Abu's 2012 American Tour - Part Two

Events that show the way forward

It is often remarkable how many seemingly unrelated conversations, happenings, and chain of events can lead to yet another wholly new possibility to greatly improve life in the African community Moringa Community Ghana serves.

Cases in point

American Farm Corn Maze.Our trip to a local Corn Maze here in PA sparks evening conversations with Abu about the lack of anything to do after dark in Ghana. This leads to an idea for creating Movie & Game Night at Moringa to draw the community together and also to generate some modest income for MCST.

Halloween PumpkinsBeing here in Pennsylvania at Halloween and seeing Jack-o’-lanterns, Abu comments that some of the seed packets sent by American project supporters that grows particularly well in Ghana are pumpkins. While African’s are familiar with certain types of squash, they had no idea what to do with pumpkins. Linda then works with Abu on pumpkin processing and recipes, one of which is dried and baked pumpkin seeds that are an instant hit with Abu. Suddenly a new market potential is born.

Saw Making
Earlier in 2012, fellow woodworker and friend, David Diaman  started investigating the potential of saw making for the Moringa Community School of Trades. Although the Moringa woodworking program is built off of Mr. Jeffry’s Third World Machine Shop, the reality is that even though the machine is relatively inexpensive to make, not all African carpenters can afford even a basic machine. They can however afford handsaws and employ them all the time.
In his travels, David came across a contact that enabled him to secure an old Foley Manual Retoothing machine that will enable our students to make their own saws as well as recondition and rework old worn out saws to like new condition. David bought the machine for the project.

At left Abu is working the machine under Jeff’s instruction. This machine is now in Ghana and being put to use as a welcome addition to the many facets of our program.

Planning for Moringa Community School of Trades (MCST) to become fully self sustaining

 

Abu’s fall 2012 visit to America was focused on bringing the Moringa project full circle and our quest to make the NGO in Ghana one of the first organizations to achieve full self sustainability. The need to construct a student dormitory was clear as early as 2011 but despite the need many other infrastructure elements had to built and completed first before such an ambitious endeavor would be attempted. During Abu’s tour, plans were solidified on how we would bring the dream of what Abu calls our Youth Hostel life.

What also unfolded throughout the course of what we like to refer to as “Abu’s 2012 American Tour” was a better grasp on Abu’s part of how each program within the trade school’s umbrella had to take more responsibility for sustaining that individual department’s viability. Profit sharing and personnel motivational strategies were arrived at that will be implemented for the overall good of the Ghana NGO.