James Riggs (Project Manager) Update: July 2010

OK, time for the next instalment. With time fast running out as we approach the 14th September opening, it's all hands to the pump. There are a hundred-and-one things we need to do if the school is to be opened in time, but before I go into that, we will start with a look at the main event – the Memorandum. As I left it last time, we had agreed in principle with the minister for education for a partnership between EDP and the state based on the principle of free secondary education at the school. Of course things were never going to be straight forward, and we have had to do an awful lot of chasing to get the thing formalised, but on the 11th June I sat down with Hon. Alex-Tettey Enyo and signed the vital document. With just a touch of irony, in the words of Chuck Palahniuk, “we now have corporate sponsorship”.

The point is that fees, however small they seem, are beyond the financial reach of the very poor and so without access to education poverty simply reproduces itself. So, the fact that we have government support [teachers and books] for a non-fee paying senior school is something that I am very, very excited about. In terms of long-term success and [current buzzword] sustainability of the project this is a massive boost.

The next thing to mention is the progress of getting the all important container from the UK shipped out here. The contents of which include computers, books, bicycles a juicer and a host of other things crucial for the project’s success. In order to get the pre-tax clearance for the shipment we needed to register as an NGO which, in Ghana, is no easy task. Right, explaining this one may get complicated [not to mention emotionally tortuous for myself in reliving the whole experience]. Developing country bureaucracies are often incredibly overworked, with external demands and internal pressures, understaffed and poorly resourced. As a result both private investment and international aid get slowed down [and sadly often just give up]. This little story should do well in highlighting this fact. I visited the Registrar Generals to collect an NGO registration form [incidentally, the lady dishing out the forms asked me if this was a for-profit or not-for-profit NGO which both saddened and appalled me]. I took the completed form back a few days later only to be told that as a UK organisation we would have to register as a company who were applying to open a school. As a result we registered Awutu-Winton as a private company which required copies of certificates showing EDP was a registered UK charity. By the following week, thinking all was in order, I headed back. This time I was told that we would need a Ghanaian auditor who would agree to check accounts each year, and pay $1000. Both were obviously unreasonable and had not been mentioned before. Now, these forms [and there were many, many forms] all needed to be typed, not written. As a result the pavements outside the registry are awash with people hunched over typewriters who will type up your proposals. It is here I spent two weeks, getting applications typed, then checked in various departments, then retyped, then checked again. Queues, queues, queues. It's a good job I lived for a while in China, were the sheer number of people means that you queue just to get a bar of soap, but even so my patience was running out by the beginning of the third week. And so, on the Tuesday, it got too much for me and I snapped. 'Just tell me what you want me to do, just once, and I'll do it' [the language may have been a little fruitier than that in reality]. The woman behind the counter looked aghast, and stared over my shoulder. I look around and a large man in a blue uniform, with an even larger machine gun, is walking up to grab me by the arm. Things weren't looking good. I contemplated briefly whether I was actually being taken away to be shot and decided that, if the alternative was another week of queues then it was probably for the best. So, I acquiesced and let him lead the march out of the building, through some security doors, up two flights of stairs and through a thick brown wooden panelled door. “Hello Mr James” said the Attorney General from behind her enormous desk, “what seems to be the problem”. It didn't even click as to how she knew my name and I told her exactly what I wanted to do and how difficult it was being made for me. A quick apology was made [for which, retrospectively of course I know was completely unnecessary, not to mention morally refutable, but was however music to my ears at the time] and she said how she had learned from the Education Department of the plans with EDP and the school in Awutu. She called her assistant, Richard, over and he was instructed to help with everything. By Friday, I had the company registration certificate and was on my way to the department of social welfare with a skip in my step.

Mrs Owari put me in touch with a guy in social welfare called Simon Nangwar who in turn introduced me to a Mr Agble. Initially I was told that the school was to be inspected, but as this would have been the third time it would have been I managed to convince him that it wasn't necessary. By waving around the signed letter from the Minister, as well as the original inspection report form the Education Service in Cape-Coats and expressing how keen we all were to get the container over he agreed to wave another inspection. I was to come back the next day with various copies of certificates and information about the directors, the school’s history, funding and a constitution. With all this in hand Mr Agble set out, a few days later, to register the school itself as an NGO. A few weeks after that, with daily harassment, we were given our certificate. The school was now registered as a private company and as an NGO, both in the UK and in Ghana. Well, at least we have all the bases covered. Next we had to write a letter to the ministry for social welfare and employment to apply for tax exemption for the container coming through the port. And that is where we currently leave things. Not that the saga is over. Perhaps even just beginning. Our whole folder is now waiting on a desk somewhere, awaiting the arrival of the Bill of Lading [the 'passport' of the container, issued by the port in the UK]. The ship sailed yesterday, and will take 3 weeks to arrive. Once the Bill has turned up, myself and Agble will take everything to the Ministry of Finance to get it signed off before it gets passed on to the Revenue Secretary who will give us another signed letter which we take to the VAT and Customs office who will give us the final tax exemption certificate. Once we have that we get a clearing agent [which Agble says he can sort out very easily] and we are ready to collect the container. Simple!

Alongside this, there has been plenty else going on. We have just taken charge of the 70 desks ready for the students to sit their first lessons. I have met with and written formal requests to the Director of Education in Cape-Coast for teachers and to the Head of Procurement and Logistics in Accra for text books. Both have promised to help, but I expect a similar story of queues, type-writers and machine guns may yet come between us and the realisation of those promises. Building at the site has started once more. We originally put a halt to construction when we found out the school was not registered and then were hampered by rains. With the annual downpours just about finished [it may not rain again for another ten months] the foundations for the second phase [to be opened Sept 2011] has begun again. It is important that we push this long as fast as possible, lest the students this year will have a school that more resembles a building site. We have also cleared the road, planted some trees and placed turf [with sporadic mango trees] around the back of the school to form a little lawn for the students to sit on. A couple of weeks ago we organised a meeting with the local heads of junior schools from the area to discuss student enrolment. About 30 turned up, and have been given application forms as well as a run down on the way the school will run [free, non-boarding, text books provided]. The students are waiting for their exam results, which should be out end of July, before they can apply but the general consensus is that the target of 70 students will easily be reached which is very encouraging news.

So that is about where we are up to at Awutu-Winton. We still have a great deal to do, and little time left to do it, but in quite a chaotic manner it all seems to be coming together nicely and I am confident that with a little luck we will make the September deadline. Just! In fact, if this was a mid-morning home makeover TV show [of the sort I was so fond of as a student] then I think the new students could well be strolling up the road just with the paint drying and the finishing touches being put in place as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is spotted scarpering over the back wall and out of sight.

And there we have it. Well, almost. I can’t possibly finish this off without mentioning the first ever football World Cup to be held in Africa. It has been such a pleasure to have been out in Ghana and see first-hand just how much this tournament has meant to the people of the entire continent. And what with Ghana flying the flag for the rest of Africa in the latter stages there has been plenty to cheer about. The Black Stars reached the quarter finals [only the third African team ever to do so] and played brilliantly, before cruelly missing a last minute penalty that would have seen them become the first African team into the semis. The whole continent was shouting for Ghana that night, the papers had dubbed the team the African Stars, and the United States of Africa. Despite their eventual loss to Uruguay, people danced long into the night to celebrate the team’s achievements. The next morning I was chatting to my next door neighbour about the game. “It is god’s will he said”, through a sigh and a dejected look at the floor. His wife was more convinced as to the reason for the result. “This boy” she said “who took the penalty. Everybody loves him too much, they have filled his head up,” before peering round at her husband “he has sugar on the brain”. I'm not entirely sure exactly who she was talking about.

James Riggs Awutu, July 2010.

James Riggs (Project Manager) Update, April 2010

So, 2 months here in Awutu and plenty to tell you about. Progress has been good and we are still on course for the grand opening of Awutu-Winton Senior High School in September. The local population are in dire need of a Secondary School with the closest one 6 miles away in Senya. The children from Awutu often have to walk this each day, setting off 2 hours before classes start, and arriving home well after dark. I have visited the school, and others in nearby Winneba and Kasoa. A hundred-plus children jammed into classrooms the size of a squash court, with three or four students hunched over a single desk. The stifling heat is too much for some who fall asleep slouched against their classmates, only to be awoken seconds later by the thwack of a cane across their arms, legs or neck.

I have spoken to many of the students, and their story is often the same. Michael is fourteen years old, he lives on the family smallholding, goes to school in Senya and plays football with his friends on Sundays. Which is when I meet him. He tells me that he is too tired to play today, so he watches from the side of he pitch as his team run around in the mid morning sun. He explains how he gets up each morning at 3 o'clock to do his study under a small kerosene lantern. But his parents cannot afford the fuel, so he has it very low and it is difficult to see. He works until the sun comes up, at about 6, then takes a large pot of Kenke [plantain and cassava porridge] to the bus depot to sell to passengers at 20p a portion. He must sell it all for the fees he needs to go to school - £40 a term. His parents cannot afford to send him but he has to go to school “for qualifications, to get a job”. When he is finished at the bus depot he must walk the hour to school come sunshine or torrential West-African downpour. If he is late, his teacher canes him in front of the class. When I speak to him on Sunday, next to the football pitch, he is sad because he cannot pay his fees anymore.

Secondary education in Ghana, like much of Africa, is not free. Meaning that only those lucky enough to be able to afford it can claim the benefits that education brings - such as literacy, job prospects and better health. Those who cannot afford it, the poor, are just left to their own devices. This is the so-called self perpetuating poverty trap – if you are poor, there is no way out. That is why our project here in Awutu is so important. Not only are we committed to the concept of a non-fee paying secondary school, but also to a high quality education that will impart tangible, practical, cognitive skills. We have built three classrooms, an air-conditioned computer room, a library, admin block and toilets all ready for the first intake of students in September. The rooms themselves are large and airy, with mosquito netting and fans. One of the biggest factors in reduced student performance is class size and ours are limited to 35 [at 3 classes per year group that's just over 100 students each year]. Another factor in student performance is resources. Like much of Africa, schools here are often very poorly provisioned. It is common practice for students to buy their own text books at a cost of around £10 each [and the poverty trap continues]. We will offer free text books, and will employ the latest Information Communication Technology in our computer room as an additional teaching resource. With the generous donations of the Winton School in Andover we have been able to stock the library with a good number of school books as an extra source of learning.

So that is the state of things here, now to tell you a little more about the Awutu-Winton Senior High School and Ghana itself. I arrived into Accra airport on Wednesday March 3rd, and was picked up by Eddie who is helping with the project and has since become a good friend. We drive through the city that I just saw from the sky. Busy little street vendors and the smells of barbecued meats drop in through the window. Its half ten at night and oppressively hot. Well, compared to the British winter I left behind only a few hours ago. We pass the 'god is great' 24hr mechanic and I smile at the sleepy chap outside. He waves back and I settle in to the drive to Awutu.

As chance would have it I arrived just a few days before Ghana's Independence day - a really big party. So no chance to get on with things, but a very nice way to get used to my new surroundings. We visited the school site which was huge, and much bigger than I had expected, a few days later. The school is being built in stages to accommodate year one this September, year two next September and so on. The first stage is just about finished. Just need to get the electricity and water connected, and give it a good lick of paint. Other than that everything was done. Septic tank. Toilets. Walls, ceilings and windows. The quality as well looked excellent and I was generally very pleased. By the following Tuesday, when the celebrations had finished, I visited Adams Nuhu, the District Chief Executive, to discuss getting the schools electricity connected. He has in the past said that it would be no problem, but has been continually stalling. He promised me that it would be done within three weeks, by April 1st. Yet here we are approaching the end of that month and nothing has been done. It seems he was pulling an April Fools trick. One of my main tasks now is to chase this up and pressurise Mr Nuhu to get the work done that he has promised.

By the end of my first full week, I was starting to get to grips with the size of the task at hand and had met the necessary people involved with the project. I was also getting to grips with life in Ghana; a county, I have to say, where the people really are as beautiful as the surroundings. I love to hear people laugh, so it’s lucky for me that everyone in Ghana does. All the time. It's fabulous!

It's also lucky for me that I do like to laugh. Because sometimes that's all you can do. Had a terrible night’s sleep on the Saturday and was awoken about half three by ants scrambling all over my bed, with nasty little pincers pinching my perspiring flesh. Lesson here is don’t leave mangos in your room. Got up and cleaned away all the things that I thought would be attractive to them [apparently they are quite fond of Bonjella, too]. Finally nodded off again about 5, only to be startled out of bed an hour later by two things that happened, almost simultaneously. First, a stereo fired up, with Michael Jacksons "Heal the world" blaring from its loins. Sometimes all you can do is laugh. And, so, I was laughing already when I picked the phone up a few minutes later. 'Hello James, it is Eddie'. 'Hello Eddie, what's up?' 'I am in a car. I am coming to get you. For breakfast'. I laughed a little more. 'Eddie, it’s six o'clock'. 'oh sorry, did I wake you?' 'Well. No. You...' he had a very good point, 'Ok Eddie, see you soon' 'Ok five minutes'. My shower was two minutes.

I met Eddie on the main road where he was waiting and he introduced me to a man of about fifty, in a bright green loin cloth and glasses who sat beside him in the front seat. The chief of the area wanted to meet and have breakfast with me. Though really all he wanted to do was show me his new phone, his young and beautiful wife and tell me that Michael Essien, the Chelsea midfielder, was his grandson. At about half six, with the restaurant just opening, the Chief waltzed in and barked orders at the petrified young men who were scrubbing the floor. They dropped their mops immediately and ran around sorting out the extensive order that had been placed. He ordered Guinness for the four of us, without paying much attention to my imploring that I couldn't. Though there is very obvious truth in the fact that one needs to be culturally sensitive and follow custom when visiting other countries, I did feel a strong urge to bide by my own cultural disposition that having a beer before breakfast is a good sign of a bad problem. Or, at the very least, acceptance that the rest of your day will achieve nothing of any note. Thankfully in the furore of the gargantuan breakfast and constant arrival of new people my drink got whisked away, while I sat caressing my coffee cup. The food was good and I was really full. They even bought me a pizza in case, they said, I didn't like the local food. The fact I had just eaten two plates of fish and Kenke didn't seem to be proof enough of my good feeling towards it. All the same, it was a very generous and thoughtful thing to do and I was very grateful. It was a lovely pizza, too.

Things at the school have been going very well, we managed to level the remaining land and get the electrical appliances fitted. The next aim was to get clearance from the local education board for us to be able to bring the container of school materials from the UK through the port in Accra. However, it wasn't until I arrived at Cape-Coast [3 hours away] that I was told the school wasn't in fact registered and as a result did not officially exist. Without this registration nothing would be allowed through the port. We arranged for a school inspector to visit the site the following day to write his report on the state of the school. As he did this I visited the Ghana Education Service [GES] to discuss the legal standing of the school and try to hurry things along. One of the most frustrating aspects of development work is the sudden and unexpected hurdles you come across which bring everything to a standstill. And so it was in this instance. Without the registration we really have got no room to manoeuvre as we cannot guarantee the school’s existence. So, begrudgingly, we have put a temporary halt to construction whilst we work to get the necessary clearance. I managed to get hold of the local MP, David Larby, who was very helpful in organising a meeting with a few middle-managers at the GES central office. But after a few meetings with them it became clear that they had not the authority to help us. At the same time I was chasing up by phone the Cape-Coast office to hurry along the school inspection report, which I was told would take just a few days, but to no avail. All I was repeatedly told was that the Director was out and would not be back today. So with things looking dismal, all we could do was wait.

A few months ago I read a good little book called three cups of tea about an American, Greg Mortenson, who has dedicated 30 years of his life to building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now I can sympathise a lot with the bureaucratic frustration he faced, but he makes special reference to the fact that on any number of occasions a completely fortuitous and unintended event would occur that, in retrospect, makes it impossible to imagine the project working had it not done so. And so when it happened to us I should not have been surprised. I had an email from a man called Christopher who worked in the Ghana Education Service in Accra. Christopher had met an EDP member in , of all places, Havana airport (!), completely by chance, and they had got talking about our project here. He was very interested and got my phone number and email. After a few emails back and forth Christopher said that he had managed to arrange a meeting with the Minister for Education no-less. Somewhat shocked, though realising this was an excellent opportunity not to be missed, I got my haircut and polished up my finest shoes.

The meeting was arranged for the following Monday at 2.00pm. Christopher and MP David Larby were there as well and we discussed at length the project with the Minster, Honourable Mr Alex Narh Tettey-Enyo. He was very impressed with the plan we had drawn up and the vision of a partnership between EDP and the GES. A stumbling block for this was that Ghana Educational Policy states that a school is either state run or private, there is no in between. This seemingly gave us no option but to run the school entirely ourselves. However after much negotiation and discussion over the following week we managed to reach an agreement that EDP would provide infrastructure, management and distance support whilst the GES 'agree to support the school with the services it normally renders to educational institutions'. This was a massive step for us and, with full government support, really goes a long way towards securing the long-term sustainability of the school in Awutu. The GES will now supply us with teachers and books as well entering us into their examination board. Finally, I received a signed and stamped letter from the department explaining the position in order for us to hurry along the registration process.

Buoyed by this success I got on my bus back home, only to be phoned unexpectedly by the Director of Education in Cape-Coast saying our school assessment report was ready for collection. Even more surprising, when I arrived the following morning, was the fact that not only was the inspection report completed but that it also came with a registration certificate.

So, there we have it, the school is official. 2 months later than we had thought but it is done now which makes for very happy reading. Still, quite a substantial amount of time has been lost and we really need to push on now. With just four months until the school opens we are going to be exceptionally busy We need the import certificate and to successfully get the container currently resting in Uk full of PCs, furniture , books and other education equipment destined through customs and to the school site. We need to draw up a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise the our relationship with the GES. The school still needs electricity and the ITC lab needs to get connected to the internet and linked back to the UK. We need to recruit students, teachers and to create a management structure and ethos for the school that is open and fair. All in all we have a lot to be getting on with, but with the sudden progress we have made, and with the help of the GES, I'm confident that Awutu-Winton School will be welcoming its first students in September.

James Riggs,
Awutu Bereku, Central state, Ghana.
April 30th 2010

EDP Trust and the Awutu Winton Senior High School, March 2010 Update

Dear EDP Supporter,

Since my last blog just before Christmas I am pleased to confirm that there have been a number of developments on the Ghana school building front.

The main announcement is that EDP has appointed James Riggs as Project Manager for Ghana, in February and James has now flown out to Accra with a contract with EDP for the next 9 months and a brief to supervise the Awutu Winton School community project on the ground in Ghana.

James’s background includes an Msc in Development Studies at SOAS in 2008, having read International Business previously at Manchester Business School, and a recent lengthy spell last year in Kenya supervising the building of a rural secondary girls school, as well as spending much of 2007 teaching in Central China.

As part of his brief he will be seeking to work very closely with the local authorities and businesses in Awutu to take the project forward on a number of fronts.

Our immediate priority is to arrange for the installation of electricity to the site and then to set up the IT connection. The cost for power installation is under close review, estimates have been reduced, and indications now are that the Local Authority will be able to provide this facility in the very near future. (In fact James has just sent his first report confirming that power is expected to be intalled by Easter. Watch this space!)

In addition, further to the previous blog, we are also delighted to announce that an anonymous donor has given £10,000 to the cause specifically to ensure that the whole IT project is implemented. With the help of Roberto Lipari and his colleague Krystyna Nowicka at Intel, and with invaluable support from Kieron Doyle and his staff at Hampshire Business Computers (HBC) in Romsey, we are delighted to announce that we now have a comprehensive suite of pcs, servers, and associated hardware, backed by up to date operating licences, thanks to a generous donation by CTX - the charity arm of Microsoft. HBC are putting together the final network, but we expect to be able to ship all together around 16 second hand PCs with new hard discs, plus a couple of renovated laptops, thanks to help from Ross Jameson at TLGBrands, and 4 new pcs, all with screens and peripherals, along with software that would have cost many thousands in the high street: an overall package worth potentially upwards of £25,000 - for less than £5,000 in total. A wonderful effort for which many thanks to all the various people at TLGB, HBC, Intel, Winton School and the several other individuals and organisations who have contributed.

James will now seek to appoint a suitable Internet provider on the ground, and following Baffour’s assistance when Martin Moore was out in November, we have a number of providers to talk to. Our aim therefore is ,once the power situation is in hand, to ship the container, ( which has been carefully packed by the ‘Fiorelli’ warehouse staff), out by the end of March. James will then be in a position on the ground to supervise its arrival into Awutu as careful control is needed over its valuable contents and he will aim to work closely with the Honourable Adams Nuhu, the Awutu Senya District Chief Executive, and Mrs Jane Chinebuah, District Director of Education at Awutu-Senya, to ensure that the contents are carefully installed into the school.

Once the issues of power, IT and the container are sorted James will be able to turn his attention to the infrastructure of the school. In fact well before the container arrives it is his aim to work with Eddie Quarshie, the local builder and surveyor, to install air conditioning and finish off the final touches to the first phase so that the school will be ready to receive all the IT equipment which we anticipate will arrive by early May. Security will be another item high on James’ list.

Martin , assisted by his friend John Burrell, a qualified architect, (both of whom have also given their extensive services to the charity for free), has finalised the drawings for the next phase of building. It is felt that construction on the second phase needs to start as soon as possible, given that the school is expected to open in September and we are anxious to avoid too much disruption from building works during school time. The second phase will include offices for the Headmaster and other staff rooms as well as a Science Laboratory and a further suite of classrooms to accommodate the second year’s planned intake of around 100 pupils.

Plans are also being drawn up for the third phase which we would anticipate starting in 2011, and hopefully, if funds permit, the addition of teachers’ accommodation as this will help to attract long term staff.

We anticipate the first report from James once he has got his feet under the table later this month and will plan to post an update blog after Easter. In the longer term once the immediate issues are addressed James will then turn his attention to various ideas concerning self sustainability at the school including the possibilities for reaching out to wider sections of the local community , with hopefully the inclusion of adult education classes, as well as the anticipated launch of a Cybercafe - whilst at the same time developing the all important links with the sister school at Winton in Andover.

Kind regards
David Lunan
Director , EDP Trust.
www.edp-trust.org

PS For those who have recently made donations to EDP - thank you for your generosity. Our aim as a small focussed charity is to try and ensure that as much as possible of your donation goes directly to the project and the people who need it . We are now set up with Paypal on the website for future donations but still the most effective way to maximize your contributions is to send us a cheque , with a Gift Aid form if you are a UK based tax payer ( we will arrange to get a copy of the form posted shortly onto the 'contact us' section ). Whichever way you contribute – a big thank you.

david@edp-trust.org
EDP Trust , 135 Little Ann road, Andover, Hampshire SP11 7NW, UK
UK Charity no : 1129398

Martin Moore (Structural Engineer Volunteer) January 2010 Visit

Martin spent a productive week in Ghana. He managed to meet up with local Awutu MP the Honourable David Larbie (picture of the meeting now posted on the Gallery!) who is very supportive of the project.

Helped by Baffour Osei, who has been acting as project surveyor, Martin made contact with a number of potential IT suppliers and we are following them up now.

The challenge will be to raise the £10,000 needed to pay for the installation of satellite technology and to run the IT lab for the first year.

Martin also met up with Mrs Jane Chinebuah who is the District Director of Education for the region, and now based actually in Awutu. She and the District Chief Executive, ( DCE) the Honourable Adams Nuhu had a meeting with Martin and Eddie Quarshie, ( who has been supervising the building of the first phase) . They were both delighted to hear that EDP’s intention is to hand the school over to the local authorities ( once the buildings are ready) to allow them to run it as a non fee paying (MUCH NEEDED!!) local community secondary school. As Martin explained our hope is that once opened , The Awutu Winton School will then forge close links with its affiliate- The Winton School, in Andover, UK.

Martin was also able to show everyone the plans for the proposed second phase , which were received well- until we mentioned EDP needed to raise another £50,000 to build it!

Nevertheless we have pencilled in a March 2010 start as we’ll need a good 18 months to complete the second phase in time for the second year’s intake planned for autumn 2011.

A more pressing problem is the news from the DCE that it will cost around 50,000 Ghanaian Cedis (just under £22,000) to install electricity to the site and that they would prefer EDP to fund this !

Anyway we will soldier on. The decoration has now begun on the first phase and Paul Kelly is working with Romsey based Hampshire Business Computers to set up some working hardware to include in the large container, bursting with furniture and other goodies, destined for the Awutu school.

We’ll update the site with another blog once the building is ready- hopefully early in the New Year.

In the meantime, thank you everyone for taking the time to read this - and for your ongoing support.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

The EDP Trust team.