For many of us June was a heavy month. As well as dealing with the pandemic, many of us have been reminded of the harsh realities of racial injustice. The death of George Floyd last month awakened new calls for racial equality, with demonstrations taking place worldwide. For ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement check out our blog post from earlier in June.
What’s happening with Change for Ghana?
JayNii
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, we are currently trying to raise money for the JayNii Streetwise Orphanage, which was recently demolished. You can find out more about the current situation with JayNii and ways that you can support on our blog.
At the moment, the 25 children who resided at the JayNii Streetwise orphanage are homeless. We are looking to rehouse these children immediately. The children need a place in the Greater Accra Region to accommodate them, ideally somewhere with 4+ rooms. If you have any information on who can help, please get in contact with us or The Golden Foundation.
Current Project: Ataaso Project - #ProjectSanitation
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 to a local filthy water stream which due to weather conditions will soon be dried out. The community elders visited the commemoration of our previous Ntawadua water project last year and have appealed for us to help them, as access to clean safe drinking water is a major issue faced by those residing there.
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:
· Provide an immediate source of safe drinking water for Ataaso locals in order to reduce and prevent waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio.
· Provide sustainable solution by also reducing the burden on girls and women in the villages as a result to this issue so to encourage them to finish school.
Ghana News
As of June 28th, there have been 16,742 confirmed cases, 12,720 recoveries and 112 deaths of COVID-19. President Akufo-Addo continues to urge people to respect the protocols by wearing masks and adhering to social distancing. Additionally, it has also been recently announced that the incentive package given to healthcare workers in Ghana will be extended for a further 3 months. The restrictions placed on religious gatherings have been lifted and final year students have been able to return to school. However, the borders remain closed – so no trips to Ghana for a while unfortunately.
Parts of Accra were left flooded earlier in June due to heavy rain, leaving hundreds stranded and one dead. Please do keep Ghana in your prayers as many parts of the country are often severely affected during this time of the year due to rain.
June also saw at least 200 Ghanaian domestic workers being able to finally leave Lebanon and return to Ghana. Many of these individuals had experienced a lot of abuse whilst working there and as such, it is a great pleasure to see videos of them celebrating their freedom and ability to return back home. This is a major move as many Ghanaian and other African nationals often receive ill-treatment, alike to modern -day slavery, when working in Lebanon. A further 600 more domestic workers are due to also be evacuated from Lebanon within the next four weeks. This has been mainly due to the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several humanitarian NGO’s, such as This Is Lebanon.
On the 24th of June, many parts of Accra were affected by three tremors that have been measured as 4.2 on the Richter Scale. Mr Opoku, a senior Seismologist at the Ghana Geological Survey Authority, has warned that the country should prepare for a major tremor following these recent tremors. The last time that Ghana experienced a major earthquake was back in 1939, when an earthquake of a 6.5 magnitude struck the James Town area killing 17 people and injuring around 130 people.
(Sources: Citi FM, This Is Lebanon, My Joy Online, Ghana Web)