Community Development Project - Additional Info

Kwahu-Tafo is one of a group of towns on the high Kwahu plateau, about three hours' drive to the north of the capital Accra. It has approximately 5,500 inhabitants. However, there is around 80% unemployment - virtually no income. This in turn means that many children cannot attend school for lack of money for books and uniforms, and many of the schools are in a poor physical and financial state. The indigenous language is Twi, one of the Akan family of languages.

Kwahu is the name given to both the area and the local tribe, the Kwahu people having established their identity when they separated from the belligerent Ashanti Empire and removed to the mountain range that lies between the Ashanti capital Kumasi and the great expanse of the Volta Lake. 

Areas of Focus

• Education
• Job Creation
• Infrastructure

Education – Completed Projects

• Restoration of the Senior Secondary School from one tumble-down classroom block with four pupils and no professional teachers; to a Government-recognised Senior High school, with two classroom blocks, computer lab, electricity, running water, administration building, library, dining hall, professional staff, sports field, and 500 students - who in 2007 achieved 100% passes in their final exams, with six of them achieving University grades. In response to this, the Ghana Education Service is adding a two-storey Science building at the school, planning an 18-classroom block, and has just donated a school bus.
• Equipped all four Junior High Schools with computer labs having 42 computers each

• Provided electricity for all junior high schools
• Founded Girls Science Club
• Funded Needy Pupils for past five years
• Funded our first 2 University admissions
• Painted SDA Primary School and Kindergarten
• Subsidised vacation classes or all students in junior high school
• Provided printer, computers, laptops, projector, screen, DVD play and sound equipment  

Education – Ongoing Projects

• Building a Home Econ block for the town’s senior high school (Food and Nutrition unit: £8,000)
• Rebuilding Islamic school’s primary and kindergarten units.

Education – Future Projects

• Build two Home Economic units (Management in Living / Fashion and Dressmaking: £8,000 each): equip all three units (total £4,700)

• Establish on-going University Bursary Fund
• Convert six Primary classrooms to computer labs for already donated computers (£5,500 each), and train more computer teachers
• Build a Central Science Lab for Primary and JHS   
• Provide a library in each school         
• Provide resources, furniture, sports kit, mowers, educational audio equipment, TVs and DVD players for all schools

Job Creation – Completed Projects 

• Held craft training classes in tie and dye, batik, bead-making, stone-carving, soap-making, and bee-keeping 

Job Creation – Ongoing Projects

• Funding training in rearing of grasscutter (a large edible bush rodent)

Job Creation – Future Projects

• Fund acquisition for KTDC on behalf of the community’s sustainable development of 30 acres of Almond Tree growing for TRAGAG, the farmers’ association  (Tropical Almond Growers Association of Ghana) which is linked to Tafo citizen Sam Hope’s Edible Oil project which has major Government and Millennium Challenge backing (cost: £850 per acre, to include first three years’ cultivation programme).
• Establish leatherwork training centre for disabled and others: cost £6,000.
• Invest in tourism, for which Tafo has natural potential.
• Establish ‘The Helping Hand Fund’, a Professional Training, Apprentice, Business Start-Up and Trade Expansion Fund. Applications already tabled are from a disabled cake-maker, a tailor, a cane-weaver and a would-be instant picture photographer (more and more in demand as pupils are required to supply photos).
• Set up a fish farm

Infrastructure/Quality of Life – Completed Projects

• Built Community Library
• Provided 75 bicycles at £12 each
• Founded Royal Music Academy
• Held Schools photography competition to portray “Life in Kwahu-Tafo”
• Established annual Choral Competition

• Held Art and Play Competitions to mark Ghana’s 50 th anniversary
• Built a 3-seater WC and washroom + urinal at the Senior High School
• Built 10-seater WC and washroom for Presbyterian School

• Built a urinal at Methodist JHS
• Repaired eight of the town’s wells  

Infrastructure/Quality of Life – Ongoing Projects

• Initiating Art Club
• Establishing a year round “Love Life” programme to cover HIV/AIDS, STDs, teenage pregnancy, and general health issues such as malaria, diabetes etc
• Building WCs and washrooms for Islamic Primary and Kindergarten
• Dredging the town’s river
• Cleaning up the town’s wells, and planting pumps and boreholes

 Infrastructure/Quality of Life – Future Projects

• Build a Community Centre
• Set up an internet connection
• Rebuild the town’s athletics ‘stadium’
• Provide a children’s playground
• Fund Drama Group