Community Project 1st May 6 weeks - Location and History

Our 1st May 6 week project is in a village called Shia. The village is situated 25km east of Ho, the capital of the Volta Region. It has a population of 3000 people 70% of whom are under 18 years of age. The people of Shia are predominantly peasant farmers, although a few of them engage in cocoa and mango farming and petty trading. Before 1983 when bush fires destroyed 90% of their cocoa farms, the cocoa industry accounted for about 80% of the income of Shia inhabitants. The affected farmers are unable to rehabilitate their farms because of old age and financial constraints and the consequence of their reduced income is a huge constrain on the socio-economic development of the community.

Shia is approximately 4 hours drive north east of Accra. The village itself is on the Ghana-Togo border and is accessible by car. There is a well equipped clinic in Shia opposite the Secondary school which has a full time nurse although no doctor, with the main hospital being in nearby Ho. In Ho we run our more urban Madventurer medic, orphanage, teaching and sports coaching placements.

The people of Shia approached John Lawler in 1998, a gap year student taking time out in Ghana at the time for support, and Madventurer was founded a year later to help bring volunteers to the village. From 1999 through to 2004 there were a number of Projects completed which included a new kindergarden, public toilets, building and renovating classrooms in all the schools in Shia which focussed on health and education issues. Since then Madventurer has worked in hundreds of villages worldwide, but many of which are still in the Volta Region of Ghana, undertaking Projects of a similar nature.

The May 2010 Project has mark the return to Shia for Madventurer from where it all began, and this Projects which have been put forward by the village development committee to help renovate and resource a Computer Training facility, and also to build a new Technical Block for the Senior Secondary School, which will extend the educational focus of Madventurer into income generation projects. These will be used to train students at the Senior School in vocational skills which will enable them to find work after they finish school.

Food and Accommodation

Justice Avudzivi, is our host, and he has kindly offered to host the whole group of Madventurers in his house. The boys in one room whilst the girls stay in the other, with our crew staying in a separate room. Justice is a much respected village elder with years of experience working on Ghanaian-led development projects and income generation initiatives for people in the village. The house is very comfortable and has a large sitting area where the group will spend the majority of their time when not out in the village. It works very well having a communal space of this type especially in the evenings and at meal times. The majority of food is bought in Ho once a week when we come back from a weekend as the markets in Ho are much more plentiful.

Project work

Before volunteers arrived local crew prepared the project build.Money was sent in advance to buy the materials needed to start the foundations to the new Technical Block, digging, mixing cement and binding wire with the masons, and generally helping out with all labour surrounding the Project site. It is anticipated that much of the block work can be finished in the first phase of the Project with the remaining superstructure being finished by the next Project group in July given the scope of the work needing to be done.

Alongside the building work on the Techinical Block, which will be adjacent to the main school but a separate building, there has also been the opportunity to get involved in teaching at the various schools in the village of which there are kids of all ages.

The playground built by MAD volunteers in 2002 has now eventually fallen into disrepair and the ropes for the swings etc have been taken. As a side project at the Kindergarden it would be very useful to re-establish a playing area for the younger kids of the village and bring back this exciting facility.

Shia has a fantastic relationship with Madventurer. John lawler (Operations chief) and Elaine Lawler are Development Chief and Development Queen of the village. John and Elaine were married in Shia in 2006 which also marked a historic occasion in Ghana at the time.

If you would like to get involved in our July project in Shia then just get in touch on 0845 121 1996 to check availability - Mad HQ