Like everyone else, we spent April adapting and adjusting to the lockdown measures. This included the first of many online workshops held on our Instagram live, which we will be telling you all about in this newsletter.
What’s next from us?
We have planned a few workshops over the next coming weeks. These will be similar to our usual workshops, where we’ll be talking about the Ghanaian diaspora, Ghana currently and anything else that you would like us to touch on. Make sure you follow us on Instagram to join us at our workshops.
Highlights from our Q&A with Annette Abena
We hosted a Q&A workshop with Annette Abena; founder of the Diaspora talks podcast, where she shared with us amazing insights into:
- COVID-19 and its impact on Ghana and Africa
- Diaspora engagement and start-ups in Ghana.
Audience participation paid a big role in this live as questions such as "How do we draw the line between investment and gentrification by the diaspora?" and "Is it important to be fluent in a Ghanaian language to relocate to Ghana?" helped to tackle some issues a lot of us face/faced. When it came to the topic of how those of us in the diaspora can engage with things back home, Annette emphasised the importance of networking.
If you enjoy these live workshops and sessions and are impacted in some way or form by them, please DONATE to our below cause. Anything can help.
Let's change someone's life during these hard times.
Locals have to walk approx. 3-5 miles to the neighbouring village for their nearest source of clean safe drinking water. Teenage girls and women in particular have been disproportionately burdened with the task of fetching water from the neighbouring villages. Most girls in the village stop school once they are12yrs old as the laborious tasks of fetchi
Ataaso is a remote village in the Kwahu West Municipal District. The village previously had a hand pump which no longer works. In 2018, an NGO approached them to build a water pump system and began digging. However, the truth is the NGO were digging for gold and with a failed attempt to locate gold they aborted the project and never returned to build the water. Currently, when not possible to get water from the local villages the Ataaso community resort a local filthy water stream which due to weather conditions will soon be dried out. The community elders visited the commemoration our previous Ntawadua water project last year and have appealed if we could help them as access to clean safe drinking water is the biggest plea before amongst the many issues facing the villagers.
Locals have to walk approx 3-5 miles to the neighbouring village for their nearest source of clean safe drinking water. Teenage girls and women in particular have been disproportionately burdened with the task of fetching water from the neighbouring villages. Most girls in the village stop school once they are12yrs old as the laborious tasks of fetching water does not allow them to go to school.
WE WANT TO:
· To provide an immediate source of safe drinking water for Ataaso local I order. to reduce and prevent waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio.
· With our aim being to provide sustainable solution, we also. want to reduce the burden on girls and women in the village so to encourage them to finish school.
Ghana news
Ghana officially lifted its three-week lockdown on the 20th of April. The country’s borders remain closed and social distancing measures continue to be in place, meaning that all public and social gatherings are still banned.
It was also announced on Sunday 26th of April that there are plans to construct hospitals in 88 districts in Ghana without hospitals, with the intention of being completed within a year.
The current pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in Ghana’s health system, as many of hospitals are poorly sourced or some parts of the country do not have hospitals at all. As such, the construction of these hospitals serves the aim of improving up Ghana’s health system.
At the end of April, disinfection exercises commenced in the nation’s major airports ahead of plans to reopen the airports for domestic flights operations. The aviation minister, Joseph Kofi Adda, has said that once domestic flights resume, there will be social distancing among passengers, use of masks and sanitisers would be ensured when operations restart. There will also be health officials present at hospitals to monitor all passengers.
Ghana’s response to COVID-19 so far has been viewed as impressive. Ghana ranked number 1 in Africa in terms of administering tests per million people. President Nana Akufo-Addo highlighted in his address to the nation that the five key objectives of the government is to 1) limit and stop the importation of the virus, 2) contain its spread, 3) provide adequate care for the sick, 4) limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life and 5) inspire the expansion of Ghana’s domestic capability whilst deepening the nations self-reliance. It should also be noted that scientists at the University of Ghana have successfully sequenced genomes of the virus responsible for the pandemic, which is significant in strengthening surveillance and the tracing of virus.
(Sources: Ministry of Information Ghana, Ghana Web and BBC News)