After several weeks of waiting, all the necessary parts for our solar system have now been delivered: a new 4KWA inverter from Studer, charge controller and 5X 3.5kWh Li-lon batteries. Our technicians worked for three days to rewire and update the system, which was finally successfully installed.
The system is intelligent, it is capable of alerting us if battery percentage drops to a critical level or in worse case it is able to take out certain load to protect the system. In this way, we can use electricity efficiently and at the same time conserve the photovoltaic system. The joy about the new system in the children’s village is overwhelming and we are happy that we finally have electricity again at night! On hot sunny days, residents can now drink cold water and store food in a cool place to keep it longer. Children can study and do their homework after dark and do not have to fear stepping on a dangerous insect at night.
The commissioning of the photovoltaic system is a great success for us and will improve life in the children’s village in the long term. Without your continued interest in our project, this would not have been possible. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support!
Mostly during the rainy season, the residents and staff of the Children’s Village practice subsistence farming. This enables us to cover part of our food needs independently. This year, our main focus is on the cultivation of vegetables. We have introduced a new irrigation method for our vegetable crops and now combine natural irrigation of the plants by rainwater with additional water supply from our water reservoirs. For this purpose, we have already installed a new water tank and a sprinkler system in the vegetable garden, which allow continuous irrigation.
This year we have also started raising domestic chickens. Our chickens are raised in free range and live within the walls of the Children’s Village on about 16,000 square meters.
Easter celebration in Ghana is mostly about the death and rise of Christ. Not much is told about bunnies and decorated Easter eggs in many homes in Ghana.
At the childrens village we have adopted a few traditions from the international world making Easter time even more fun for us in our village community. For our Easter celebration, we baked some cookies, painted some colorful Easter eggs together with all kids and have other activities such traditional games/ dance on the plan.
Many thanks for your continuous support and love you show us everyday. Happy Easter….
The bonfire is burning and everyone has gathered around, happily singing and enjoying the evening together. This is how we spend our special evening, but only until the fire burns out. Once the wood is laid and the flames are out, total darkness reigns again. There is no electricity that brings light into the darkness. Without electricity, our regular evenings are short, and everyone is confined to their rooms as early as 7PM. The entire village remains in complete darkness until sun rise. The risk is not only the darkness, but the possibility of stumbling on a poisonous insect when you leave your room at night or you spend sleepless nights because of the high temperatures and the rash caused by the excessive heat.
Help us to provide the children with regular and safe electricity again!
You can participate in the fundraiser for our solar project. With as little as $2, LED lights or other necessary electrical components can be purchased. More information about the project and how you can support us can be found here.
We have had a good year in 2021 despite the many challenges. This was possible because of your continuous support and interest in our project, also to mention is your big love for us and our children.
We wish you a great time with your family and friends and also wish you good health in 2022!
The Christmas season is here, all schools and many institutions are preparing for the break to celebrate Christmas. For the Christmas school break, the old Adwampong community school decided to celebrate with a series of activities such as poetry recitals, drumming and dancing and choreography. The school invited parents and guardians to witness the occasion and took the opportunity to raise funds to support the school. Also in attendance was a sub-chief of Old-Adwampong (Kontihene Nana Kofi Gyan Ko Kyan II) who graced the occasion with his presence.
The old-Adwampong school is currently on Christmas break and will be resuming in the first week of January.
The school which is under the auspices of LoszuGhana provides free education for about 90 children from 4 communities around the children village.
The rainy season is over and now the dry season is coming for the next 5-6 months. This means around 12 hours of bright sunshine every day. Unfortunately, with our defective battery system, we are currently not able to store the PV power to use it for the fans at night. With temperatures between 30 – 36°C every day, it is almost impossible to sleep undisturbed at night. Below is a video of a typical evening in the children’s village.
COVI-19 continues to be a worldwide concern, in Ghana active cases have gone down to 1500. The government is taking drastic measure to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Currently over 3.1Million vaccines have been dispensed according to the Ghana Health Service.
We are happy to announce that, there is no case of COVID at the children village until now and almost all mothers and workers at the project have received their first dose of the vaccine AstraZeneca and awaiting the second in the next weeks. We continue to take precautionary measure to reduce risk of infection and ensure the safety all person at the project.
New children in the project
After many months of waiting, we have finally welcomed new children to the Children’s Village. We are happy to welcome 15 new members to our loszughana family, all 11 children and 4 mothers went through medical examinations to rule out contagious or serious illnesses before being admitted. Most of these children moved in to us with their mothers, who are now participating in our SMW vocational training project and learning skills in hair braiding or baking. For their accommodation, it was necessary to temporarily partition the girls’ wing of our new dormitory into cubicles to provide privacy and security for our new members. All children are currently attending school at Old Adwampong community school and have already integrated into the new village community.
Electricity at Project
For more than 5years now, the children’s village has depend on solar energy as a source of power at the project. The solar system which was constructed in 2016 and further extended in 2018 have reached its end of life. Our battery bank has overrun the rated cycles and no longer able to save energy, and other major components under performing and needs to be replaced (according to a audit conducted by NOCHESKI COMPANY LIMITED). The village project is currently almost dependent on a power generator(petrol) to compensate for the power demand including pumping water for daily use.
To curtail the situation, we have launched a fundraising campaign to maintain our solar system and continue to use green and renewable energy. We there therefore appealing to all for support to enable us Stay green and safe at the project. Visit our fundraising page here(in German)
Caleb Goes To Kindergarten: “Finally, I can tag on”, this was the expression on Caleb’s face when he put on his uniform to go to Kindergarten (KG) for the first time. Caleb turned 1-year in May, his birthday was marked with a surprise party which he found very confusing at the beginning. All the other kids were excited about Caleb’s birthday and treated him a bit differently on this day. For his birthday, the ladies from the bakery project also made some cookies, pie, and a lovely cake for Caleb and all kids. Caleb received many presents which included a new uniform for kindergarten. Going to kindergarten/school with the kids has been a dream for Caleb for a while. He didn’t like it when all the other kids left in the morning for school and he had to be home and wait until they are back. He often waves them goodbye and sometimes cries when they leave but finally, his time has come. He is now able to walk and actively play with other children so KG should be fine.
However, the first day at KG was a bit confusing and tough for him. He had to join other new kids of his age and not the kids from the children’s village. He was not happy and did not want to stay, but his mother was around so he knew he was secured. After almost 3 weeks now, Caleb has learned the new system and knows KG is making new friends and having fun all day. He loves it now and does not need his mother around at KG any longer.
Tree Planting Intense rains continue to erode our compound, while we continue to plant more grass to check the erosion, we have also started planting more trees to reduce wind speeds and also cool the air on our compound. But planting trees on our compound involves more than digging a hole for the plant, we are required to fence them to prevent our livestock from eating the leaves as they grow. The team of workers, together with all children are involved in our tree planting initiative. While adults are responsible for planting and fencing the trees, the children have the responsibility of caring for them by watering them every day. Each child has up to 3 trees to care for. Until now we have planted about 20 new trees which also include mango and orange which would have other benefits for the project when they mature.
School Gets Extra Support LoszuGhana continues to support over 80 children in the old Adwampong community school by offering free school education in the SOS program. The school was taken over by LoszuGhana in 2013 after being abandoned by the government and now has a population of over 90 children and 8 classes including a pre-school section. The covid-19 around the world had its impact on the school project. To ensure kids and teachers are safe in the classroom, there was the need to re-arrange the seating arrangement of the kids in the classroom. This implied increasing the number of the desk so 1-2 children are allowed to occupy a big desk. Furthermore, the school regularly gets supplies such as sanitizers and tissue papers to maintain hygiene and hand-washing at the school. Until now there is no case of covid-19 infection among the students and teachers at our school. In addition to hygiene materials, the school also received food items including bags of rice, cooking oil, bags of beans, and other materials to support the school canteen.
Corona Rules Reinforced The infamous COVID-19 continues to be a threat around the world, in Ghana the total number of active cases has reduced to 1260 as of June 2021. The government of Ghana started vaccination already in March with a focus on the priority-1 group (mostly older people and public servants in relevant institutions). The government has eased the national corona regulations, church gatherings, funerals, and weeding are allowed but with adherence to the covid-19 protocol. In our children’s village, there has not been a case of COVID infection until now, but our mothers and other staff have not yet been vaccinated. As a result, we continue to enforce the existing rules for all members and people who visit us. Visitors are still required to wear a mask at all times and avoid contact with children and mothers as much as possible. Mothers are required to wear a mask when going grocery shopping or running other errands for the project. These regulations will continue to exist until all our people are vaccinated before easing upon it.
Next SMW Training The next session of SMW Vocational training which was scheduled for last May will finally kick off in July. Screening and selection of participants took longer due to information verification and preparation of accommodation for resident participants from 4 communities within the Bosomtwe district. 5 young ladies have been selected to participate in about 6-8months of hair braiding training while 3 others will get 4 weeks of training in the production of liquid and bar washing soap.
With all training material organised and professional trainers waiting, the only setback is accommodation for some resident participants and their kids. This should be resolved in the next weeks to meet the planned kickoff this month in July.
New Kid at Project. We had the opportunity to welcome Rita and her 2months old baby Akosua, to our project in mid-February. Rita and her baby were relocated to our children’s village community due to congested living conditions at the previous orphanage project where she was living with her newly born baby.
The mother and child are presently living with us in one of our family houses and are happy to have more space and better hygienic living conditions. Rita will be participating in our next session of the SMW-Project next month in May to acquire skills in hair braiding and professional manicure.
Support for Non-Resident Kids The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the world’s top problem. There is no incident of COVID-19 infection at our children’s village until now. However, its consequences are noticeable at our children’s village project. Despite the many challenges, LoszuGhana continues to extend support to 7 non-resident needy children who live with other family members or guardians outside our village community. All 7 non-resident children continue to get educational, material, health insurance, and food support from LoszuGhana. Our non-resident children are currently living with a known member of their extended families or caregiver who has accepted to live with children and provide care and protection.
Kids in JHS Time flies, they say, George Snr. and Jnr could barely hold pencils to draw or write their names not so long ago, but today the twins have made the next steps in their education and graduated from Primary school to Junior High School (JHS) at Adunku public school (close to the children village project). The two require about 10mins with their bikes to school and have made new friends and classmates in their new school. George Senior’s favorite subject at school is Maths and Junior loves English and spelling words. The two also enjoy the ride to school every morning and never want to miss school.
Farming The rainy days are here again, and it’s time to grow food crops and vegetables to supplement food consumption at our children’s village.
Alongside growing food crops, we are currently preparing our fish ponds to restock them with fishes once the ponds are filled with rainwater again. Since our fish ponds are dependent on rains, we keep and harvest fishes once a year for food consumption at the project.
However, severe rains affect our surroundings, the children’s village continues to battle erosion problems on our compound. Measure taken so far to handle the situation includes grass and tree planting. These measures have proven to be very effective in the last years, and we continue to plant more trees and grasses specifically to reduce the erosion situation at the project.
