To make a really big difference in Ashanti, you might like to think about taking responsibility for helping a whole village into development. This can be done in many ways and the cost is as long as a piece of string, but our preferred method is as follows.
First we take you on a visit to Ashanti, where you choose a village, taking account of size and cost. You spend time talking to the Chief and Elders and the Village Council about how they would like their village to develop, with Ashanti Development alongside to advise. Together, we draw up a plan for developing the village.
Back in Europe, you give us the money as and when suits you. We will spend it exactly in line with your agreement with the village, and send you photographs and reports of the outcome. Or you’d be very welcome to make another visit and see for yourself what a change you’ve made.
The first person to Develop a Village was an Irish friend of ours, Daire, who asked her friends to donate money they would otherwise have spent buying her wedding presents to the village of Old Daamang. Old Daamang is a slum village on the outskirts of the town of Mampong. A few years ago it became impossible to cultivate cocoa, its traditional crop, so most of the villagers went to live elsewhere. The ones who were left behind were the poorest of the poor and barely able to survive.
Sadly, Daire is now very ill, so the village decided to send her a video of their thanks, which you can watch below.
Later, the 2,500 strong village of Bimma was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Leigh and then the 1,000 people living in Adutwan, were sponsored by Antonella Sinopoli, co-founder and director of Ashanti Development Italia. The people of Adutwan told her of recent deaths from childbirth and snakebite, where the people could have been saved if medical help had been quickly available. As a result, she has raised funds for a clinic and has recently returned from Ashanti where she helped to supervise the work. You can follow her blog here
In January 2012, we decided to set up a formal Develop a Village scheme to see if other people would like to help in the same way. Before we’d even had any publicity, eight new villages had been sponsored. Most sponsors were private individuals, but one company decided to donate half of the initial cost on condition its staff and clients together found the other half. We hope this initiative will eventually make a real difference to the whole area.
