How the time flies! Alistair and I went to Ghana in February, returning at the beginning of this month to find that our daughter was going to get married at the end of April – we did have a sneaky idea that this was the plan – which is my only excuse for not writing sooner.

Ghana in February is hot and dry, as it is their dry season. Our primary purpose for the visit was to meet with the ministry of health to discuss (and hopefully sign) a Memorandum of Understanding. This would enable us to send in the medical aid tax free. Without this the Ghanaian government require that we pay the tax up front and we may or may not get a reimbursement. This has meant that we have been unable to send any medical aid to Ghana in the last 12 months. We were very fortunate to meet with the Minister of Health himself during the second week of our stay and on the final day, after a lot of waiting and praying, at 4:30pm (we were heading for the airport at 8pm) we received the signed official copy – Praise God!

We spent the 1st week visiting the King’s Village where the Rotary medical boat had been sent. The King’s Village consists of a school, hospital and nutrition centre. It lies about 6-8 kilometres from the river Volta and receives very poorly patients from the isolated communities on the other side of the river.  The boat had been used for a medical mission by a visiting consultant from the USA, but the King’s Village are struggling with funding to run it regularly. We were able to use it to visit the community on the other side of the Volta. This community is 6 kilometres from the water during the dry season, but much closer when the river floods. There is only a dirt track to the village, which we travelled along on a tricycle or ‘motorking’. The medical centre there was struggling with barely any provisions and the next day we met with the Regional Director of health to discuss whether the Kings Village could run this clinic for the community of 8,000 people. This would mean the boat could be used to deliver midwifes, transport patients to the Kings Village and supply the clinic during the dry and wet season (via boat and motorking). It could also, at the same time, ferry paying passengers to help cover the cost. This community at the moment  can either use a wooden canoe or travel 2 days to cross the river to get healthcare or to take their produce to market. They even have to use the canoe to transport the motorking if the patient can’t sit on a motorbike! Whilst we were in Ghana 6 people died using one of these canoes – a common occurrence.During the wet season it is impossible to get across the river on these canoes.

This is the medical boat being loaded with the motorking in which four of us sat in the back along a very bumpy road!
The empty shelves in the dispensary of the clinic

 

The wonderful children at the village are always excited when anyone visits
The wooden canoes are used to transport anything – including the motorkings

I will write next month about our visit to Wa, which was to check the seedbank project and fruit tree plantations. We thank everyone for their generous support and their prayers for all our projects and I pray that you all have a wonderful Easter.

 

For this reason you must be ready – Matthew 24:44