Welcome to the website of ADUMASA, a UK based charity, helping three small villages, Adumasa, Bedaase, and Chiransa, in the Ashanti region of Ghana, in West Africa. We are a Christian based charity and are a completely non-profit making organisation. We are always seeking new sponsors and donations to help the children in the villages from anyone and everyone worldwide.
ADUMASA was set up in 1994 to minister the love of God to the people of the Ashanti region of Ghana. Reg. Charity No. 1088297
Click for a larger image of this map of Ghana
Breaking News
Austrian and British students to visit Adumasa this Autumn, and will stay for between 2 and 6 months. The two Austrian students and three British students are to stay at our gusthouse in Adumasa and volunteer to help in and around our schools at Adumasa, Bedaase and Chiransa. We are hoping we can send out some sports kit and computer items with them, and if you have anything small and flat to send to your sponsor child I'm sure we can squeeze that in if you get it to us promptly (by mid Sept). The next planned visit will be in Spring 2012.
Recent News
Pam Latimer and Alice Knight have recently returned from a trip to Ghana. They took out over 85kg of items for the schools, including football kits from Exmouth Town Junior Football Club and toys from Exwick Ark Preschool. Whilst they were there the new Library, Kindergaten and playground at Chiransa was opened, and everyone got a lollipop!
Adumasa is now connected to the internet!!! Whilst we were there in March we managed to purchase and set up a mobile dongle attached to a router that will connect 4 computers to the internet... now the school wants to set up it's own website... we'll keep you posted. The IT room is to be opened to the public in the evenings & weekends so that the locals can learn how to use computers and the internet, this will be funded by users paying a small fee. Everyone is very excited about this development and it will enable our partner schools in the UK to contact their contempories in Adumasa much more easily.
We are to open a new Junior High School at Bedaase, which will also serve the children of Chiransa. It is hoped that by refurbishing an existing building that the first intake can start in September. This will mean far more children continue to secondary education as they will no longer have a long walk to the nearest JHS. Every one of the children in P6 at Bedaase wants to come to the new JHS and we are told the same applies to the children in P6 at Chiransa.
We are also to open a second stream of Junior High School at Adumasa, this is desperately needed as more and more children want to continue their education to at least JHS3; however, the Senior High School at Adumasa has to close to accommodate this proposal (the JHS will use the SHS classrooms), this was a hard decision but the Senior High School was struggling to attract and retain students and the Junior High School is turning students away. The students at the Senior High School (only 30) have been relocated to SHS's in Kumasi, and assistance has been provided where necessary. This enables us to focus on where we can do the most good with our limited funds, and will benefit the greatest number of students.
The next visit to Adumasa is planned for Oct 2011, when 3 students from Kingsbridge Community College are planning to go out for a couple of months. If you wish to send a small gift for your sponsor child, or money to purchase stationary items for all the students, then please contact us by mid September at the latest. We are always seeking sturdy plastic educational toys, e.g. Duplo, Lego, Stickle Bricks, shape sorters, etc, to take out for the children; we are also grateful to receive sports kits (we particularly need black football shorts) and other school related items, please contact us to find out more.
Bedaase Kitchen Appeal
Above - Blocks ready to start building the new Bedaase school kitchen.
Many of you will have seen photos of the old Bedaase kitchen facilities. The Chief and community at Bedaase requested that we help them to rebuild the old mud block building with a new concrete block purpose built school kitchen. We paid for the materials and the community made the blocks and built the kitchen. We sold 'blocks' at £1 a time to raise the funds we needed, and finally we have finished the building! The new kitchen even has a sink to wash up in, which will soon be supplied with water via a rainwater harvesting system. The cooks are very pleased with their new facilities!
We will still need more money to complete the buildings elsewhere; so please continue to help us by giving 'blocks' as an alternative gift this year, or better still set up a standing order to donate money to ADUMASA each month. You will literally be changing a childs life for a few pounds a month. If you can help please use the Contact Us page of this site, or download a donation form on the Help Us page and send it back to us.
Slightly older news....
Following on from Kingsbridge Community College, Thurlestone Primary School and West Alvington Primary School being awarded British Council money to set up an exchange programme with the schools in Ghana. The first trip by teachers from the UK to Ghana happened in February, with a return visit of teachers from Ghana in June 2010.The trip seems to have been much enjoyed by the British teachers, who were impressed by the level of commitment and the standards set by the Ghanaian teachers. The Ghanaian teachers also enjoyed their trip, and are keen to maintain links with the partner schools. Apparently there is to be a tomato growing competion between the schools in Ghana and the UK to see who can grow the largest tomato... watch this space!
Cards and Gifts
Why not order your greetings cards through ADUMASA this year, we have teamed up with Phoenix Trading to offer you a beautiful selection of greetings cards and accessories; Check out Pheonix Tradings website for more details of the cards available and to order online http://www.phoenix-trading.co.uk/web/aliceknight (opens in new window) . A minimum of 10% of all sales will go to the work of ADUMASA. For more details see the Gifts and Crafts page.
Newsletter
To see how the project has been getting along over the past few months, why not download our newsletter (*.pdf format). Other news of interest is now on the News section of this site along with alternative formats of this newsletter.
Registered charity no. 1088297.
