James Riggs (Project Manager) Update: March 2011

Hi Everyone,

I have now been back in Ghana for about six weeks and, as ever, an incredible amount has happened. So, sit back, put your feet up, and I'll tell you all about it.

It was great to get back home over the Festive Period, catch up with friends and family and finally get my pesky knee fixed, but by late January I was desperate to get back to work. Arriving by night into any city in the world is always a treat, and Accra, by air, is no exception. The city hurtling up towards you, all bustling with people and life and commotion, and just as you think you’re going to crash head-long into a 'chop-seller', the runway appears from nowhere to gobble you up.

Spat out the other side of arrivals at a little after midnight I was met by the deputy head, Seth, and the new Project Officer, George Godson. George had flown out two weeks before I did, on a flight I was meant to take with him until my surgeon curtailed the plan (something about DVT of the knee). So, with a couple of weeks to find his feet, we were ready to hit the ground running the next morning.

When I arrived at the school around 8am the kids ran out stamping their feet and dancing and screaming and shouting to welcome me back. Honestly, I was completely bowled over. I hadn't been expecting it at all! It was only a day or so later that Seth mentioned, in passing, that the students had been really happy to see me because I “would not make them do the weeding”. Well, what can I say? It was a nice feeling while it lasted. The school itself was looking great, and a lot of work had been done painting up the low walls, installing a fence and planting trees along the north-west boundary. But there wasn't time to rest on our laurels and we had to restart construction on the second phase building [three more classrooms and a science lab] immediately, if the September deadline was to be met and the new students were to have somewhere to go. Baffour, the engineer from Accra, turned up that first morning, along with Awutu stalwart and long-term supporter (and Awutu-Winton Governor designate) of EDP, Eddie Quarshie, to formulate a time-line for the construction. Within three days the foundations were being filled in and the floors laid. In another few weeks we began to see walls creeping up and the classrooms were taking shape. So, definite progress and its going well but, just like last year, it could go right to the wire so keep those fingers crossed!

The plan to go ahead with the construction of the second phase building had been discussed, at length, during my time back in the UK. A number of issues had arisen, which I shan't bore you with that had brought a temporary impasse to proceedings at the end of last year. As a result of this construction halt the third, and final, classroom of the existing block had been left empty to accommodate second year students in September. What this meant was that as soon as we got the green light to go ahead, then we needed to put the fall-back classroom to use. This meant recruiting new students, and quickly!

The selection process itself is never an easy, or fun, task. There are always far, far too many applicants for places available and the majority, inevitably, end up disappointed. Watching the hopeful students, their friends and relatives, trudge off despondently when told the school is full is absolutely heartbreaking. We have been collecting applications almost daily since the school opened and, as a result, had to whittle down 300-plus to just 35. Unfortunately this is just our limit and if we had tried, as I'd dearly love to have done, to cram any more into the class then the teaching quality would suffer and, ultimately, so would the children.

The third class opened on Monday the 14th of February, bringing the number of students at the school up to over one hundred! And lessons are going great. The new class, tasked with having to catch-up as they are one term behind, have begun working like a steam train. We have had to extend the library opening hours and start running extra classes each afternoon [which the staff organised themselves, voluntarily, and for no extra pay I might add] just to cope with the demand for schooling - demand from the students. And if they are not studying hard then they are out playing volleyball or football on our hastily put together games field. The students are always happy when I speak to them and very grateful for the chance of a free education. Grateful and constantly thanking EDP for the school, telling me how blessed they are to be there. 'I feel very lucky', said the normally shy Eunice a couple of days ago, 'very lucky to have this opportunity'. I smiled at her and told her to carry on working hard and to just enjoy her new school. Yet for all the happy students, you can’t help but focus on the not so lucky ones. The young kids who didn't get in this time round. As they walk away from the school site deliberating over what I have told them about how we are trying to build the school up and to come back in the summer. I'm not going to even make a guess at how they must be feeling.

I mentioned briefly, above, the performance of the teachers, which has been fabulous and really shows how committed they all are. A few weeks after I got back I sat down with all of them to discuss the classes, student progress and areas they thought we could improve on. We discussed teaching methodologies and lesson structures, planning and reporting (thanks to Adam Nicholson for his continued support and advice in this vital area). Whilst these were all very constructive and, of course imperative, to the efficient running of the school, one thing kept coming up; shy students. As a result we have decided to offer more opportunities for public speaking at the school. These include short presentations in class and, excitingly, a debating society. The first of which is next week with the proposal, 'Awutu-Winton should be a single sex school'. I'll let you know how we get on, but it promises to be fiery if the early informal class discussions are anything to go by.

Another committed bunch are the parents, who have been great. A few weeks back we had the inaugural PTA meeting and, astonishingly, over 70 parents, guardians and relatives turned up. This is extremely good news as not only is parental feedback, opinion and expertise vital to push the school forward in a way that is synonymous with Ghanaian culture, but it helps the individual student too. It is well documented, in all parts of the world, and not least of all the UK, that committed [and these often means involved] parents will support their children better in their education. Drop-out rates fall as parents prioritise sending their children to school, whilst educational attainment is also positively affected by parents allowing children time to study.

Well, as that's got you up to date with the school side of things, just a quick run-down of the other side of the Awutu project, the businesses. As I'm sure you can appreciate, a school is a very expensive thing to run, with huge ongoing costs as well as initial start-up ones [sadly, this ongoing level of commitment is why the international donor community tends to shy away from educational projects, instead focusing on media/voter friendly one-off payment projects, with 'more bang for ya buck!']. As a result a key part of the work we are doing is trying to secure the financial sustainability of the school in years to come. We already have a great deal of wonderful support from a number of individuals in the UK who are sponsoring individual children [a big thank-you one and all, without you we wouldn't be able to do any of this work], as well as the continued and generous support of the staff and students at the Winton school in Andover. Thnaks to all your efforts we now have over 30 pupils beingf spinsored , and our hope is to get this to over the 100 mark by the end of next term as that would help to pay for most of the teachers' salaries.

But it doesn't stop there. A key part of building the financial security of the school is generating money within Ghana, and that means businesses. Not just any businesses, mind, think an ethical-business that aims to promote awareness, health, understanding and, most of all, provide our students with teachers, books and facilities. A sort of Ghanaian fair-trade organisation. Far-fetched you may think, but I'm here to tell you it’s not.

Here is how it has worked so far. George, who I mentioned at the start, has come out here to run, specifically, the pineapple juice project, which has just become operational. Drawing on the Lunans' many years of experience in trade and enterprise, a number of, loosely termed, agro-businesses have been discussed [including, amongst others, poultry farming, bee-keeping and fish-farming]. But it is the pineapple juice project that, for now, has seen the light of day with the help, support and advice of Alan Chubb in the UK. We have, as I think I have mentioned before, sourced pineapples from a very large local farm, Milani, who have given us a generously reduced rate by way of support for the school. Using our Vigo juice press, we churn out 10 gallons of freshly squeezed, natural, healthy and, if I may add, incredibly good, pineapple juice each morning. Our trusted 'kiosk-girls', Stella, Esi and Emmanuela, get to work each day selling the juice in nearby Kasoa, as a healthy and natural alternative to the carbonated, sugary American dream that it seems impossible to escape from anywhere in the world! And response has been great. Already after just four weeks, and with Georges tireless efforts [he leaves the house at 4am each morning], we are making a tidy little profit of one-hundred pounds a week, or, enough for one teacher and a librarian. Plans are afoot to expand the project, with nearby Winneba University an ideal area.

As the project grows, it will no doubt generate more vital revenue for the school whilst we also plan to subsidise one drink per day to each of the students (that vitamin C is pretty important, you know!). The next project – awaiting the maturity of Seth’s recently planted Acacia trees behind the second phase building- will be the Bee / Honey project. Watch this space!

Well, that's it I'm afraid. Plenty going on, and plenty to look forward to. The students and staff are working tirelessly to make this school the success it deserves to be. In the next few weeks, we hope to get the roof on the new building, invite the parents to the first ever parents evening and expand the juice project further. And in the midst of all that, England take on Ghana at Wembley. If the Black Stars take their World Cup form into that match, then George and myself will be in for more than a little stick from the students, and staff, around here.

David Lunan's EDP Update: January 2011

Dear Supporter,

As we are about to open the third classroom in Awutu, this seems a good moment to update everyone on the various developments since James Riggs' last blog in October , as much has been happening both at the school and behind the scenes.

James has been in UK since early December and flew back to Ghana last week, slightly delayed whilst he sorted out his knee. Having now had clearance from the specialist he tells us he intends to take up tennis playing again when he gets the chance to visit friends in Accra who boast a court. EDP's aim is to try and limit this opportunity by keeping him actively engaged at Awutu!

There is certainly plenty to do in the school, especially now we are about to increase the student population to just over 100. The good news is that James now has an assistant. George Godson flew out earlier this month and is already fully settled into his role of Sports Master and English support teacher. He will soon be actively running "The Juice Project" and giving James valuable assistance in a whole range of projects, and no doubt George will want to regale us all on his experiences in his own blog later in the year.

James in turn is planning to focus on the school curriculum - now we have a proper infrastructure - working closely with Seth, the Deputy Head. At the same time there are a number of practical issues to sort out such as longer term accommodation for the EDP team : hopefully a couple of rooms can be rented for the next two years at a reasonable rent in nearby Kasua . A vehicle also needs to be purchased - we are hoping to find in a decent condition - quite a tall order this! - a 12-seater minibus so we can transport budding sports teams around to local schools , as well as the staff, and also support The Juice Project ( slogan: “Thirst for Knowledge”) by picking up the supplies of pineapples and delivering the resultant juice to our planed mini network of kiosk outlets !

We are also hoping to build on the foundations made last term with the IT lab. Many people have helped us with the IT and we are very grateful for all the support. In particular we should mention Kieron Doyle and his team at Hampshire Business Computers in Romsey who have been fantastic in their assistance, which continued last week when they remotely helped George to set up the server Firewall, and the first email from a student - Justice Atkins- was duly sent out to EDP head quarters in Andover - a good moment. This was also due in part to Roberto Lipari’s considerable help last year in sourcing some 18, near state-of-the-art, PCs from his Intel connections. Thanks again Roberto!

James will also be focusing on the library. Thanks to Capio Hospitals Plc’s generous donation the library is full of reading tables and chairs and already well used. The aim is to extend the shelving around the walls as we have an increasing number of text and reference books to accommodate. Our next task is to start to co-ordinate supplies of English books and novels covering a wide variety of subjects, including, naturally, African authors - then gathering them together at EDP’s Andover offices and sending them out in the bulging suitcases of our various visitors. If anyone is interested in donating books for this project, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Whilst all this activity is going on in Awutu there are developments afoot in the UK and beyond. Many of you know we set up a pupil sponsorship scheme last term and I’m delighted to confirm that we now have over 25 students being sponsored ( including three from Australia )to the tune of £300 a year ( or £25 a month) which is going towards supporting the ongoing costs of running the school. George will be organising the student responses to their various sponsors during the term, and our aim is to try to get the number of students sponsored up to 50 by the end of this second term, so to those of you who are already in the scheme : a big thank you, and to anyone who might be interested in joining – we’d love to hear from you! (Please contact Inez on: inez@edp-trust.org and she’ll send out a sponsor form by return- we promise!).

As part of the sponsorship awareness EDP have been liaising with the staff at Winton school in Andover, the sister school of Awutu. The Head, Chris McShane, has been very supportive and his colleague, Jane Williams, has also been diligently building the links between the two schools. In fact Jane plans to lead out a team of 9 students, with another colleague, to visit Awutu (after the school Summer Ball on July 16th which will be in aid of EDP- details to follow !) at the end of July to meet up with some of the students and the plan is also to help paint some of the new classrooms which we hope to have ready for the second year’s intake due in September ( which would take the school population up to over 200).

In between we have much to do to get the second phase of building complete. Once again the invaluable help of Martin Moore in London and local structural engineer Baffour Osei will be required to ensure we get those three additional classrooms and state-of-the-art science lab up and running in time.

We hope this has given you an update on the many recent developments. As you’d expect there is much going on and plenty to do, but the kids – the most important element in all of this – are responding really well and demand is growing steadily- at the last count we had nearly 400 applicants to the school.

Thank you all again for your interest and support for the project.

The next blog will be from James and therefore promises to be full of wit and surprises!

Kind regards

David

David Lunan, Director
EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS TRUST
135 Little Ann Road Andover Hampshire SP11 7NW
UK Charity No 1129398
Tel: +44 7702 342 670

Email: david@ebt-trust.org
Web: www.edp-trust.org

James Riggs (Project Manager) Update: January 2011

It is not only the second week in October but also, I am pleased to announce, the second week that the Awutu-Winton Senior High School has been open. It is great that, after so much hard work by many, many people both here and in the UK, we have finally been able to swing open the doors and welcome the first 35 students. Classes started last week, and have been a great success. But of course, its never that simple. The ongoing national census, which employs teaching staff, combined with the fact that the Ghana Education Service are still in the process of sending out Junior school grades and certificates from last year means that, nationally, secondary school openings have been put back until November. This second point is of most importance; not only can last year’s junior graduates not apply for further schooling without their certificates, but valuable teaching time is being eaten into. And with the current government reducing senior schooling cycles from 4 to 3 years [with the same content], then every minute counts. As a result, we have taken the step of opening the school early [or late, depending on your point of view], for older students from previous years who are in possession of graduation certificates. These students did not progress beyond junior schooling, often for financial reasons, and have been really enthusiastic about a free school that can give them opportunities to better themselves.

Furthermore, as the majority of the students are from the Awutu area and have been schooled at local, overcrowded and under-resourced, government schools it is important to brush up the basics before we push on with the course proper. And what with the majority of teachers busy with the census we find ourselves, perhaps fortunately, with no option other than to run introductory lessons in core maths, sciences and ICT for a couple of weeks using the handful of teachers we do have available. We are now just waiting, sitting tight, for the teachers and the certificates to be released so that we can start a full syllabus, and introduce a second class of 35 students from 2010 junior classes.

All in all though, it has been great to see the progress made over the past fortnight, and both the students and teachers are really enjoying themselves. The kids are all really committed and, though teaching is currently finishing at midday, [we start at 7] all are eager to stay behind in the library to study late into the afternoon. As a result I now find myself working as a temporary librarian.

So, that is where we are. And so now I shall start the journey of how we got here, since the last time we spoke, a couple of months ago:

In early August we ran interviews for the teaching staff, and selected the 6 teachers we needed to cover a full syllabus in year one. So, armed with our ministerial agreement, I sauntered off to Cape-Coast to meet the director of secondary cycles there to get the teachers signed over to our new school. As a Social-Democracy, Ghana's political landscape is highly decentralised and, as a result, decisions over such things as teacher allocations are taken on a more local level as opposed to nationally. The Director at Cape-Coast, whom I have met many times before, was very helpful and called his HR director into the meeting. We quickly agreed the transfer of the teachers we needed. A shake of the hand and I was on my way. Done! [ it was only later that we realized that EDP will have to pay for them as well!]

The next task was to get the oh-so-problematic container through the port. Despite my best efforts to get the pre-tax clearance documents in order and our import-duty waver form [see previous blog], as expected we came up against a few difficulties. The problem is that there are many, many departments that our forms had to get signed by and we could only start the ball rolling once we had the container’s 'bill of lading', which is only issued when the ship sets sail. So, with the ship leaving Southampton on a journey expected to take around three weeks, it was a straight race between the ship and Ghanaian tax and customs department. The ship won!

The container was in the port for three and a half further weeks before I got in to see it. I’m not going into what happened during that time, here, suffice to say I have a dozen more grey hairs on my head, and have now seen the inside of every office in the tax and customs department, and about two thirds of those in the social welfare department. Another couple of weeks followed of daily visits to the port. Usually these began each morning with a search for our guy - the most useless clearing agent in the whole of Accra - followed by a ridiculous battle just to get into the port. The clearing agent, officially, has the container in his name, and so once we realised how unhelpful the guy was we would have had to start the whole process again [another 6 weeks, at the standard port charge of $50 daily, whilst the container remained in limbo]. Thus we had no choice but to soldier on with what we had.

The port itself, Tema, is enormous and spending a little time in there was certainly an experience. Forty foot shipping containers are piled 4 or 5 high, in rows and rows that stretch for what seems like miles. An intricate network of deserted streets and passage ways exist between them where people are seen only fleetingly. The eerie silence is punctuated occasionally by the giant, giraffe necked, cranes that swoop along to pluck a container from its perch for emptying. Little teams of men emerge from their makeshift houses within disused and rusted containers and join the lines following the cranes. The containers are dropped in a smaller enclosure [still the size of two or three football pitches], and are 'inspected'. The men assemble in front of the container and ask if we need help unloading. What is in the container? Can they have anything? A computer? Do we need a driver? A truck? Where are we going? The tax officer arrives, signs some papers, checks the locks and opens the door. He pulls the first box down, takes a football from it, puts it under his arm, closes the door and walks off. Well, thank god the computers were at the back, right?

From here we had countless more forms, meetings, and signings to be done. Some of which I was allowed to see, others were conducted between the clearing agent and the various official looking people in private. I was told to wait in the car. This was boring. So I went for long, and frequent, walks around the port. The market for knocked off goods is so open as to be comical. Anything and everything is traded, swapped and sold, not so much off the back of a lorry as plucked from a giant steel box a top the seven seas. The teams of workers and labourers, operating in their little gangs, even have market stalls set up – some not more than 50 yards from the tax inspectors office. One of them had our football on it. A guard approached me and asked to see my security badge. Then he told me he could deport me for wearing flip flops. Off I trotted. Two more guards were in a bidding war for some Italian sandals. They eventually went to the jolly looking one for 10 Cedis [about a fiver], 'my wife will love these' he said.

By the time we finally climbed aboard a lorry [captain fantastic, the clearing agent, had lost his] it had been more than two months since the container had left the UK, and at least five weeks that it had been sat in the West African heat of the port. I was worried as to how the contents had faired [though I needn't have been as miraculously all but one computer monitor was fine]. When we eventually got out onto the road to start the journey back to the school, I settled down, beginning to think for the first time this ordeal might be over. Though of course, deep-down, I knew it wasn't. The police were very helpful, and kept pulling us over to offer advice, and generally be very pleasant. Every mile or so, we got the chance to introduce ourselves to a new group of young guys, armed and inquisitive. It was always good to stop and talk. Some even wanted to look inside the container, and they all liked footballs ! So friendly were they, in fact, that I didn't even notice that the two hour journey took us seven instead and our stock of footballs was severely depleted . By the time we got back, my primary concern was looking imminent. Rain. A lot of rain. We managed to get the truck along the dirt road to the school site, which in a few hours time would be an impassable mud ditch. But the clouds were threatening and now it was a race against the sky. As we only had two small cranes to get the container off the back of the lorry, everything had to be removed first. What followed was an hour long rush of pulling everything out, whilst trying to maintain some sort of order and control over where everything was going. Mercifully however, it was all finished just in time, and as I waved the truck driver off and set off to get a feed, the heavens opened and brought some welcome rest-bite from the mid-afternoon heat. It was fantastic!

The next few weeks were spent fitting out the ICT lab with the computers and getting the generator up and running in preparation for the grand opening. A lot of work had to be done, and I was very grateful to have the help of David and Martin who had come out to see how things were going. Whilst the three of us were together [ and once Martin had sorted out the issues of the building standards in regard to the phase two foundations which had just been started ] we started work on the pineapple juicer project that we hope will be able to raise some revenue for the school. A couple of fun days spent larking around with an industrial cider press and a trip to a huge local pineapple farm, Milani Queen, was how we spent the weekend. And as a result, last week, we opened a fresh juice kiosk in Awutu. The fantastically named [not by myself] 'Thirst for Knowledge' kiosk has done a steady trade in its first few days and feed-back has been encouraging. Next year we hope to roll this out further afield - though this requires a great deal of logistical and supply chain management, which gets even more complicated with fresh produce [especially in Africa].

So, that is just about where we find ourselves. The school is two weeks old, and going along nicely. The census, and its use of teaching staff to carry out the research, has meant that the Ghana Education Service have postponed 'official' openings until November. As a result we are currently a couple of teachers down, though they are set to return next week. But with the term up and running we all have plenty to be thankful for. All we have to do now is, get the electricity connected, start adult classes, iron out ICT server problems, expand the juice project, create an electronic school records system, recruit a second class, ensure a safe and secure learning environment, organise teacher contracts, print school badges, build second phase classrooms, meet parents, set up community management organisation, locate internet service provider, collect extra text books, build a fence with security gate, fix a broken water tower, build a road, get a bus and dig a football pitch.

Any volunteers?!

James Riggs , Project Manager
Awutu-Winton Senior High School
Awutu-Bereku
Central State, Ghana

October 9th 2010

Ps Some of you have been asking about Francisca, one of our first students and to hear her story again, so here it is ( see a picture of Francisca on the Gallery Section) :

Francisca Arhin, a small twenty year old, sits opposite me and recounts the story of her life with a matter-of-factness that is completely devoid of all self pity. Her mother, she tells me, died when she was young and, as a result, her father abandoned her and her six sisters.

Francisca is the youngest of seven girls and all of the rest are married, with children, and none have completed Senior School. After being all but orphaned from a young age, Francisca has moved around a great deal and lived with various relatives but, mercifully, did manage to finish State Junior School [JHS] in 2008. Her grades were good, and she enjoyed Maths and Science, but she never held out any hope of being able to afford the secondary school fees that are mandatory for all Senior Schools in Ghana [as in most of Africa]. Her dreams of going to University in Accra to study accounting seemed an impossibility. After JHS she was sent to live in a family home in Tema, the industrial heartland of Accra's port, as a home help girl. For four months she washed and cleaned and scrubbed and cooked, all for the price of basic board and a little food. She doesn't elaborate on why she left, saying simply, 'it wasn't good'. From there she moved back in with her big sister, 'the fourth born', and her family. Helping out around the house and working part time selling phone credit in Awutu. The latter she describes as 'boring, very, very boring!'

The last time I sat down and spoke to Francisca was three weeks ago to tell her that she had been accepted into the school [we have had hundreds and hundreds of applications and sadly only limited space]. A huge smile crept over her face and her eyes lit up like dazzling headlamps. An hour later, on my way home, I would see her skipping down the road back to Awutu.

A dedicated and hard working student, Francisca arrives early every morning to study for an hour before school starts and is once more beginning to think about a career in accounting. Perhaps I see a little glimpse of the fiery future professional when she snaps at two lads to be quite so she can concentrate; before correcting them on their grammar. But even then, the smile I first saw three weeks ago is still there. As it has been every time I have seen her in school. She tells me she is enjoying her classes and that she is 'so, so happy to go to school'. She wants to work hard for her future, a future that until recently was looking bleak. 'I have to work hard', she tells me, 'I am very lucky to have this opportunity. Many others do not'.

A close knit group of sisters, all the rest are hoping she does well. The 'forth born', told me when we meet at the school, 'we are all so proud of our little girl, she is blessed that there is a free school here in Awutu.' She looks round at her youngest sister and smiles the same family smile, 'she must work hard, but we all know she can do many great things'.

They hug, before laughing.

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.