SabreNews

June 2011

issue seven

Reg Charity 1105489

Akwaaba

Bus Run

Ghana Athletics Tour

Summer is finally here bringing with it our annual bout of outdoor fundraising activities From now through until August you can catch up with the Sabre UK team at a variety of events each one geared towards helping us achieve our goals and raising our profile

The last few months have been something akin to the calm before the storm as we prepare for another busy summer of school expeditions to Ghana These will see 225 kids and their expedition leaders visit the KEEA Municipality and get involved with projects in a host of rural communities We have already had something of a pre-season start when Batuvia High School visited Ayensudo over Spring Break Therersquos an excellent account by one of the US students of the trip on our blog that is well worth a read and shows the impact of what such a trip can have

We are also entering into our busy volunteering period as well and we look forward to welcoming everyone coming to help over the course of the summer School is still in term until late July and afterwards we will once again be encouraging a summer school over the school holidays Construction volunteers will be able to really see progress on the Ayensudo kindergarten build as they help us to complete it by the Autumn

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UK Diary

The Athletics Tour to Ghana was a huge success with the two sets of young athletes forming a really tight knit group over their 14 days in Ghana

Under the watchful eyes of UK Coaches Nana and Joshua from Letrsquos Get Fit For Sports and local coaches Mr Bonnie and Timo the students were really put through their paces with a warm weather (warm for the UK athletes at least) training camp that worked on core muscle groups and event specific techniques

The tour culminated in a competition day where the athletesrsquo progress was clear for all to see the majority of events were won by the Ghanaian athletes but there were also some notable standout

performances amongst the UK tourists In addition to their training the athletes worked on a long jump infrastructure project at Edinaman Senior High School building a jump pit and run up track which will leave a legacy for future aspiring athletes in the district

This tour would not have been possible without the financial support of Jamie Procterrsquos Foundation and we would also like to extend our thanks to Alison Eastman and Storm Trentham who were instrumental in preparing and managing the tour and everyone at Stumble Inn who looked after the athletes so brilliantly in Ghana

For further information on the tour see our blog

For three weeks from 3rd May ten intrepid travelers drove overland through seven countries from Gibraltar to Ghana Beth Warnock described the adventure as ldquoa trip of a lifetimerdquo and a longer account of their journey can be found on our blog

April 5th saw our container packed full of educational resources arrive in Takoradi After a long process of bureaucracy and managing to obtain tax exemptions from Customs and Excise we were eventually allowed to offload it on 18th April The resources are destined for a variety of local schools within the KEEA District over the coming weeks

June 12th - Marlow Town Regatta Dragon Boat Festival

June 23rd - IPFA Quiz

June 25th - Reigate Priory Community Festival

July 2nd - Cafeacute Africa Charity of the Month launch

July 22nd - Reach Cambridge Community Day

Ayensudo Update

Volunteering

Contact UsUKThe Old DairyUnit 5South Lodge CourtIronsbottomSurrey RH2 8QGT +44 (0) 2032 399 476

GhanaPO Box 329ElminaCentral RegionGhanaWest AfricaT +233 (0) 247 919 469

Webwwwsabretrustorg

Emailtrustsabretrustorgvolunteersabretrustorg

Training Site

Proverb

ldquoIf you do not travel you will not seerdquo - Ama Yahans

Reciprocal Teacher VisitsIn late March Ghanaian teachers Comfort Awuku and Joseph Bosomtwe came to the UK on reciprocal teacher visits to spend time in their UK partner schools Whilst they were here they experienced a British

teaching environment and worked with their UK counterparts on developing projects to enhance and embed the partnerships in both schools

Comfort was hosted by Sir William Perkins School in

Over the last three months we have had 15 volunteers working on both the Ayensudo kindergarten build and teacher assisting and learning activities in Besease Bantuma and Ayensudo As part of our ongoing commitment to improving literacy in KEEA having the volunteer numbers to help out in teacher assistant roles over several communities has been fantastic allowing the schools to split pupil group sizes up ensuring those falling behind are given the attention they need Several of our recent volunteers have also offered to take part in our sponsorship programme allowing the most brilliant but needy students the chance to shine Read more about the students involved on our scholarships blog

We have recently appointed Dominic Appiah as our Training Site manager A KNUST graduate Dominic will be overseeing the transition of it from bush land to a fully-functioning hub of activity supporting Sabrersquos core objectives Over the next month we will trial our ldquonew to Ghanardquo bamboo treatment method which we hope will pay dividends in the future allowing us to increase the longevity of bamboo as a viable building material This will be coupled with the planting of the first stage of our bamboo plantation an effort to realise a fully sustainable process from start to finish Elsewhere around the site we have begun to clear the land put in a proper access road and create a fire break The foundations have also been laid for a site office and a secure store room has been built adding to the bamboo stores built last year

Now in itrsquos 20th week of construction the Ayensudo kindergarten is really beginning to take shape The photo journal on our SmugMug page documents the journey to date and allows you to see the ambitious scale of the task in hand ably managed by our resident site engineers Joseph Stables (ARUP) and Lawrence Mensah (Sabre)

Project sponsors Tullow Ghana Ltd have also had a significant presence taking a close interest in every aspect of the project from looking after site personnel to the detailed processes involved in running a project of this size

The community remains fully engaged with work gangs coming on a daily basis The ladies assist one

or two days a month and our latest scheme - school work experience afternoons which allow older students the chance to take an interest in the construction profession giving them hands-on experience is proving a great success Do get in touch if you would like to get involved

Surrey and Joseph visited Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire

Both teachers enjoyed their visits immensely and returned to Ghana armed with fantastic ideas to help the partnerships develop