The IT centre & other projects

Hi again,

No blogs for weeks and then 2 on one day - crazy hey.

A few people have asked about how the project is going so thought we could post a quick update.

A team of 10 people (Danish, American, Ghanaian and English) move to our village today to ready ourselves for the project. We plan to spend the next fews days readying the site, weeding, meeting local skilled workers, cracking stones, learning how to make cement etc and then start the real work when the initial funding makes it's way to Ghana which should be by the end of next week. Then, we are cementing, building walls etc to get the centre there. Should be hard work but fun. Not sure about this heat or the fact that most of the volunteers are white women and Dave being pretty skinny (his words not mine) but sure it can't be that hard - can it?? we'll see.

We are still working on the funding and have some way to go before completing the whole thing - e.g. build it, furnish, source & network computers, get electricity, satellite etc and potentially look at new ideas like solar power. A couple of events are happening which will help - the Africa Night in London on 25 November which we hope lots of you will support by going and having a good time. Also - Deutsche Bank IT & Operations graduate are working on a global charity event all proceeds to the IT centre. They will be hosting it around the world - Australia, UK, Germany, Asia, America so massively far reaching. Look forward to seeing how these go.

Since being here, we have really seen how the IT centre will be the first of its kind and make a difference. Being built in a village is unique. Many parts of Ghana are concerned with the amount of people who are leaving village life for the developing towns. This project is a way of showing what is possible in town life and helping this particular community.

The centre will be a training centre where people from other towns/villages will come to use thereby bringing money and network to the village. When the centre is profit making, the plan is that proceeds will go towards women in the village specifically. We can't wait to see this impact but know we have some way to go first!

We will update you soon on how the first stages are going.

To keep us busy in the meantime, Dave and I have been taking on other projects to help the charity develop so be able to have more volunteers who can in turn make a difference in more communities. New projects are:

- Establishing a football team in Ho who compete nationally - have a proper training program, kit, registered with the Ghana FA and have real team spirit. TRAID have kindly supported some of the football kit which is making it possible. We are also looking for other donations to fund the registering, training materials and to have kit for more players.

- Creating a new website. Currently DIVOGs website is hosted by an ex-volunteer and very old. We are looking at ways to get a new host for DIVOG so they can update the website with the current projects and hopefully get more volunteers.

- Vehicle. We are working on a project to raise money for DIVOG to get their own vehicle. This would save huge cost financially and in time so enable them to do more for the communities quicker. We are looking for funding and ideas on how to get them a people carrier vehicle with left hand drive. Part of this is looking at ways we can get money making ideas here - e.g. we have set up a book exchange/buy for volunteers, looking at setting up craft workshops and selling jewellery and coke/biscuits. All small bits but should hopefully add up in the long term.

As ever, if anyone would like to run their own fundraising events, or persuade friends who are to do it for our charity, or provide us with donations/advice please don't be shy in getting in touch.

ghana@africa-foundation.org
floudy@hotmail.com
maria_mooreuk@yahoo.co.uk

Take care and see you soon,
Maria and Dave
xx