Quite a lot has been going on in our Children’s Village over the past few months and we would like to take a moment to bring you up to date.
Uncle Steve visits Children’s Village
We had the opportunity of welcoming Uncle Steve, a renowned peer educator who has worked in may part of Ghana and Sweden to educate our kids both at the children village and the Adwampong Community school on the topic of bullying through music, storytelling and role play.
This was an interesting event for both the kids and teachers as Stevie used different approach and methodology to carry out his message. In the end, the kids learned a lot about peer influence, bullying and a new song now attributed to Uncle Steve.
Farming
As initially planned beginning of this, our intense investment into growing our own food had a positive outcome. The raining season has extended a bit longer than usual and this positively influenced the thriving
rate of our cultivated food crops. We have been able to harvest our first batch of maize and has already began to cultivate the second batch which is also expected to be matured and harvested in two months from now.
The maize grains are currently in storage and the cassava plants are being harvested for making (“fufu and gari”) to supplement the food intake at the project.
Also to mention are the coconut plantation, which has tremendously transformed in the last 4 months, we are hopeful of harvesting our coconut next year if we continue to experiences these trends in growth.
We therefore plan to use similar and improved methods (including artificial irrigation techniques) in future for producing more food around the year for the children village community and to sell surplus for income.
From our live-stock (domestic animal) rearing are also our sheep and chicken doing well, they have multiplied and for now are kept for only domestic use. We have been able to put up a separate structure for keeping the chicken so we can monitor and support their growth and upkeep.
Dormitory for older Kids
Our kids are developing really quick, this compels us to plan ahead those currently under our care at the village and also for those who will join us in the future. As part of this plan, we are extending our accommodation facilities. This includes building a separate dormitory block for the children from the age of 10 years. The two large- room project has already began and will be furnished with storage equipment as well as separate shower and toilet facilities for boys and girls.
The project is scheduled be completed end of 2018, however with delay in delivery of building and construction materials, due to the poor nature of the connecting road, the completion date may be extended. The project is entirely supported by our generous sponsors and we are grateful and happy to work and support many due to the continuous support of the our sponsors and supporters.
School Project
The school project continues to stay as one of the big and fulfilling mini project undertaken by LoszuGhana. Children from 4 communities continue to enjoy free educations under the auspices of LoszuGhana and our sponsors. After some improvement (installation of running water system) in the school facility mid 2018, kids are relieved of pre- classes and time-consuming activities such as fetching water for the school canteen and for cleaning toilet, giving them more time to play and also focus on academic work.
However, the persistent rains in the past three months has adversely effected the school. The connecting road to school is still in a terrible condition and the usual school minivan is unable to ply the road anymore leaving the school kids to get to school either by foot or stay at home.
This condition has resulted in many children skipping school once or twice every week. Effort to get the respective government division (district) to re-fix the road has failed. An attempt was made in July to fix the road but the strong nature of the rains has left it again in a deplorable state. We therefore look forward to the dry season when there will not any continuous rains for about 3-5 months.
Grass growing to check erosion
The long raining seasons has led to a massive wearing-away of our compound at the children’s village. In an effort to curtail this problem, we have begun an extensive grass growing activity to check the erosion. Grass growing activities includes transplanting grass from another location and protecting with a bamboo fence from the sheep at the project compound. We plan to extend this activity entirely over the village compound until the entire project secured from rain erosion.
Our Family Houses and Residents
The children village had the opportunity of welcoming Patience a homeless mother and her 3months old baby boy Kofi Abraham to the project. The mother and child were spotted in an unsecured neighbourhood on the street of Kumasi and were introduced to us by the social welfare for assistance. The family live now with us at the Children’s village project and are receiving care, protection and most importantly love from all inhabitants at the project.
Aside Kofi Abraham are also two new kids Bernice (2yrs), Stephanie (9months) and their mother Abigail currently with us at the Children’s village. The family of 3 came from a small cocoa farming village, without school and other social amenities in the western-region of Ghana. Their mother upon recommendation expressed interest in participating in SMW project with the plan to be independent and fend for herself and also to support her 2 young children. The family will be staying with us for a period of 6months to learn baking skills whiles her children will get all the necessary care and support in the Adwampong school kindergarten.
Sunday Morning Woman Project
Commercial test-sales of products from our SMW bakery project begun some months ago and there have been many improvements in the product since it was first introduced to the public. Until now are mainly 3 different sorts of bread sold in 3 communities in close proximity to children village.
The young ladies of the SMW project have demonstrated well their ability to utilised opportunities and transform it to good calls for applause. The SMW project plans to extend sales to more villages close by in the coming months in other to increase production. Also planned is the commercialisation of cookies and pastries, until now cookies and other pastries are made to serve the village community, but the young girls plan to show the entire neighbouring communities their products and skills.
