Busa Tendamba,Tangaju Primary School/JHS Desk Project

Donation #18 IMPACT NEXT GENERATION (ING), 30th June to 2nd July at Busa Tendamba and Busa Tangzhu in WA (Upper West, Ghana), Written by Mr Kobina Amoako-Atta Hudson (Sailon)

This time on this trip, Dr. Theophilus Boafo-Yirenkyi and myself, Amoako-Atta Hudson, were joined by my sister and donor to ING, Ekua Mensima Hudson. This was her first trip with ING to the Upper West Region.

We arrived by PassionAir on June 30th by the 1hr 10min flight from Accra to WA early Monday afternoon. The three of us packed into an aboboya tricycle along with our carry-ons and backpacks for the 15-minute ride to Hotel Dellagio and checked in for the rest of the day. Surprisingly, we were overtaken by another aboboya overloaded with six people. Three of the passengers were sitting on the back seat, and two sitting on the front on either side of the tricycle driver, literally sharing the driver's seat.

Donation #18 was supposed to start at 1.30 pm on Tuesday, July 1st, the next day. So, on Tuesday morning, the 3 of us decided to tour WA before the donation. We hired a car and drove to Jirapa, 1 1/2 hrs north of WA to the Royal Cosy Hills Hotel for a Jungle Safari. We saw four white lions, a couple of 60 plus year old giant African tortoises, ostriches, serval cats, jackals, zebras, antelope, alpacas, hippos and many more animals.

We got back to WA by 12.30 pm, but the donation ceremony never happened in the afternoon. Eventually found out, the desks were not completely assembled and labelled yet. We had arranged to build the desk at Busa AMA JSS because they had power, but because they were not recipients of any of the furniture, they made it difficult for Ibraham the desk artisan and his team to access power to build the desks. Therefore, instead of the handing over ceremony that afternoon at Busa AMA JSS, we drove to the two schools that were scheduled to receive the desk donation (Busa Tendamba and Busa Tangaju).

Busa Tendamba is a 1 block school with 4 classrooms with hardly any furniture.

Next, we drove approximately 10 mins to Busa Tangzhu. As we pulled up, we saw some pupils carrying home their individual school furniture just like a backpack. Those that don't have any furniture just sit, read, write, and learn on the floor. Busa Tangzhu comprises of a JSS block and a kindergarten and primary block. Unfortunately, we discovered the kindergarten block also didn't have any furniture, so that deficit will need to be addressed at a future date.

As a result of ING being present in Busa, Busa AMA made power available to the building team on Tuesday evening. They worked through the night to label enough desks with the names of each individual donor. The building team also completed a few desks for a brief handing over ceremony scheduled on Wednesday morning.

The next morning, on Wednesday, July 2nd, the handing over ceremony was held at Market Square right in the center of Busa. Unlike past handing over ceremonies, there were no speeches, drumming, and dancing due to time constraints. We handed over the furniture to Ghana Education Service (GES), who then handed over to the Busa Naa (Chief of Busa), who then handed over to the heads and PTA of Busa Tandamba and Busa Tangaju. Zoroaster and I were presented with traditional blue smocks, and Mensima was presented with a traditional green woven scarf and cloth. We thanked them for the gifts and departed market square at 9.30am to catch our 11.30 am scheduled flight back to Accra.

In total, 120 dual desks was donated which was shared between Busa Tendamba, Busa Tangaju Primary and Busa JHS school. We still have some deficit in the dual desk donation so will have to go back.

A massive thanks to all our donors and Sowgreen (Ghana).

Presentation of desks