Spring visit to Ghana: March 22-April 2, 2010

I'm getting ready for my spring visit to Ghana. I'll be joined there by WC board member Susan Kraeger, After all the bureaucratic hassle of the organization's incorporation and pursuit of NGO status last year, we are both looking forward to simply(??!!) concentrating our attention on our program and projects.

We are about to have improvements made on the well at the school in Doblo Gonno. The high demand for water on this well has led to temporary outages as use overwhelms the recovery rate of the well. A lot of futile pumping of the hand pump has led to a lot of wear and repair, too. We are hoping that a diesel powered automatic pump (there is no electric power in Doblo Gonno) which will feed a small polytank will alleviate the problem. Users will draw the tank down and it will be refilled intermittently as the well will allow. We want to go over the plans for the improvements and be sure that the school officials are ready to assume responsibility for the operation of the system.We will also be reviewing the findings of the hydrogeologist who should be conducting tests next week as to site suitability for a new well in Fise. We will be developing a plan for the development of the well and for its use and maintenance with community leaders.

We have revamped the loan program, making it smaller and, we hope, easier to manage. We want to consult with clients and our board members as to revised rules and policies governing the loan program. How do we improve the rate of loan repayment? What do we do about clients who fall seriously ill, die, or have a family member die? These are the kinds of practical issues before us. One group of clients, "Sophia's group," has a nearly perfect record of repayment. We hope to get to know Sophia and the members of her group better and to learn what it is about them that makes them such impeccable clients!

As always, we will be doing our "due diligence" checking our records. Part of our time will be spent on staff development. We will be introducing the new printable calculators, a small laptop for Rita, and assisting Mike in learning some basic accounting. The procedures we implemented last spring for collection and reporting of data have worked remarkably well. We will continue to refine and adapt our tools and procedures and to educate our very willing staff of two.

We have purchased a small video camera for use in Ghana. If the internet gods over Africa, (very capricious), are looking upon WC favorably, I will be supplying the blog with some video! Stay tuned.....