Charlotte, a seamstress from Alavanyo ,is hard at work making these beautiful bags for us to sell. As well as generating an income for the charity it provides Charlotte with work, helping her look after her family. Watch this space for our Etsy shop where we will showcase all of the bags and other items we’ll be bringing back in June.
Home Economics teacher, Florence Kumah, is overjoyed with the sewing machines for her class. Jobyco worked their wonders and the drum and the machines arrived safe and secure. Clemence handed them over to Florence at the school with some pupils in attendance. They are now using them in their lessons. Once again thanks to Margaret for donating not only the machines but bobbins, threads and needles. In fact almost everything that the pupils need to get started on their learning curve.
Alyrene, one of the trustees, is visiting the projects later this month and will hopefully get some photos and quotes from the children as to how they are using them.
It all goes to show that items we have that we no longer use can have a whole new life somewhere. If you have some useful but unused items you think might be of use to someone in the Volta region use the contact page to get in touch. Alyrene might be able to take it with her when she goes.
I was telling our friend Kay about how Florence was finding it difficult to teach machine sewing with a single broken sewing machine and she said “I think I know some one who can help.” A couple of weeks later she turns up with four sewing machines from her sister, Margaret. The machines are in excellent working order and came with their instruction books and lots of supplies: threads, spare feet, bobbins etc. etc.
The next problem to solve was how to transport them to Florence’s school. With Clemence Kitsi’s help we found a shipping company in Luton. They could supply a drum and then collect it and deliver it not just to Accra but directly to Alavanyo village. Jobyco efficiently handles all the shipping and paperwork with consummate ease.
So on Friday 25th March 2022 the four sewing machines securely packed into a shipping drum were loaded onto a van to be transported at the start of their journey to Florence Kumah to help her teach Home Economics at Alavanyo Junior Secondary school. I’ll let you know when they arrive.
The cost of the drum was £50 and it will be put to good use when it is emptied, and the cost of transporting it was £90 If you would like to help fund future shipments to the Volta region please click on the donate button.
The borehole has been drilled. The tower and storage tank erected. The plumber has done his work. And now there is sparkling fresh water for everyone in Gbedema Kofi to use.
Thank you to everyone involved. Especially the major donors, Wolfgang and The Green Hall Foundation and also remembering everyone who donates to Community Action Ghana big or small it all helps, so thank you so much.
We could not do this work without the continued help of Clemence Kitsi who gives up so much of his time to help the various communities in the Volta Region of Ghana. Here he is supervising the building of a road to get the drilling rig on site. 
Remember the water supply before. You have helped us do our bit to allow children to drink clean fresh water and mothers to use insect free water for their babies.
You may be wondering why the water supply for Gbedema Kofi has not reported progress since the water tower was built. As we were about to start we were told that the council was about to put a road exactly where we were about to drill the borehole. So the borehole had to be moved from this secondary site that was easily accessible to the primary site across the stream. This meant that we had to make a ‘new’ road across the stream and up the far bank. But the road we build wasn’t up to the task as the drilling rig was HUGE. So now we are in the process of remaking a road sufficiently strong for the task. Please keep watching this space for updates. Can I say that Wolfgang has made a huge contribution to the charity that will cover most of this unexpected expenditure. So Wolfgang thank you so much.
Florence is a dedicated and wonderful teacher. She teaches home economics in the Junior Secondary School in Alavanyo.
But she has a problem.
So Florence has to teach sewing theoretically. Her pupils can tell you the names of all of the parts of the machine but can’t use it to make anything. Why? Well look at the sewing machine she is trying to use. It is broken beyond repair of even the most skilled mechanic and they have tried.
She needs your help.
I recently had my sewing machine serviced by Geoff Ives and he has offered to service any machines we can get for Florence’s school for free.
We not only need some sewing machines but also the funds to send them to Ghana. I have found a shipping company that could deliver them to Alavanyo which costs £140 per 220l drum (including the cost of the drum). That would hold at least two machines.
If you would like to help with providing a sewing machine please contact us.
If you would like to help funding the transportation please click on the donate button below or this sentence.
Please help Florence and the hundreds of pupils she will teach to learn this skill to help them make clothes for themselves and their siblings.
The water supply won’t be ready for Christmas but it will be ready for the New Year. This means that the community of Gbedema Kofi won’t have to source their water from a muddy intermittent stream but will be able to get clean artesian water from a tank on a water tower.
In April 2021 the Leos from Cambridge High school in New Zealand had a sausage sizzle and raised the funds to allow us to do a geological survey.
This was done in May 2021 and it found a good source of underground water close to the middle of the community.
November 2021 the Green Hall Foundation gave us a grant of £4,000 towards the project.
In December 2021 the community met and finalised the positioning of the water tower and agreed on how the community would contribute to the project. On December 21st the foundations for the tower were put in and the project started.
Keep coming back to this post for updates on the progress.
To listen to this blog please click on the start arrow
As promised here are more pictures of building the water tower, making a road for the drilling rig and modern dowsing to pinpoint exactly where to drill.
Alyrene and myself went to Ghana from the 28th November to the 5th December.
Lots of PCR tests before during and after but it was worth it.
An amazing welcome at all of the current and past projects with constructive discussion with the builders and users of the toilets and libraries.
I think the best way for you to see what we did is visit Polarsteps, an incredibly useful piece of software allowing you to see and read what we did during the visit. It shows not only visiting all of the past, current and future projects but visiting friends and places I first went to in 1967.
In case you can’t visit it below are some photographs showing some of the highlights.
I am still surprised it was only a week we seemed to cram in so much.
Many thanks to our hosts particularly Clemence Kitsi, our project manager and friend who makes all of the arrangements so effortlessly fitting us in with his schedule as an Assemblyman for the local council (equivalent to a UK District Councillor but with many more pulls on his time from his constituents).
To listen to this blog please click on the start arrow below
We have just been informed that we have been given a very generous donation from the Trustees of the Green Hall Foundation. This means that we can get started on the project so that people no longer have to walk over a kilometer to scoop water out of a muddy stream for their use. The timing is fantastic too as Alyrene and Adrian are going to visit the projects next week and can help start the works whilst they are there. Watch this space for updates next week.
To listen to this blog post click on the start arrow
In Alavanyo Wudidi the carpenter Eric Nyarku, his son Prosper and his apprentice Kwame Amewu have been putting the finishing touches to the tables. They are making carrels so that people studying do not disturb each other and in the current pandemic climate they help prevent the spread of the virus. As you can see they have made the tables and dividers from scratch. No going to the furniture store and just buying some imported item. So now the library is almost ready for the books from Book Aid International which are being shipped at the moment.
To hear this paragraph please click here
Thank you very much Eric, Prosper and Kwame for your work.
The community have been working really hard to get the concrete slab with the squatting holes cast before the rain and termites destroy the wooden shuttering. As you can see there has been a really good turnout. Everyone no matter their status in the community get involved and The Chief of the Youth Sohafia in his red T shirt was as busy as anyone mixing the concrete. Soon we can start on the cubicles and roof. Thank you everyone at Alavanyo Agome and thank you to everyone who has donated. BUT we still need more to complete all of the projects so if you can please donate.
