Joshua Etteh is a 15 year old student at Gbi-Wedbe Basic A School in the Volta Region of Ghana. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He enjoys reading in the library because the books help him understand how to construct sentences and use punctuation. He also learns new vocabulary from reading. Some of his favourites are; The Upside of Falling by Alex Light, Wild Lily by KM Peyton, and Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman.

Joshua is one of 1,000 students who use the library. They take it in turns to read novels and stories in early morning group reading for the first hour of the school day. As well as taking the academic books to the classroom to enhance their studies.

The library was refurbished by Community Action Ghana with local artisans voluntarily giving their time to make the tables and bookshelves. These bookshelves were then stocked by Book Aid International. Prior to this the library hadn’t had any new books for 25years. Patrick Dzandu, ITC Teacher and Library Champion, proudly told us the old, dusty books are now in the archives!

Joshua says: “Thank you to Book Aid International. We say thank you very much”

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A kind donor gave us £50 to “spend on something useful” when in Ghana. £50 converts to 489 Ghanaian Cedi – which is a lot of money! Wanting to spend the money wisely we asked the village what would be useful. 

Maternity Clinic

The maternity clinic asked for a new ceiling fan for the delivery room, which until now didn’t have one – and it gets hot in there! The clinic is part of the Dzogbedze Community Health Service and supports pre & postnatal women as well as during childbirth. When buying the fan in Kpando we told the store owner what it was for and she discounted it to 280 cedi (£28.62) Midwife Anita, Nurse Doreen & Baby Karen were very grateful. 

Primary School

Another request came from the primary school. They needed exercise books and mathematics sets. School is free in Ghana but children must provide their own books and equipment, which not all can afford. At the China Mall in Accra we bought: 

• 40x exercise books
• 3x mathematics sets
• 100x sticks of chalk 
• 4x alphabet & numbers wall posters

All of this totalled 109 cedi (£11.14) and will go a long way in supporting the children who cannot afford their own school supplies. The teachers were also grateful for the additions to their classrooms. 

Toilets

In 2019 we worked with the Alavanyo Dzogbedze community to build a toilet block. Three years on it is still in full use. The cleaning of the toilets is done by Janet, who lives closest to them. The remaining 100 cedi was spent on replenishing the cleaning supplies. Janet specifically asked for a new standing brush which cost 20 cedi (£2.04) and we had enough left for two big bottles of bleach. 

Thank you

As you can see this generous donation has gone a really long way in supporting women in labour, children, teachers, Janet and the whole community. 

Thank you to our generous Ghanaian Sister for this gift of £50 and thank you to everyone who has made a donation or is considering one in the future. Whatever you are able to donate, however often, makes a real difference to people’s lives.

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We have places in the Oxford Half Marathon and would love you to join our team!

To register please get in touch and we’ll send you all you need.

If you’d like to support Community Action Ghana with a different challenge please get in touch, we’d be delighted to support you in your fundraising to make a difference to communities in Ghana.

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