Hello all,
As we've now just started the second year it seems a good point to reflect on my time here at the Awutu-Winton school.
Having arrived way back in January, I remember being met at the airport by a smiling Seth, our headmaster, as well as Eddie, one of our Governors, and I'll admit that first night passed by in a blur of the senses in the oppressive Ghanaian heat, finding myself at the school the next day being introduced the children full of excitement and promise for the year to come.
For anyone who hasn't been to west Africa, and Ghana in particular, it is worth mentioning that it is the most friendly and welcoming of places, and one reason why the moniker 'gateway to Africa' is not at all unfounded. I was struck in that first week by the approachability and generosity of the local community in Awutu, who are clearly grateful for the opportunity the school has given them. So feeling right at home, and with the help of the locals, I was soon finding the best places to find a plate of Waakye or catch the footy on a Saturday afternoon.
As Enterprise Project Manager, my role has been primarily to build the pineapple juicing operation we have established here at the school, growing a business that will provide students with a valuable insight into real life business and accountancy, as well as generating vital revenue for the school's long term sustainability, and of course, important employment opportunities for the local community. Obviously, this is all in addition to the fact that the juice tastes great! And by giving our students the stuff, at a subsidised price, we will be giving them a valuable source of vitamins, bromelain, and all the other great benefits that daily fresh juice comes with.
Looking back, we started out in January with a few freshly painted kiosks, some presses, and an industrious fruit chopping machine recently arrived from England and supplied by our partners at Vigo Presses in Devon. A visit to the local pineapple farm, Milani, and a few meetings later, and we had an extremely good source of locally produced, subsidised fruit, and after conducting some interviews with local applicants (unemployment here is extremely high), we had our keen local recruits on board.
From the start, it was about building up a network of contacts and soon we had the support of Issaka Rahman, (or 'the Coach' as he is better known) from the District Assembly, Idris (a local marketing executive), and Sam Adji, the effervescent production manager at Milani, all vibrant characters in their own right and willing to help our project get off the ground. Then it was a case of finding the right pineapple mix, and refining the process and developing a taste: sweet but tangy, smooth but thick; and popular!
The next step was harder, as we sought to get a foothold in the vibrant and thriving local market town that is Kasoa. I had been caught up in the hustle and bustle of the African marketplace many times in my first few weeks and I had come to the conclusion that it was best approached with a wise head and a keen mood for haggling. It was no easy feat, then, that we managed to get locations for our kiosks, around the main intersection at the busy centre of town, painted a proud orange and bearing our 'AbroFresh!' branding - 'abrobe' being the Twi dialect for pineapple, with the tagline 'thirst for knowledge', the school motto.
That’s not to say we haven't had problems of course, and in the beginning we weren't helped by the fact that none of the juice girls have been to secondary school, a problem that our school should hopefully address for underprivileged children here in the future. It meant, however, that we had to establish stringent working practices as well as finding ways around their semi-illiteracy, but we have come on leaps and bounds since all those months ago.
So far the feedback has been encouraging, and, with the ongoing help and assistance from Rachel, our new Enterprise Project Manager, we're hoping to push on with expanding the enterprise in the next few months, setting up new kiosks in the nearby town of Winneba and pursuing new angles to the market with new products, different opening hours and developing wholesaling.
One of our main tasks now is building up the beekeeping project, with the vision of creating a regional centre of beekeeping excellence. With help from the Winton School expedition who were out from UK visiting us in August we've prepared ten hives already, with two colonies firmly established and nascent colonies in the others, and working in partnership with Elias Ayeebo (an expert on tropical beekeeping put in touch with us by the development charity Bees Abroad) we are building our expertise with the eventual aim of rolling out hives and beekeeping training for the local community.
The differences with tropical and temperate beekeeping are fascinating, and like many other aspects of life here, African beekeeping is ingenious in its adaptability and versatility, with our 'Kenyan' style hives consisting of no more than a few boards of 1" wood, with none of the tricky sophistication of the more familiar Langstroth hive, but nonetheless effective and indeed better suited to tropical conditions. I'd recommend anyone who is interested to have a look at our gallery to see how we are progressing in the coming months - we hope to have honey in the new year!
There is a huge potential for beekeeping in development, and our project has the potential to offer the community a low maintenance source of income, as a relatively low input, high yield activity especially attuned to those of the community who are for the most part engaged in subsistence farming. There are then of course agricultural benefits such as pollination, not to mention the health benefits of honey - for example, beekeeping is an activity well suited to HIV+ patients, the immune system benefits of which are well known.
So there we have it, six months in and we have a burgeoning business, an apiary , and of course a school ready for its next intake of keen students. There's not enough space here to mention all the good work that is going on, not least with all the progress we've made in getting a school bus, 5-a-side pitch and building networks of support, amongst many other advances we've made. As I'm writing this from the school office, I can see the bee hives on the hill up behind the freshly painted face of the second phase building , and the guards tending to the paths in preparation for our official opening ceremony in a few days ' time. These are exciting times to be part of the project and I hope you'll continue to follow us in our journey here in Awutu Bereku.
George Godson
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