Because of the generosity of regular donors, and donations to our latest appeal, we have been able to release the latest donation of books, from Book Aid International, from Ghana’s customs. The funds raised also allowed us to transport them to Alavanyo.

Clemence, our project manager in Alavanyo, made all the arrangements for the books to be collected from Accra and transported to Alavanyo. They are pictured below; unpacked, sorted and stamped . All books are stamped with the Book Aid International stamp.

This could not have happened without your financial help. So a huge thank you.

In Dorfor Adidome we are going to refurbish a room in the primary school, that they have set aside as a community library.

We were recently complimented by an eminent public health professional, Professor Sir Muir Gray (Director of The Optimal Aging Program Oxford University), for our work in providing toilets and libraries. In his opinion the the two most important strategies for improving public health are clean water and education – and toilets are vital in keeping water courses clean. We are honoured and humbled by his appreciation of what we are doing.

The work goes on.

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The trustees Adrian and Heather visited Ghana from 17th to 27th February to see how current projects were doing and to identify new projects. We set off From Heathrow with British Airways with 172 Kg of luggage! We go BA because its a non stop flight and as you can see, their luggage allowance is great. As we pay for our own flights it is the most cost effective and convienient way of travelling.

We were met at Kotoka International airport in Accra at 9pm by the third trustee Alyrene, who had travelled out a few days earlier, Clemence our project manager, and Christian a driver we had had before in his beautifully kept air conditioned minivan.

The next day we left for Alavanyo. We stopped for lunch at the Akosombo dam, where Heather and Adrian had set off on their adventure to Timbuctoo during the 1968 Easter holidays. They were teaching in Ghana having been recruited by VSO to work in schools in the Volta Region.

We spent the next six days based at Alavanyo Dzogbedze. We travelled by the less salubrious but very efficient Tuktuk driven by Amos.
First to Kpando to buy material from the market. We needed the material to give to various seamtresses to make bags to sell on Etsy, at craft fares, and for the fair trade shop in Hameln. This not only provides us with a source of income for our projects but gives work to the seamstresses and their apprentices.

To be continued…………………………………………………..

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The carpenters at Dorfor Adidome have been hard at work. We are always amazed at the speed a roof goes on. A combination of hard work and skill.

The next stage is fitting out the interior and plumbing everything in. Usually we build KVIP toilets with the communities we work with. However, the community of Dorfor Adidome requested a WC system, initially we had reservations, but the central positioning of the toilet block in the village and the desire of the community to have one has meant we agreed. Our strapline is “The communities’ priorities are our priorities” and this is what the community requested we help with.

We are putting in drainage channels for after the effluent has been through a septic tank and aim to plant fruit trees alongside the channels to make use of the nutrients coming from the septic tank.

As with all of our projects, we will monitor the results closely and evaluate this toilet system before we commit to any other water based systems.

We have been in discussions about compost toilets and will be visiting a project next month that is converting the KVIP system into a compost system.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress and the evaluation and thank you to our generous donors and to the hard work and commitment of the Dorfor Adidome community.

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We’d just like to show you how a brilliant community is helping themselves build a community toilet in their village with our assistance. We are providing the majority of materials. The community is providing some locally available materials such as sand and water and, most importantly, their labour and enthusiasm. They work on the toilets most Mondays and Tuesdays instead of tending to their farms. Almost all of the people are subsistence farmers so this is quite a sacrifice. The overall cost of the project is £23,393 with the locally available materials and labour costs provided by the community being £11,589 and Community Action Ghana’s input of £11,804. Almost a 50/50 split.

The illustrated timeline below shows exactly how we, at Community Action Ghana, work with communities to develop their infrastructure.

We are really in need of funds to finish this project so please dig deep or contact us on ways you could help. Do you know a group we could give a talk to. Do you want to run a marathon for us? A sponsored something? Please think about how you could help this community help themselves .

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At Community Action Ghana we pride ourselves on working with communities to fulfil their needs, in the ways they want them – the communities’ priorities our priorities.

In 2019 we worked with the community of Alavanyo Dzogbedze to build a sustainable, community toilet. We are delighted to report that a recent survey found that 326 people are using the toilets.

At the communities’ request we worked together to build a Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP) toilet block. This is a well know toilet system in Ghana, developed locally at Kumasi Institute of Technology (now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

The sustainability aspect of these toilets is what was so important to us all. To show this, we’ll explain a little bit about how they work. The most important part of these toilets is the pit or the holding tanks. All the toilet deposits go into these tanks. They are designed to be very well ventilated so no, or little, smell goes back up into the cubicles. Any flies that follow their noses onto the poo are cunningly trapped in the tank until they die. If the flies could escape, they would carry germs on their legs and bodies, leading to fly borne diseases. With the KVIP model they can’t escape so this stops them spreading diseases.

In each toilet cubicle there are two squatting plates, and two toilet seats in the accessible cubicles. However, only one is opened initially, the other is sealed shut with a strong layer of concrete. Each tank is designed to hold about ten years, worth of deposits. The theory is, in ten years’ time when it is full, the initial plate will be sealed and the second chipped open to start filling the neighbouring holding tank. After about 20 years the contents of the first tank will have thoroughly composted killing any pathogens. This holding tank is then emptied, and the process starts again.

This sounds like a wonderfully, sustainable build designed to last decades.

However, when checking the toilets in Alavanyo Dzogbedze this month, we found that after just four years the initial tanks on the female side were full. And there was a smell coming from the toilets, which understandably those living closest to them were disturbed by. There was also rather an abundance of flies coming out of the toilets.

What was the problem?

The female toilets are in such demand, and so well used, that instead of the ten years expected to fill them, they have been filled in just four years. We see this as a good thing, illustrating the huge different these toilets are making, especially for the female members of the community, who use them the most. We sealed the first full tank and opened up the second empty tank so the ladies will start using an empty tank.We will keep monitoring the usage and report back, when the second tanks are full – to see if the first tank has composted thoroughly enough to destroy the pathogens and reopen to continue the substantiality of the toilets. 

What about the smell.

Sealing off the full holding tanks and opening the empty holding tanks should alleviate the smell problem as the smell was coming from the full tanks. We also went round the holding tanks and used mortar to seal any cracks and crevices that allowed smells to escape. After we had done this there was an immediate clearing of the air. We will continue to monitor the situation.

What about the flies?

The solution to this is simple, the toilets were designed so any flies that were attracted to the smell of the faeces would be trapped in the holding pits – unable to fly away to transmit diseases. However, even after educating the toilet users about the importance of closing the toilet doors to allow this process to take place, flies were still getting out – creating the possibility of disease. Our solution – attaching springs to the toilet doors to ensure they remain closed after use. Again, we will report back to check that this has continued to prevent fly borne diseases.

We are currently fundraising for another toilet block in Dorfor Adidome. Due to the terrain and location of the toilets they have requested a water based toilet system, so we will ensure these are as sustainable as possible and continue to learn and adjust when needed. The water tank system is more expensive than the KVIP’s and inflation in Ghana is dramatically affecting our budgets, so if you are able, we would really appreciate your support to ensure we can help another community live with toilets and combat disease.

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The streets are made from sand, gravel and shells as thousands of years ago this was the course of the Volta River. The river has changed course over the years but the muscles & clams remain for harvesting. 

Due to the terrain and the location of the toilets, the community have requested a water closet system toilet. This entails drilling a borehole to produce enough water for the system.  As well as being used for the plumbing the borehole will also give supply of fresh water to the community. Currently they fetch water from the river which is now just over a kilometre away from the centre of the village.

We are delighted to be working with such a committed community. We visited them and agreed the partnership on Monday, by Tuesday they had a full work plan and by Tuesday they had worked together to gather enough sand to make blocks for the walls! We’ll keep you updated on the progress…

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