Volunteers' Update: May 2012

Dear EDP supporter,

We thought you might like to read a combined blog from EDP’s three wonderful volunteers who are working hard for the school and its enterprise projects on the ground in Ghana.

Best wishes,

David and Inez Lunan

RACHEL:

It's mid-May, the third term is in full swing, the school is full of activity and so it seems a good time for the next entry from Awutu-Winton! We’re sad to soon be saying goodbye to Kiran, who’s worked relentlessly hard and done a fantastic job managing the enterprises over the past 5 months. Luckily, Harriet is in the process of learning the ropes in order to take on the role next stint, and we’re looking forward to welcoming a new volunteer, James Jacobs into the EDP Team in under a month. A bit more from Kiran and Harriet later on…

Leading up to Easter was a busy time, with students revising hard in the library for their end of term exams, and the staff busy writing end of term reports. We welcomed a two-week visit from Peter Donkor, who spent a lot of time with the EDP Team and Seth reviewing all areas of the school. In particular, a lot of attention was placed on enhancing the teaching and learning at the school. New teachers were interviewed and recruited for September, lesson worksheets and display posters for the classrooms were brought out from England and a revised report card system was introduced. Peter and Seth analysed the students’ exam performance, and introduced a new system of 1-to-1 student-teacher sessions to help the small group of students who are struggling in class. So a big thank you for his input and guidance!

The largest development last term was the clearing and flattening of the new sports pitch. A bright yellow bulldozer rolled onto site with a team of men ready to work non-stop from dawn til dusk for 5 days; its amazing how steep a slope becomes when its your job to flatten it! But they did a good job, worked incredibly hard and made sure the job was completed before leaving site. Who knew a bulldozer could create so much dust? The cleaner Cecelia did a great job of keeping on top of it all! Now that the land’s flattened, we’re confronted with the challenge of protecting it against erosion from the heavy rains, and as we’re just entering the rainy season, time’s not on our side. We’ve put our heads together and, with much advice from Baffour and Eddie, have come up with a plan – we’re going to create a sturdy wall of sandbags (no less than 2000 of them!) and then bring in a grading machine to smooth and compact the earth, by which time it will certainly be ready to be used as a sports pitch, the kids are getting involved helping filling sandbags with eager anticipation of when they can play their first match!

We’re making good progress with the science lab, the school carpenter, plumber and gas man are working together to make sure it’ll be ready in time for welcoming the students in September. Which is when we anticipate the inspections mentioned in the last update – preparations have gone smoothly, and I feel we’re well on our way to ticking all the (numerous) boxes to be registered as an examination centre.
My final note is to mention a form two student called Vida. During Robin’s visit in January, when he came and gave a medical check to each of the students, he noticed that Vida had a heart murmur, and through a contact of his in England, we managed to be referred to a cardiologist in Accra who has been undertaking many tests to investigate her condition. The results have shown that she has a large hole in her heart, which is leading to increased pressure in her lungs and heart, making her very weak and fragile. The only solution is to have an operation to close the hole, but this comes at a huge price – 12,000 Ghana Cedis, which is just over £4000! Of course we want to do everything we can to help Vida, but we also need to make sure that the school has enough funds to continue running smoothly and paying salaries, so we’re planning on launching a separate fundraising scheme to generate the funds to get her well. Please get in touch if you’d like to help in any way.

Ok, well that’s enough from me, I’ll now pass you over to Harriet and Kiran to give you an insight into the enterprises and other areas of the school project.

HARRIET:

So in the last few weeks I have been learning the ropes of the Enterprises from Kiran, ready to take over when she leaves in two weeks. So far it has been non-stop, but very exciting to be involved in! Kiran has bought the business forward huge amounts since January, and the sales are steadily growing. We are even selling juice to our own pineapple supplier! We have a regular order everyday from the Awutu offices, and now I am spending most days in Winneba (the University town) trying to keep up a steady delivery in the offices there. Our lovely Winneba juice girl, Elizabeth, is doing a fantastic job.

Sports and clubs are still going very well at the school, and at the end of last term we even set up matches with several local schools. This really spurred some competitive spirit within the school, and it was an experience driving a van load of students back whilst they were all singing at the top of their lungs and drumming on the seats after their victory!

The school is flourishing in the new term, and the students are as eager as ever. Since the last blog update we have started a Hardship Fund, which focuses on students we are aware of who struggle financially at home. A long with our two new welfare officers for the school, Daniel and Mary, we have begun a system of providing two free meals a week for a selected amount of students. For these students it relieves the anxiety of not knowing whether they will eat that day or wondering if they will have enough money. It is a small gesture but one which is making an obvious difference to the students who have difficult times outside of school.

KIRAN:

My time with EDP is sadly coming to an end and I am gradually handing the business over to Harriet. The last few months have been eventful for AbroFresh; we have seen lots of highs and a few lows but I am certain that AbroFresh is on the right track and will continue to grow in the hands of both Harriet and James (our new volunteer, who will be arriving mid-June).

Exciting news! we have begun talks with the Village of Hope – an orphanage not too far from the school - and they have expressed an interest in our juice! The staff were not only impressed by the juice but by the project behind the juice; they couldn’t give EDP enough praise! I will be visiting the orphanage tomorrow to talk about how best we can support each other; fingers crossed we can develop a long lasting relationship with them!

Lots of progress has been made with the bees; we now have a dedicated bee club which is being directed by an enthusiastic group of Ghanaian Beekeepers. The Apiary has now got 5 colonised hives, and we are expecting to have all 10 colonised in the next few weeks. The club had its first field trip last week; we made the arduous journey up to Twifo Praso- a small town near Cape Coast. There we met up with Nana (one of our consultants) and he kindly showed us around his modest but incredibly impressive apiary. He also passed on a few handy tips to the kids, and gave us 3000 bees to put in our apiary; I have to say transferring the bees back to Awutu in our school bus, was one of the scariest things i have ever done!
Unfortunately we received some bad news 2 weeks back, our original consultant Elias Ayeebo – who had been suffering from stomach ulcers for a while – passed away. He had been a great help to us and given the school a lot of time. The Bee club has chosen to honour his memory by creating a display in the library.

Awutu, Ghana. May 2012.

Rachel Schmieder Update: March 2012

We’re now 8 weeks into the second term at school and things are as busy as ever. The first year students are well established, and it’s hard to remember what the school was like with only one year of students!

The start of the New Year has brought many changes to the EDP team. The departure of James Riggs and Alastair Littleton was a sad and momentous occasion at the school and their names are still often heard among the student and staff alike! However we’ve now been joined by Harriet Fisher who’s brought fresh energy to the project. Harriet has recently completed a masters in Development and Conflict Management, and has come out to oversee the creation of eagerly awaited new sports pitch and to develop the extra-curricular side of the school, as well as helping out and getting stuck into everything else that’s going on! Everyone at the school gave her a warm Ghanaian welcome, and her presence in the EDP Team is very much appreciated. Kiran has returned from the Christmas break with more energy and enthusiasm than ever, which she’s relentlessly pumping into the juice and bee projects, which are growing rapidly as a result. More on the enterprises in a bit.

When I arrived back to the Ghanaian heat from icy-cold England back in January, the second term was already in full-swing, with all of the students working extremely hard and lessons running smoothly. This year, the main focus is to register the school as an examination centre, a lengthy, multi-staged process that we’ve heard can take up to seven years! However, we’ve been putting all our energy into it, and are hopeful that we can do it much faster than that! In short, it requires us to get the General Arts and Business Programmes, the two programmes we offer at the school, acknowledged and certified by the Ghana Education Service (GES), which requires an OFSTED-like inspection from the GES Inspector Division, then once we’ve got this, we then have to prepare for a much stricter inspection from the West African Examination Centre (WAEC) who will come to check that we have the correct staffing, facilities and procedures in place for the school to be registered as an examination centre allowing the students to sit their final exams at the school.

After several early morning trips to Accra with Seth, we’re now well informed about the process, and well on the way to getting our first inspection. Seth has done a sterling job ensuring that we speak to the right people, meaning we’ve managed to fast-track a lot of the laborious bureaucracy and are well on our way to the first inspection. The staff have been a great help in the preparations, not to mention Mel, our new Secretary at the school, who’s been coming in two days a week and really helping with all the related paperwork! One big development that’s emerged as a result is the formation of a Board of Governors at the school, which is nearly complete, and includes the District Director of the GES, a good person to have on board (literally!).

Our biggest stumbling block at the moment is the full-time to part-time ratio of teachers at the school: a necessary requirement is that we have at least 70% of our teachers being fulltime. Unfortunately we can’t count the wonderful bunch of student teachers we’ve been lucky enough to have this year in the ratio, and as all teacher salaries come out of the EDP pocket, we can’t currently afford to raise the percentage to this high level. So as it stands, it looks as though the current second years, soon to be third years, will be sitting their final exams in Oct/Nov 2013 rather than June/July 2013, and will be entered to sit at an external examination centre, a process which in turn brings its own costs. However, on the plus side, it means that the students will have an extra couple of months to really swat up before their exams, extremely valuable time, especially for those in the General Arts classes as we’ve recently introduced English literature to their timetable. Accordingly, the library is now stocked with poetry anthologies, Shakespeare plays and both African and non-African literature, which the kids have eagerly delved into. The head of English has been an excellent support, coming in early and staying on late to hold catch-up classes.

Alongside making preparations for the imminent inspections, the other main focus is on recruiting new teachers for September, when we’ll open our doors to another 70 students, bringing the total enrolment to around 230 strong. Sadly, we’re going to have to say farewell to the 7 student teachers from Winneba, who’ve performed excellently in the classroom and have contributed so much to the school community. Furthermore, the universities have now changed the structure of the teaching course, so that the teaching placement will only be a term long rather than a whole year, meaning that we won’t be able to welcome a fresh batch of student teachers in September – a real shame considering this year’s success! Nevertheless, we’re hoping to maintain 3 of our current 7 student teachers for at least another year, whilst they complete their National Service.

Moving away from the academic side of the school, Harriet’s arrival has triggered the formation of many exciting new clubs, with at least one club running each evening after school: Volleyball club ( thanks to Jan Janmohamed and Caroline Keith, who visited in January, and brought with them a top class volleyball net and balls that the kids have been making the most of!), Leadership club (where prominent leaders are explored, in particular excellent African leadership figures), cadets, bee club and juice club to name but a few!

All of the kids have loved getting involved, with the leadership club having over 100 members! Looking forward, we’re planning to start a film club on Saturday mornings (yes, excitingly the IT room is now open to all students on Saturdays thanks to a dedicated local IT teacher and supporter of the school), and a carpentry club, spurred on by the arrival of 15 full tool kits from England! There’s also been talk of running a debating club and science club too. In particular, the introduction of cadets has been extremely successful, with the kids starting off where they left after the impressive display at the School Open Day last October. With a very strict Cadet Master who volunteers his time to visit each week, the cadets are now busy practicing their marching in preparation for the 6th March Independence Day parades next week - a great opportunity for the school to represent the local community!

With the aim of building a sense of school community and encouraging praise at the school, a house system has now been introduced, with each student being a member of either Avon, Dorset, Hampshire or Wiltshire house, with points being awarded for good behaviour, excellent work and sporting achievements; and points being deducted for bad behaviour. The introduction has gone down a storm, with students anxiously following the daily update of points on the score board! Next week we’re going to start some inter-house competitions which everyone is looking forward to.

Exciting progress is being made on the new land, which is soon to be a state of the arts sports pitch. With the amazing news that the kind donation will not only cover the cost of buying the land, but also the costs of clearing the vegetation, levelling the land and fencing it too, we’re on the verge of signing the contracts and bringing in the workforce!* The aim is to irrigate the grass pitch (a real novelty here in Ghana!) with the rainwater that is being collected from the school roof in two huge water tanks that have recently been installed. The kids are just as excited as we are about the new pitch; rugby balls have been brought over from the UK and Harriet is prepping the sports teacher on the rules of Rugby (not a widely played sport in Ghana) so hopefully we’ll have a rugby team formed by the time the pitch is ready. As Harriet commented, perhaps we’ll help to form the first Ghanaian National Rugby Team?! There’s also been talk of organising a whole school Sports Day in celebration of the new sports field!*

In January we were fortunate enough to host a visit from Dr Robin Collier, a recently retired GP from England, and his wife Sally, who both spent many a day tirelessly examining all the students – thankfully it turns out overall that we have a pretty healthy bunch of kids! However, not wanting to become complacent, we’ve planned for some of our weekly moral talks to be on the subject of healthy eating, exercise and sex-education. Their visit triggered lots of thinking among the EDP team, and we’ve since created a sick bay for the kids and nominated Student Welfare Teachers, who are being trained by Seth in counselling skills. The introduction of these Officers has gone down really well, and we’re hoping that this extra support will help those who come from particularly difficult backgrounds. So a big thank you to Robin and Sally for all their input!

Other exciting news is the progress that’s being made with the installation of the new science laboratory, and we hope that it will be a fully-functioning lab by September, ready to welcome the new batch of students. Plans have been drawn, cabinets and benches designed, and test-tubes bought (just yesterday in fact, along with a long list of other equipment). However, we’ve found the process of sourcing materials and equipment quite a challenge, so the first carpentry project for the kids might just be test tube racks, intricate I know, but I’m sure they’ll rise to the challenge! Sally and Robin kindly donated a skeleton which has already been used in many of the biology lessons, and Seth loves it so much that he insists it takes pride of place in his office when it’s not in use in the classrooms!

Moving onto the enterprise projects, Kiran is doing a fantastic job of building more momentum within the juice project and drumming up business in the local offices in Awutu. Demand is so high that she’s set up a delivery system each morning, often delivering up to 30 bottles of juice! Kiran’s done well to introduce the new taste of Moringa, a super-food that grows extremely well out here and is packed full of goodness, and she’s in the process of planting some trees around the school grounds. The relationship between our brand , “AbroFresh” and the University of Education in Winneba is growing fast; we’ve now got two committed AbroFresh Representatives there, who are students themselves. They have pumped in loads of enthusiasm to increase our contact base and have opened up new exciting avenues; in particular we’ve had two large orders, one for an ‘Independence Day BBQ Bash’ and the other for an HIV Awareness Conference, so trade is certainly picking up! We’re finally at the stage of making enough profit to make weekly contributions towards the running of the school - a real landmark achievement!

On the other enterprise front, although the bees are still proving quite a challenge, with several hives still un-colonised, we’ve got a keen team of students on board to help maintain the hives, and we’re ready to make our first harvest of honey in the next fortnight. Plans are emerging to start expanding the bee project, and set up a micro-finance structure in the local community, so watch this space!

The school really has become a hub of activity and is such an exciting place to be! As you can see, as ever, there’s loads going on, and I want to extend my thanks to all those who have been supporting the school behind the scenes, all your efforts are really appreciated by all the students, staff and community members alike. It was only earlier this week I had a visit from a parent, whose final comments were that he felt so blessed to be able to send his son to the school, and that the arrival of the school is a true living miracle to him!

Right, I’ll leave you on that positive note, as I’d better get back to work…lots to get on with!

Rachel

* We are pleased to announce that the sports pitch will be dedicated to the memory of Mr F.A. Hughes who died recently.

P.S. More pictures are being updated on the gallery - don't miss the one with Harriet standing in front of the new sports field!

David Lunan's EDP Update: February 2012

As it’s now three months since the last blog, which was in fact James Riggs’ final missive in his role as Project Manager for EDP at the school, I realised it was time to send out an update since, as is now becoming the norm, much has been happening in Awutu in the intervening period!

We now have three hard working, UK graduate, volunteers in situ: Rachel Schmieder, Harriet Fisher and Kiran Sahib. Rachel will be sending out her own blog which we aim to put onto the website tomorrow (March 2nd), there is a lot to consider, but I will leave the detail to her to fill you all in, so please look out for it on www.edp-trust.org.

The main news is to confirm we have 165 students and plan to increase the school size by a further 70 in September. By then we will be full, until, and when, we can raise the additional £100k+ needed to build the third and final planned phase. In the interim we will be planning for the increase in teacher numbers and expanding the facilities on offer. Thanks to our generous benefactor who allowed us to purchase the land adjoining the school - and he has just made another donation to let us to go ahead and level it and install a pitch which, under Harriet’s supervision we hope will be ready for use by the September term start - we hope , soon, to be the sporting focus of everyone in the Awutu region. What a fantastic facility it will be for the local kids - used to kicking patched-up footballs on nearby, rubbish-strewn, wastelands - to be able to use!

In the meantime we are also working to raise the standards of the teaching, the levels of behaviour by students, and to create an element of competition within the school now we have formed the four houses – Hampshire, Dorset, Avon and Wiltshire!

One thing to explain further – in order to obtain fully recognised exam status in the future we need to build the teacher numbers up to 70% full time. Currently the budget can’t allow for that so we will have to arrange to take exams at another centre, this in turn will cost, probably in the region of £3,000 and will mean the current crop of Second Years won’t be able to take their third year finals in fact until next autumn. A mixed blessing as they are the ones who need more tuition as many of them were the longest out of the education system until we opened the school, but that in turn will mean more teaching cost to fund in the interim!

So, and we have mentioned this before I know , we have decided to make a real push to try and get the numbers of pupils sponsored up to the 75-100 plus level. As many of you know (and are already generously supporting us in this area already!) the proposal is that sponsors put up £25 a month on a standing order (or £300 yearly) and in return are allocated a specific student to sponsor. They will receive communications from time to time and will get an annual update from the school on the progress of their student. If you are prepared to sponsor, or could spread the word and maybe find additional support for us it could really help us reach that number.

Currently we have 32 pupils sponsored, that is set to bring in about £9600 over the next 12 months, if we could get the number up to 75 that would add a further £13k income to the school – enough then to pay for over half the additional teachers we are seeking to employ for September, if we can get it up to 100 it will pay for all of them!

In the meantime we are aiming to spread our educational connections further! We are in touch with Andrew Smith, ex-Winton School, Andover Headmaster, now running the Rodborough School near Godalming in Surrey. Winton school themselves are beavering away at sponsorship having started so well last year and hope to increase the number further later this year. James is also in touch with a couple of schools in the Ringwood area as we remain very keen to try and bring the message of educational opportunity that the Awutu project conveys to kids in the UK. We believe it’s a powerful message to convey to our children: ie to be able to show them how good the facilities they are learning in are in the UK and contrast that with the deprivation – coupled with great enthusiasm for learning - that their peers in West Africa experience.

My apologies for the rather begging tone of this blog! Rachel’s will be more informative, that’s a promise, and thank you, again, for your on-going support. If you, or someone you know, is willing to sponsor a child it’s a simple procedure of filling out the attached form. Thank you.

Kind regards
David

David Lunan
Director, EDP Trust.

www.edp-trust.org

david@edp-trust.org

James Riggs Final Update

So the start of the second year, and all is busier than ever. George Godson recently left Ghana and the EDP team after sterling work out here, having single-handedly built up the pineapple juice project, to which we shall return a little later, from inception to completion as a fully functioning, money-making enterprise helping to raise vital funds for the school. It is safe to say that this side of the project would not be where it is today without him, and all of EDP would like to thank him for his efforts. In his place however, we have three more volunteers. Rachel Schmieder is the new Enterprise Manager, carrying on where George left off, and will be ably assisted by Kiran Sahib. On the school side of things, Alastair Littleton, a teaching assistant from the Winton School in Andover, has come out until Christmas with the simple remit of 'improving the school'. We are all very grateful for the time and effort of the new volunteers, who really are helping to shape the future of the school with their continued hard work.

By the time I got back from my summer holiday in late September the 'Phase II' building had been finished and was looking great. This new building would be home to the students moving into the second year, and they came out in force to help paint it a few days before re-opening. With perhaps a little more enthusiasm than artistic flair they spent most of their time laughing, getting covered in green emulsion and generally enjoying being back at school after the long break. The end result was great, though, and everyone was really excited to move into their new home, with pride of place being given to the fantastic mural, drawn up by the Winton students who paid us a visit over the summer. When the painting was all done and dusted, the students here even had the time and energy to knock-up a little study area, tucked away in the cooling shade of the Acacia trees.

Those of you with good memories may recall the trouble we had last year with the publication of the National Junior High School Grades. The delay pushed back the opening of Senior Schools the country over as they waited to verify that students had indeed matched the criteria for attending. Well the same thing happened, though to a lesser degree, this year. So after a slight delay, by mid October, we were ready to welcome the new first year students. We now have two more classes, of around sixty happy and enthusiastic young people, pushing the school total up to over one-hundred and fifty. A huge thank-you to everyone involved, from the UK governors, those who have visited, sponsored, donated or simply offered support and advice.

The school certainly is a great deal busier now with the two year groups, and as a result we have obviously had to increase the teacher allocation, too. We now have two teachers per subject, with an effective head of department [though this term and position does need some tweaking]. That is a total of sixteen teaching staff, including seven ‘interns' from Winneba University. Our always hard-working Deputy Headmaster, Seth Adjadotze, has managed to get our school registered with nearby Winneba University for their student placement scheme. The result is that, each year, we will get half a dozen newly graduated teachers working at our school as part of their university placements. The six that have just started are doing excellent work – young, enthusiastic and extremely dedicated. What's more the nature of contemporary teaching methodology in Ghana, which is thankfully moving away from the classic ROTE approach to involve much more student interaction in class, is fully embraced by these new teachers, as they are effectively straight out of study. Obviously we need to still rely, for the most part, on the senior staff to co-ordinate and set out the trajectory of the teaching, but the interns are proving to be hugely valuable to us and I'm very glad we have them. Seth has done a fantastic job getting us onto this scheme [not an easy task], especially as we are not a Ghana Education Service [GES], and the benefits in the years to come are going to be immense. The only drawback is that we must 'give them back' to the GES at the end of the year.

I feel that here I must mention Seth, though briefly, in a little more detail. Seth was one of the first people that we got in to help us with the project. An old friend of EDP and founder of the Awutu-Winton School, Peter Donkor, Seth has really grown into his role as 'Deputy Head' and is so intertwined with the school that it becomes almost impossible to imagine the place without him. With 20 years experience of teaching, a qualification in counselling, extensive gardening expertise and a constantly happy disposition, Seth has been dedicating more time and effort to the project than its possible to do justice to here. Loved by staff and students alike [the student’s impromptu comedy routine at the opening was the talk of the school], we genuinely would not have the success we have today without him. And though I will, of course, be very sad when I do eventually leave, I will rest assured that with Seth there, all will be an unqualified success.

Ok, now that you are up to date with the teaching side of things, let’s fill you in on the other half of this rapidly expanding project, the income generating agro-businesses. As I have said before, one of the aspects of this school I am most excited about is the focus on [current buzzword] sustainability. But perhaps the most fulfilling thing for me is to see the combination of the two, with the students starting to get involved with the micro-enterprises themselves. As I mentioned above, the pineapple juicing project is starting to really take off thanks to the hard work, energy and commitment of Rachel and Kiran. So, I shall now briefly hand you over to the latter with news of that and, just as excitingly, news of the first batch [almost] of Awutu Honey!

The decision to introduce an AbroFresh kiosk to the University of Winneba is proving to be a wise one. Through relentless promotion and advertisement the student population are pulling through! Not only are sales picking up at the kiosk, but it was only last week I walked through the university campus and heard ‘AbroFresh’ being excitedly shouted at me. I looked up to see some enthusiastic smiles and an unprecedented amount of frantic waving. I instinctively responded with some equally frantic waving, and a necessary ‘whooopy’!
The move has also played an instrumental role in the expansion of the agricultural business; our first wholesale event was for a student – organised event on the 11th November 2011. We provided a total of 35 gallons of pineapple juice- close to 160 Litres! We managed to get a fair bit of advertisement at the event; the lead singer of the headlining band appointed himself as ‘Abroman’ and militantly made regular announcements for us.
Concerning the bee project, we now have 3 hives which are colonised. Unfortunately we have had issues with ants and other mysterious Ghanaian critters in the hives, which consequently have resulted in the bees deserting some of the hives. However, the past week has been spent cleaning the hives and putting in place the necessary measures to keep all unwanted creatures out of them. Now armed with the knowledge of the proper maintenance of hives Elias, Rachel and I are confident the bee’s will return and we should have our first harvest by March 2012.
To encourage sustainable agricultural development amongst our students we have picked a few students who have shown a keen interest in the environment and agriculture to help with the bee project. Their enthusiasm was apparent in the first meeting when Elias was overcome by their immediate commitment and constant questions!

So, as you can see, it’s all hands to the pump with the enterprise projects and, after all the teams hard work over the last 10 months, we are really starting to see the benefits. Rachel and Kiran have been pulling out all the stops to ensure that no time is lost as we head into the hot season, when hopefully juice demand will be highest. I am hopeful that in the next instalment of this blog we will be able to bring news to you of just how these ago-ventures are having an actual effect on the financial stability of the school.

Leaving that to one side again, let’s concentrate once more on the school itself. Alastair has come over here on a relatively short [three month] trip, using his teaching background to help with the efficient running of the school and the lessons. He has been working alongside a few of the teachers and Seth to ensure that the lesson plans are being correctly drawn up and the syllabus adhered to. For the most part he has been happy with what he has seen, and been encouraged by the teachers displays. Not that we should rest on our laurels, as teaching standards are something that must be constantly assessed and, if possible, improved upon. As well as this, we have been throwing all sorts of things at Alistair to do, from getting curtains fitted, to serving juice, to making ID cards and organising an inventory of classroom stocks. All in all he has been running around with barely enough time to catch his breath. Though catch it he did for the inaugural staff VS students’ football game a few weeks ago. The game was played on the miniature five-a-side pitch a little beyond the school fence. However, this dusty and fairly sorry looking thing will soon be a thing of the past as we are extremely grateful for the very generous donation to enable us to buy 7 plots of land next to our own, which will enable us to build a full size football pitch – the only one in Awutu. The students are all getting very excited by the prospect. Now all they have to decide on is who will be the goalkeeper!

Well, that is almost it from Ghana, just one final thing to talk about. During a recent visit, David and Inez came with me to a visit at the Grace-Masak orphanage a little way down the road at Buduburam. There are thirty children or so, all under one roof, being looked after by two women who do a sterling job of keeping the kids clothed, bathed and fed to the best of their ability. The decision was made on this visit to help them out with new mattresses, light bulbs and a weekly supply of pineapple juice [as well as a donated football table]. They all now run out to greet our Friday morning delivery each week and scoff down the juice, and the chocolate bread that our wonderful cook, Agnes, bakes each morning for them.

OK, so you're all now completely bang up to date on how things are progressing, and I hope you will all agree that exciting times lay ahead for the school and the students. Who knows what our efforts now will bring in the future, just last week one of the students came up to me and said, 'James, when I am older I want to build a free school for needy children'. Maybe we started something?!

James Riggs, EDP Project Manager, Awutu, Ghana.

Report On The Official Opening Day: September 2011

The Official Opening on September 30th was a great success! We ended up getting around 300 people to the event, including all the local Chiefs and the MP, the Hon David Larbie, as well as the local District Chief Executive and a representative from the Ghana Education Service.

The pupils put on a number of very impressive displays – starting within the School choir (see gallery picture), and the mixed Cadets, who, despite having formed temporarily only two weeks earlier put on a most disciplined performance. We need to decide if we can justify the cost of the cadets going forward, and ditto the brass band and the local drama group who all kept going during the day, even during a torrential downpour!

We also had several of the pupils doing a local dance routine in traditional costumes - also on the Gallery – and the day ended with prize giving and speeches from a number of signatories, including deputy head Seth , and Founder Peter Donkor, followed by two very competitive football games by first the boys then, with arguably even more vigour, by the girls!

All of us present were very impressed with the high standard of performance by all the students, working with limited resources and time table and ably supported by a growing Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) which is reflecting the keen interest being shown by parents and the local community . It’s an exciting time for the school and we hope you can all feel part of this as it’s the support we are receiving at EDP that is making all of this happen!

It was also an opportunity for the charity to point out to the local community that the school was there for the long term with its mission aim to deliver, uniquely for the region, free secondary education at a high standard to the section of the local community who could least afford it and who would in fact be disenfranchised without the school (as are over 55% of secondary age pupils in all of Ghana as their families do not have the wherewithal to pay the GES fees.)

All of this took place, as you can see from the recent pictures posted onto the website, in front of the newly finished Phase 2 building which consists of three classrooms, an office for EDP staff, and a science lab (still to be fitted out, once the £4,000 funds required for this have been raised!). James Riggs is in now in the midst of the difficult process of selecting the fortunate 75 applicants who can be accepted for year 2. That will fill two of the three new classrooms, and we plan, for this year at least, to let the wonderful Agnes who feeds both staff and pupils at midday, to use the third classroom as a temporary Canteen until we can raise the funds (around £40,000) to build the canteen and admin unit which will also house a drama and art room; but that’s for the future.

Going forward in the short term we have plans in the pipeline to develop further the juice, apiary and fish farm enterprise projects, headed up by Rachel Schmieder who has been in Awutu since July preparing to take over from George Godson who has done such a great job since January this year. Thanks again George!

The juice business has been struggling recently and we are trying variations to make it work, focusing more on trying to sell in bulk to selected local vendors (we have also just launched the juices for sale at a discount in the school and early indications are encouraging.)

The local bee expert , Elias, visited Rachel last week and said he was most impressed with the start we have made in colonising our 10 hives- a picture has also been posted on the Gallery site and our plan is to start involving students and staff as the bees starts to get properly established over the next few months. Hopefully we will have our first, small, quantity of honey for sale sometime in the New Year!

Rachel now has Kiran, also from the UK, to assist her on the business development side and next year we are also hoping to start a trial Tilapia fish tank to see if it’s possible to farm these tropical fish for commercial ends in the region. This has been made possible thanks to a generous anonymous donation of £12,000 from a well wisher which has allowed the school to purchase the adjacent plots of land, sufficient for a full sized sports pitch with space left over to expand some more bee hives (well away from the players!) and the trial fish farm. Work should start soon on levelling the land once the legal paperwork has been completed.

James is also grateful to have a new assistant, Alastair Littleton, an ex-teacher from Winton in Andover. Alastair will be at the school until Christmas assisting in administering the curriculum , including the IT, as well as more mundane tasks that just need to be done, like sorting the remaining bicycles in the container for use by the new trainee teachers that Seth has done so well to obtain for us from the nearby teachers’ college.

Sadly James has decided to finish his contract by Christmas; although having done virtually two years in Awutu and seen the school emerge in the process we understand that James feels it’s time to move on and we will always be extremely grateful to him for all that he has achieved working with our small NGO. This means that EDP will be in the market place for a new Project Manager and his Assistant, come January, so if anyone knows of suitable candidates with experience in the field please ask them to get in touch with their CV’s!

So there we have it. The second year is under way, phase two is virtually there, the sports field is in hand and the business ventures are moving slowly forward. There is a sense of great activity and excitement whenever we visit the school these days and once again it’s all down to the wonderful support we are receiving from so many quarters. James is also in contact now with two other schools and so , especially now that Winton have sent their first team of students out to Awutu in July , the opportunity to develop the links between students of UK (who as we know in many instances just don’t realise the facilities they are so lucky to have!) and Awutu-Winton SHS is now well in hand.

David Lunan,
9th October 2011

End Of First Academic Year Report: July 2011

Hi all,

As James mentioned in his March blog the school has been progressing steadily over the course of 2011 and we are delighted to send this report out on the School’s first year, which finished last Thursday.

Generally the anticipated time table of events over the past few months has been kept to and 103 fired up students have just gone off on their mid-year break: we can’t call it ‘summer’ as we would in temperate climes as it’s effectively summer all year of course in Awutu - just the wet or dry season, and currently wet and humid. If anyone is interested in coming to visit - which both the EDP Team and School staff and pupils would welcome enormously- and wants to know the best time to come it’s probably at the start of the dry season in September/October or before the rainy season’s set and after the Harmattan dry season in December /January: ie February or March: certainly a good time to leave Europe!).

Plans are afoot to expand the school numbers to 175 by next term and James and his team are already starting the process of selection for the second year, although we will need to await the results of the Junior School (JSS) end of year exams which are published in September, before we can make the final choice; at the moment we have over 200 applicants for the 70 places available.

Many things continue at the school site, even though the school is now officially on holiday. We have had the first group visit from our UK twinned school, Winton in Andover, sponsored through Global Challenge, and as I write the group of eight pupils, ably supervised by Winton staff Jane and Sean, are busily engaged with helping the EDP team on a number of projects on site – including the painting and preparation of the 10 bee hives which represent the launch of the much spoken about Honey Project . EDP Enterprise Manager, George Godson, is poised ready with phials of pheromones, which for those of you, like me, with very little knowledge of bee behaviour, apparently are the catalyst to inspire the local bee population to come and do their thing in our hives! All very exciting, and we have recruited the services of local bee expert Elias who is advising George and his new EDP assistant, Rachel Schmieder, who arrived last week in Awutu.

At the same time the “juice project” that James referred to in his March blog continues steadily under the supervision of George and his team. We have several kiosks performing well and this is expected to create enough profit to fund a full time teacher for a year if it continues on its current path. The challenge facing George and Rachael now is to get as many other kiosks as the production line can cope with, all performing in the local markets. Our current performing one is in a place called Kasoa which is a busy local market about 8 km east of Awutu and we are trying to locate a couple more there.

The plan is also, thanks to George and local transport manger and Awutu resident Ebenezer Acquah who managed to source a reliable second hand minibus for the school (now beautifully branded up – see latest picture on the Gallery site!), to expand the location of Kiosks further afield, and the nearby Town of Winneba (“Windy Bay”) is now in our sights as it’s a busy market town with a substantial (hopefully thirsty!) student teacher population. Also at least four of whom we hope, thanks to help from Seth our deputy head who lobbied the college successfully for us earlier this year, will be coming to teach at Awutu-Winton as part of their training year. This represents a lower overhead for the charity but nevertheless a positive addition to the staff pool as we increase numbers of both students and staff with the launch of Phase Two.

The first part of Phase Two, which will now consist of 3 classrooms, a science lab and a separate office for EDP (see gallery for latest shots), has been under construction, supervised from UK By Martin Moore and on the ground by local engineering expert Baffour Osei, for the last few months. Eddie Quarshie, who met many EDP sponsors at the recent BBQ held earlier this month in Andover, has been the main contractor and he has worked closely with Baffour and James to get the building ready for the Winton team to go in this coming week and paint. Eddie is an enthusiastic local governor and his work for the school is gratefully appreciated by all at EDP. Our aim is to build the second part of Phase two, with a canteen, staff and Art rooms as soon as the funding is in place, hopefully by the second half of next year.

The number of sponsored children has also been steadily rising and we are all so grateful for this vital support. One of the sponsors, a good friend called Jonathan Miller came to visit Awutu with Inez and myself last February. Apart from sponsoring one of the girls and meeting her family, Jonathan gave valuable free legal advice to James and myself helping us to finalise the (rather complicated) registration of the land deeds for the school, and also helped us write the even more complicated Staff contracts. We are therefore very sorry to announce that Jonathan died earlier this month, a sad loss for his family and his wide circle of friends and colleagues, and the number of charities that he gave so much support to - and personally a very, very good friend and confidant. His passing will leave a big gap in many people’s lives.

In March Chris Stanton volunteered to come out to Awutu for 3 months and assisted James and the team in a number of areas, and in particular guided Okyere, the IT master. We are grateful to Chris and to his parents, Paul and Jackie, for their support. Some of you may have seen that Jackie is continuing to help EDP by organising an Auction of Promises for the Charity to be held in Abbotts Ann on November 12th when we hope to raise enough to pay for at least two full-time teachers for 2012.

We also have a number of other volunteers due to go out to the project in the ensuing months , starting with Kiran Sahib who is due to fly out in August having recently finished her degree at SOAS in International Development. She will be followed a month later by Alastair Littleton, currently a teacher at Winton Andover , who is going out to Awutu for up to a year to assist the school to develop an Adult Education department whilst at the same time expanding the links with Winton Andover, initiated by the Global Challenge team this month. EDP is grateful for all the support the volunteers are offering, and the assistance they are giving to James and Seth, as well as the board of Governors.

Lead by Eddie, and constantly supported by the school’s Founder, Peter Donkor, there are 'behind the scenes' negotiations going on in a number of areas and we hope to be able to make a very exciting announcement for the school shortly in this regard.

It is safe to say however that the Official Open day, scheduled for September 30th at the school should be an eventful one!

So once again, on behalf of the Trustees of EDP and the Board of Governors at Awutu-Winton, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us to get this far. There is of course a very long journey ahead but, thanks to all of our supporters , we are now well on our way!

With best wishes,

David Lunan

Director, EDP Trust
135 Little Ann road, Andover, Hants
SP11 7NW
Uk Charity no : 1129398

George Godson (Business Development Manager) Update: July 2011

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