Dominase

All health clinics in Ghana are obliged by Government to provide some (free) education to schools, particularly hand-washing, personal hygiene and (in some instances) sexually transmitted infections. But it is not clear whether every school in the Dominase area benefits from this scheme.

During a visit to Dominase early in February, meetings were held with a number of local clinics to begin to assess the scope and value of improvements.

Work has been completed on yet another block of school toilets (our fifth so far) so that scores more children will have somewhere safe and clean to go to the loo during school time.

This, in turn, helps to boost attendances at school – and encourages families to improve sanitary conditions at home.

The Village Chief in the community of Adaboa officially opened the new block of toilets alongside representatives of Dominase’s Village-to-Village Committee and Ghanaian Education officials.

Buriton’s ‘Village-to-Village’ group sponsored another successful Reading Festival on Friday 21^st June  (the sixth annual event) by providing prizes for all the winners and also paying for the costs of meals and of the transport to get all the children to the venue.

The competition was for primary schools in the area - an initiative inspired by Buriton's work with the Upper Denkyira West Local Education Authority.

2018 was the 15^th year of Buriton’s Village-to-Village Group and it was another productive year, continuing to concentrate efforts on education and sanitation.

The Group also hopes that we might be able to help to improve health education in the future (so that families can avoid dangerous diseases and improve living conditions) but ideas have not yet been developed, so if you have any bright ideas or advice, please let us know.

In 2018 Buriton’s efforts helped to:

Copies of a brand new Buriton Parish Calendar for 2019 are now available and can be ordered by contacting Elaine Bray (01730 264278 /[email protected]) or Doug Jones (01730 231326 / [email protected]).

At only £8 per copy the new calendar makes a perfect Christmas present for family and friends.

Each month provides a special glimpse of the parish and (at about 8 by 12 inches - A4 size) each page provides plenty of room to note all your commitments for next year.

Children in the outlying hamlet of Adaboa, near to Dominase in the far north of the Central Region of Ghana, should soon have their first ever toilets.

At the moment boys and girls, like most of their families at home, have to squat in the bush around the village when they want to go to the loo.

Now, thanks to Buriton's link, all that can change - and all the children will be able to wash their hands thanks to a big tank which will collect rainwater from the roof.

The recent funding will help improve living conditions, reduce risks of diseases and provide some privacy - often lacking for millions of people in Africa.

And this latest phase of work will take the total number of families helped by our ‘Buy a Bog’ initiative to 500.

Villagers in Buriton's “adopted” community of Dominase, in Ghana, are seeing more and more improvements in the health of the population, particularly young children, as a result of Buriton's programme of sanitation projects.

Buriton’s ‘Village-to-Village’ group sponsored another successful inter-school competition on Tuesday 12^th June (the fifth annual event) by providing prizes for all the winners and also paying for the costs of meals and of the transport to get all the children to the venue.

Twelve primary schools took part in the competition - an initiative inspired by Buriton's work with the Local Education Authority in the area.

The officials, who are responsible for the education of children in hundreds of villages like Dominase, wrote to say thank you: “in appreciation of all the support that the VV Group has given to our District (Dominase Circuit) over the years. No other group or persons have given such an immense support, and we are very grateful.”

The letter goes on to explain that "Through your support of supplying supplementary reading books, and organisation of reading competitions, pupils now take reading seriously.

Over 100 people packed into the magnificent Tithe Barn at Ditcham on Saturday 20^th January and raised money for Buriton’s sister community of Dominase, over 3,000 miles away in rural Ghana, West Africa.

Live music from the popular Rampagers kept everyone on their toes all evening and the whole event went with a swing.

Profits from the event will help to improve living conditions for hundreds of families in Dominase with a particular focus on education, sanitation and health.