Ashanti Development’s mission is to relieve poverty and promote health and development in and around the village of Gyetiase in the Ashanti Region of Ghana by means including the provision of safe and accessible water.
During the summer of 2007, over two hundred Ashanti men contributed their labour free of charge to build the ground floor of a two-storey clinic/hostel in Gyetiase. Building costs were cut substantially, and the work was finished in record time. The new building will be used for several purposes. First, it will be staffed by a state registered midwife or nurse, who will provide general healthcare and teach the villagers about health through occasional workshops. Second, it will provide a base for specialist eye care health workers; Ashanti Development is currently sponsoring two village women for five months training at Kumasi Komfo Anonkye Hospital. When their course is complete, they will live in Gyetiase, provide general eye care and screen the villagers for cataracts and other operable sicknesses. Kumasi Hospital will then send its mobile van to the clinic to perform multiple cataract or other eye operations. Operations will be funded thanks to the generosity of UK opticians, Spec Savers. London Spec Savers Branches have offered to finance one thousand cataract operations, making an enormous difference to the recipients’ quality of life. Spec Savers will also provide a full range of eye testing equipment for the clinic, together with recycled, graded, second-hand spectacles from their London stores.In time, the clinic will also be used to enhance the training of outreach health workers, trained at Ashanti Development’s expense and stationed in many of the villages around Gyetiase. These health workers will be equipped with mobile phones and able to summon hospital transport when necessary.Finally, the second floor, which has still to be built, will be used to house teachers and other volunteer workers from the UK who may visit Gyetiase from time to time – This is the floor with which we are tasked to design
A small team is now assembled for the Ashanti Development’s scheme in the village of Gyetiase in the Ashanti Region of Ghana but we really need a sustainability consultant – if you are one and are interested in getting involved in this great scheme you know what to do (and please note the project name on your email).
Below PDF forms the AFHUK initial briefing document, early designs are underway and this page will be updated as the scheme proceeds.