The pilot stage of Buriton's programme to provide household toilets in Dominase has now been completed successfully.
About ten poor families now have their first ever toilets and our project has trained a number of local masons with the skills to build more in the future. We have also provided ‘movie show’ hygiene education sessions for hundreds of villagers.
Many thanks for all your support.
Pupils from Ditcham Park School have recently been fund-raising to help disadvantaged families in Buriton's sister community of Dominase in rural Ghana.
Doug Jones and Mary Saunders, who are part of the village-to-village link, had previously visited the school to talk to pupils in an assembly, and were delighted to be asked back to receive a cheque for over £350, raised by pupils who enjoyed a non-uniform day in return for a donation.
Many thanks to everybody who has helped with our 'Buy a Bog' fund-raising campaign to help improve sanitation conditions in our sister community of Dominase. Photographs in earlier messages have shown work taking place on the block of school toilets that we are providing. Here are two more photos (taken in January) which show the building taking shape.
Since these photos were taken work has continued, the walls are being plastered and all the remaining materials (for the roof, doors and big tank to store rainwater for hand-washing) have been brought to the site.
On one of our early visits to Dominase, thanks to village connections with (and the generosity of) Corporate Mobile Recycling Ltd, we were able to take a number of recycled mobile phones with us.
In a part of the world where there are no land-line telephones, mobile phones can change things very dramatically. Where people had to make a dangerous journey in the past if they wanted to talk to a friend or to a business contact, they can now do it from their home, shop or farm – saving time that could be more profitably used working.
Children in Dominase are not fortunate to have many of the educational aids that we take for granted. Pens, pencils, paper, books and school uniforms are all very expensive for poor families. Without any electricity in their schools, most children can only learn computer skills by looking at books with pictures of keyboards.
But all the children seem to be very keen to learn and we have tried to help by providing basic materials on many of our visits.
Buriton Primary School has links with the Marfo School in Dominase, children write to each other regularly and the school has sent some materials.
There is no running water in this part of Ghana and only a few boreholes and wells. The local river, often used for washing, is very dirty and can cause chronic disease and death. The Village-to-Village Groups in Buriton and Dominase therefore agreed that an early priority should be helping to improve supplies of clean water.
Using advice from Wateraid, we encouraged villagers in Dominase to set up a special residents committee, to undertake a survey of places where they might be able to find water and to identify some ‘in country’ experts who would be able to help them construct wells.
One of the first areas of support provided by villagers in Buriton was to help provide a health clinic with a generator and funding for living quarters for a nurse. Without this effort there was a risk that the health authorities may have closed the clinic.
We have subsequently provided dressings and medical supplies, spectacles, a fridge to keep medicines cool and electric fans and mosquito nets for the comfort and health of patients.
This annual event in the Village Hall, the antidote to ordinary quiz nights, raises funds for our sister community of Dominase in Ghana. In 2010 we raised over ?1,500 to help with toilets and sanitation. Please help us to raise even more in 2011. Only ?5 per person - and lots of fun !!
Conatct Doug Jones ([email protected]) to book your places.
Conditions in Dominase are very poor and quite unhealthy. Very few households have their own toilets, there is no running water and many people just go and squat in the grass near to houses and paths.
It is, therefore, very easy for germs and diseases to be brought back into homes.
People in Dominase, particularly young children, can often die due to diseases caused by poor sanitation.
We are, therefore, raising money in England to improve sanitation conditions in Dominase.
Buriton has developed strong links with the rural community of Dominase in the far north of the Central Region of Ghana over a number of years. An innovative 'Village-to-Village' Group was set up in 2003 to increase awareness and support.
