school a short distance away.
Andy meets Miss Veronica the Gorm school head mistress in
the area we hope to install the new play equipment during
the next visit.
The banner especially put up shows of our impending
presentation to the school!!
Typical of the African way, organised chaos pre presentation!
Kevin Stevens from Lear and Andy bailey with the staff and some of the pupils hand over the exercise books and a few surprises in the shape of footballs, basket balls and volley balls. Until this point the whole school of 650 pupils had just ONE FOOTBALL!!
Looking around the Gorm school we find the canteen area.
Like the exercise books the children have to pay for to
record their work, they also have to pay for there school meal at midday.
At 1 Cidi (just 60pence) its alarming how many children don't eat in school!!
Water is also available in the ground but locals either drink from the
nearby river or buy plastic sachets if they can afford it. In most cases the
elders who can afford the occasional sachet cant afford the same luxury
regularly let alone for their children. It would be great to raise funds
for a bore hole properly filtered!! Surely something that could be provided for the school?
We arrive after the school at the Volta river a few minutes downtown of Ada.
The scenery here is stunning and we can see on the island opposite there
are early signs of development that might provide some employment for
the local population. The river is to be the means of getting to our next
school at Pediatorkope.
After much negotiation
with one of the more wealthy boat operators on the river our transport up river
is assembled! The motor is carried from the nearby garage and installed
and the canopy erected as our shade!
Upon our arrival we get a good look at the typical local housing erected out of the earth
we are standing on. Any formal construction has little or no cement to hold the
fragile blocks together although there are a few exceptions with painted walls of the house behind.
Barely ashore and we come across the Pediatorkope health center.
Clearly attempts as we are about to find out have failed where
sustainable efforts have not been thought through.
A failed water installation for the medical center. The tank and structure is fine.
Unfortunately the diesel pump to draw water from the river requires fuel which the
locals can ill afford to run! As a result it is disconnected and so this facility
lies dormant for the time being.
Lying in wait, new water tanks at the medical centre!! Unutilised with no sustainable infrastructure.
Not surprisingly the health centre isn't fit for purpose and so lies
in wait for all the local island inhabitants.
A short distance behind the medical centre we find the school which caters
for over 600 children all from either Ada or other neighbouring islands.
This where we find old swings and a merry go round connected to dyno's
to charge batteries for lanterns the children can take home. This is one of the more successful
approaches, having been installed by some Americans so time ago and still working well.
At the end of the day the sun is free as well as the energy from the children!!
Inside we take a look at the lanterns and battery charger unit,
itself receiving sustainable power to then charge the lanterns.
Pupils take these home once they have signed for them providing
light for homework as well as light in the family home. Typically
there are no services or sanitary provisions for the locals!
On our way back down the river we see more of the islanders typical housing.
By stark contrast there are signs of affluence along the more
desirable stretch of the Volta river. Many who can afford a river
side house take advantage of the pleasure boating and fishing out
to the nearby Atlantic where Blue Marlin occupies the wealthier home owner visitors.
Our guest house location for the night is a start contrast
to what we saw this day and yet this was nothing compared
to what we would witness on Day 2 !!
Day 2 - and first thing with the blessing of the local chief we are afforded
a rare view in to the village of Azizanya.
It is incomprehendable to think this is a stones throw from apparent luxury of the
guest house we had stayed in the night before.
The high water level has left its mark at the base of the trees.
At spring tides the village often floods with devastating consequences.
Babies and very young children have been swept away in the past and recent times.
Mothers often resorting to tying up the children to anything solid in there homes
they can find for risk of losing them to the elements whilst they might be asleep!
On the other side of the village, Mr Ocansey, Princess Asie's brother shows us the
fishermen organising their nets for yet another trip. Aid was sought to relocate
the fishing village to an inland alternative but not surprisingly the fisherman
only know how to harvest from the sea and so they and their families have stayed put.
The world Aid fund have pledged 65m euros to help relocate the village slightly upriver
to accommodate the families on higher ground and free them from the inherent dangers
when ever the waters rise.
The smell and litter are blatantly apparent around the village and on the immediate foreshore.
Examples in the
village of rebuilding for locals who have recently lost their homes for the Ninth time.
Finally Kevin gets to meet Princess Asie together with her aids. After initial introductions
and a talk on the issues of the area we pose at the proposed site for a regional orphanage
the Princess wants to set up for children who lost their parents through AIDS.
Next stop is a tour of the Neko Tek centre established by Princess Asie through
her own efforts like the bicycles initiative for locals she got donated from the
US bringing 4000 bikes to the region. In this area as she points out a bicycle is
like a limousine to many locals.
Inside the centre, Princess Asie explains this banner has stayed up to emphasise and
act as a constant reminder to those who attend. Many locals have been sponsored by
the centre and gone on to establish careers from pilot and accountant to security and
so on, often done by work placement through the princesses efforts at the centre.
After the centre a visit to see grandma! Supported with funds from Save a million in the UK
Andy has sponsored two very young orphans as a result of their
grandmother not having the physical ability to work and look after the children. The children's mother
having died of HIV and AIDS.
In case you are wondering the right hand collapsed building is the existing kitchen
for grandma and the left side structure is the new kitchen in the making!
All be it Andy and the princess are not happy with the poor workmanship.
The straw roof is not woven correctly!
Before leaving to go back towards Tema we call in on the Gorm
school to check up on Emanuelle who suffers from all manner of disabilities
but feels very at home in the princesses company at school.
Last stop before the road to Tema and we meet grandma's sister at the roadside mall!! This is also
their home!! Yes this is the 21st century unfortunately without help many people will never know what
it has to offer in the region.
Back to base at the guest house in Tema and a
welcome bed after two days out in the Ada region!
Day 3 - Next day and we meet up with Doctor Ashley of the West Africa Aids foundation
who counsel and provide medical assistance to those diagnosed with HIV or Aids.
Then the visit to one of the main hospitals in Acra provides a harsh insight into
the screaning process where pregnant women get screaned often for the first time
and around five percent learn they are HIV positive or have full blown AIDS. Only
through the dedication and volunteer network of the centre as well as contributions
from Save a million lives do the sufferers get to keep an element of dignity during their shortened lives.
Then after the centre and hospital we go in search of one of the
outpatients to the WAAF and meet Lynda who herself is HIV positive
and yet has chosen to adopt 15 children orphaned as a result of parents
dying of the disease. Half the children are also infected from their mother's
pregnancy. Miraculously Lynda has been making baskets to sell to support the
children and kept half of them in lodgings.
As money is now running out we discuss with her the possibility of
her making bleach under controlled conditions which makes for a better return.
It's an opportunity for save a million lives to provide seed capital for an
initiative that could become self financing and support the group going forward.
The West Africa foundation agree to administer the effort to see if it works.
If it does then it can be used for other similar cases and help support
many desperate people in the region.
The fight against Aids and HIV is nothing new but Save A Million Lives UK efforts have
impressed us at Lear to the extent that over recent years we have supported
there quest to establish sustainable efforts such as the working initiative for orphaned groups.
We now want to get to the source of the problem. Many parents cannot afford to send their children
to school so they don't get any education about the dangers of the disease and the ease in the
their environment with which they can contract this killer disease.
We want to take the Gorm school as a pilot project to provide play apparatus with Dynamo
connections and solar panels to provide chargeable lanterns similar to those shown above
and also to drive electric pumps with bore hole and fresh water installation. Adjoining
land is going to made available by Princess Asi Ocansey and the water will also act as
irrigation for a schools planting and food initiative and irrigation for the sports field.
This aim will deliver drinking water and food to the 650 or so pupils which will mean their
parents who can't afford to feed them every day or buy them water won't have to worry or
force them to drink from the river. But that's not all, with an education and high
attendance these children will learn the responsibilities of how to safe guard
themselves against disease for themselves and their future generations.
HELP US NOW AT LEAR GROUP IN CONJUNCTION WITH SAVE A MILLION !!!!!
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