News

May 2010

Online donations are back please click here or go to the "Contact & Support" page.

Also we have our 2009 annual report written by our trustee Denise Lapore, please click here to view.

January 2009

Musicians and dancers celebrate passing out of weavers and seamstresses trained in our workshops.

July 2008

In July 2008, a founding trustee of Sandema Charity, Patrick Heinecke, received the Ghana Professional Achiever Award for "His outstanding contribution to the wellbeing of Ghana and its people."

31st March 2008

Our Radio Station

Our community radio station, Radio Builsa 106.5 FM, was officially opened on 31st March 2008. Financed jointly by the embassies of France and Germany, it has a broadcasting studio, transmitter room, 136 ft. mast, production room and reception area. It is run largely by volunteers from the local community which it serves by fostering community identity, enlightening and entertaining. It aims to create awareness of social, economic and political issues and to increase local participation in decision-making. Broadcasting mainly in the Buli language helps bridge the gap between the literate and the illiterate. The station's motto is 'Voice to the Voiceless.'

FLOOD UPDATE

Thank You!

With the £3,000 you donated to help the victims of the flood, we distributed 7,000 kilos of grain and 15 bags of cement to remote hamlets worst hit by the flood. Our charity is particularly grateful for the generous fundraising effort at Oya Saturday School for African children on the Grahame Park Estate, Barnet.

August/September 2007 - FLOOD DISASTER

In late August and early September 2007 torrential rain destroyed most farms and more than a third of all homes in Sandema. Thereafter no more rain fell; so the little that remained of the crops withered and died. There is a real threat of famine over the coming years. There has been only a trickle of emergency food aid.

Many of the homeless are traumatised and sheltering in public buildings and other grossly overcrowded places including the hospital struggling to treat mothers and babies suffering from pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea.

Fortunately, Sandema Educational Resource Centre's premises survived the floods. Our educational activities are continuing, albeit at a reduced rate. We are distributing emergency supplies of food to the flood victims. We will assist people in rebuilding their homes by providing building materials and food for the builders.

Grain storage destroyed.	Homes destroyed.
Roofs destroyed.	Roads destroyed.
A homeless woman without food	A Homeless family

July 2007 - New Website

Thanks to the voluntary help of Max O'keefe in London we have been able to produce this updated website, thanks Max!

April 2006 - Drama and Music

While the more traditional classroom education continues, we have innovated by adding popular theatre. Villagers, who have had no formal education and can't read or write, are trained in drama. The project manager suggests a theme and the actors create their own play. Typical themes are education of girls, witchcraft, political empowerment of women, alcoholism, urban migration, health care etc. On the appointed day, in the shade of a tree, drummers announce a performance about to start. A large crowd gathers. As the play proceeds, the spectators from time to time burst out laughing. It's entertainment as well as educational. And there is always a moral. After about an hour the play's end is followed by drumming, flute playing and dancing. There are three performing troupes; one in Sandema and two in the remote villages of Chuchiliga and Zareng.

February 2006 - Accommodation for Visitors

In February work began on building a guest house where visitors to the centre will be comfortably accommodated. This project is being financed mainly by a charity in Germany.