Ghana Together works with our Ghanaian friends of Western Heritage Home, a Ghanaian-registered and managed non-profit, to improve social, educational, and health conditions in Axim, Ghana. Together we accomplish projects, connect WHH to resourceful individuals and organizations, and create sustainable programs. We make a real difference to real people in a local, grassroots effort. Our website at http://ghanatogether.org tells our story.

Nov 26, 2019

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A TEAM!

Just TODAY we got the greatest news!

A few months ago we got a call from Paul LaGrange, a computer teacher at the Marysville, WA Mountain View Arts and Technology High School. He had a “gift”---more than 100 refurbished computer towers that had been donated by a local hospital!

Frankly, we were kind of skeptical! A “gift”?? Really? Should we even consider sending “junk computers” to AFRICA?? But we knew Paul! After all, he and his students had refurbished children’s computers for us in the past, and they are still working in what passes for the Axim, Ghana Children’s Library.


So…SURE, we’d take 110 refurbished computer towers with updated Microsoft Windows, newest open source office-type software, 220 volt electrical power capacity, and more. And since Paul is a genius teacher, he and his wonderful students got 110 of the towers to work perfectly. 








BUT, how to get them to Ghana? It was amazing! Wonderful Marysville FedEx folks taught us how to pack them in boxes properly. The School District had shipping pallets. Thanks to Dave A., FedEx’s social responsibility program kicked in to have them picked up at the high school and shipped to Maryland at no charge to us!


Students hauled in very large FedEx boxes

The towers had to be wrapped just so...
And there, Ebby Mienza., our Ghanaian ex-pat friend, worked with Prince & Sons Shipping who squished them into their container going across the Atlantic to Ghana at a very reasonable charge. And Prince managed to convince the good folks at the Port in Tema that computers for schools should be customs-free…


And from there James Kainyiah, our Western Heritage Home partner in Ghana, got them all the way to Axim. He sold some of them to buy screens and worked with Director Madame Safiatu Seidu and staff at the Community Development Vocational Technical School (CDVTI) in Axim to set up a newly-equipped computer lab, and…well, it's taken a long time to get all of this accomplished, but AS OF TODAY...


HERE WE ARE! 

CDVTI now has a beautiful new computer technology lab with updated computers! 


Oh the places he'll go....!!







We've been proud to help Western Heritage Home support CDVTI for many years. We fund tuition for about ten students a year. We've renovated both girls and boys dorms. We worked with local carpenters to provide beds, for the boys dorm.

We funded a urine diversification/dehydration toilet for the guys. We’ve hosted two workshops---one by Days for Girls and the other on leadership. We provided a set of about a hundred books on construction, electrical work, etc.


It’s been a good partnership and we see this computer lab as vital to preparing these students for their vocational training. Ghana is rapidly modernizing, and computer tech training is essential! 

Thank you so much to all who helped make this possible!! 






 808 Addison Place

Mount Vernon, WA 98273


Email: info@ghanatogether.org