April 22nd, 2024
Arrived in Tamale Monday morning after boarding the AWA flight from Accra. Haruna picked us up again for the 7 hrs trip from Tamale to Jirapa.
April 23rd, 2024
Left Jirapa Dubai(Royal Cozy Hotel) at 8:45am. Mr Vitalis from Jirapa Municipality joined us, so we didn't go missing like we did on our way to Ping Elementary during our last donation, October 2023, right here in the Upper west region. We passed by the Jirapa Municipal assembly building and met the MCE lawyer Nicolas Soyiri, the municipal coordinating director Mr Ayariga, and presiding member of the assembly Mr. Benedit Ninfaazuma to see if we could get an official letter detailing their needs for any future donations.
Left the assembly at 9:15am, heading to Kogri. Took us 1 hour to arrive at Kogri from Jirapa, which isn't too far from the Burkina Faso Border both to the north and west. Kogri is a farming community. The main crops they  grow are yams, maize, millet, and sorghum. Water is very scarce here, so they practice seasonal farming.
While waiting for officials from the Ghana education service to show up, we were entertained by the Kogri Bawaa dance troupe (unfortunately wearing Manchester United  Jerseys).
The official handover ceremony started at 11.15 am. There were opening and closing prayers split between Christian and Muslims religions, speeches by the  Divisional Chief of Kogri, Ghana education Service, the Municipal assembly, the representative for the MP, Theo and I.
Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to build 144 dual desks to seat 288 pupils and 11 hexagonal tables and 62 chairs for a total of 350 kids of the entire school.
After all the speeches were given by the dignitaries, it was time to hand over the furniture at 1:30pm. Impact next Generation first handed over to the Municipal Director of Education(MDE) Â The MDE then handed the furniture over to the Divisional Chief of Kogri, who then in turn handed over the furniture to the Kogri School headmistress and head of the PTA.
Formalities concluded, Theo, Ibrahim, and I were presented with Smocks as an appreciation from the Kogri community and the divisional chief. The local MP was presented with 1 goat for his contribution of 1000 cedis to feed Ibrahim and his crew, who came from Navrongo to assemble the furniture. The community was also tasked with fixing the school windows, doors and re-surfacing the classroom floors before we handed over the furniture. Some work has been done in this regard for some of the classrooms with the Assembly man promising to complete the rest of the work. We did assure them that we will be monitoring the progress of this work. The municipal director of education was also presented with a goat. The circuit supervisor was presented with yams and a chicken.
The headmistress, school  management, and students also pledged to put the furniture to good use and also maintain them. We did stress to the community and the school, maintenance was key to preserving the furniture and the artisan (Ibrahim) should be contacted as soon as a bolt or a screw came off to fix the problem.
The program finally ended at 3 pm after photos and  with the kids singing their school song. The temperature had reached a balmy 106F/41C, and it was time to head back to Jirapa Dubai.
April 24th, 2024
8:30am. Embarked on the 7-hour drive from Jirapa to Tamale to catch the 5.30pm AWA flight back to Accra.
A massive thanks to all our donors, HOUSING DILEMMAS CIC (UK), AKWANTUPA ENTERPRISE and MEDIGREEN WASTE MANAGEMENT (USA).
Presentation of desks
