Registered Charity No: 1096242
   
email:
info@friendsoftafo.org

Friends of Tafo, PO Box 43826 London NW6 1XG

         
Friends of Tafo Newsletter AUTUMN 2004
 
Welcome to the fourth update on our achievements and plans: all made possible through the generosity of our friends.
 
The young people of Tafo are increasingly involving themselves in projects for their town. In this edition of our Newsletter we concentrate on some Health and Education initiatives being started by the youth groups.

News

Eye Clinic

The Youngsters Club proposed and organised the visit of an eye clinic to Tafo. FOT enabled the day's activities in a programme which necessitated wide-spread announcements and publicity followed by consultations for 500 patients, and helped with the cost of spectacles and medicines. A detailed log was kept and we would like to be able to help with further treatment required.
 
Diabetes
There is increasing concern in Tafo over the high incidence of diabetes and a lack of understanding of the illness. FOT is backing a Kwahu-Tafo Youth Association initiative to establish a sugar level testing clinic and dietary information programme in order to tackle the problem.
 
HIV/AIDS
The Tafo Students Union proposed an awareness day in partnership with Ghana AIDS Commission. They organised a carnival float to process through Tafo and neighbouring towns, climaxing in a series of talks in Tafo by speakers including health professionals and a local man living with AIDS (right). The events were attentively received by all age-groups in the town, and TASU is planning further programmes.

And next:

  • Revival of the impoverished Senior Secondary School, by raising funds to pay teachers and to provide a computer classroom.
  • Completing the next stage in rebuilding Kwahu-Tafo's vital administrative centre, already underway as a result of local municipal and individual contributions.
  • Provision of sanitation facilities for the many schools which need them.

Feedback

Humphrey Barclay, the TV producer of A Fine Romance, Desmond's and Spaced, who is Development Chief in Tafo, recently returned from a visit with the following update:

  • Photo competition: 450 children used donated disposable cameras for the first time to portray "Life in Tafo". Juliana Ansomah (age 13) wanted us to see "A couple with their children in abject poverty" (right). 

  • "Needy pupils": we will continue to provide bursaries for 200 students this coming academic year, thanks to generous funding from Accenture

  • Soap Making Workshop: in March FOT funded a training workshop which has resulted in a women's cooperative whose members are now making and selling several kinds of soap and detergent locally, with great success (see image below right).

  • Vacation classes: we have enabled an initiative by the Students' Union to run extra teaching for younger pupils during the long vacation.



 
Winning photo from 2004 Schools' photo competition
by Michael Addo
 
   
 
Above: a blind market seller
 
  
 
   
 
      
 
 

Friends of Tafo
Chair: Humphrey Barclay, Development Chief (Nkosuohene) of Kwahu-Tafo
Secretary: Georgina Owen; Treasurer: Benjamin Ntim; Trustees: Crispin Leyser,
Jules Leyser, Daisy East, Lizzie Pomeroy, Robert Taylor;
Committee Members: Colena Abbosh, Jessica Dallyn, John Ofori