Sabre Chat Welcome to Our Newsletter AKWAABA! Welcome to Sabre’s newsletter. With so many exciting things going on and the charity growing from strength to strength we feel the need more than ever to let everyone know what is happening regularly. With that in mind we’d love to hear from you with ideas of what you would like covered as well as fundraising events, stories of your time in Ghana, donation news and fundraising successes. Just drop us an email - louise@sabretrust.org
Silver Surfers
Friday May 18th was a very exciting day for the partnership between Chesham High School and Brenu Ackyinim community. Six senior citizens and eight pupils were invited to take part in a web conference with eight elderly and eight pupils from Chesham. As part of their Adult Education Week Chesham had in-
vited the older community to discuss some inter-generational issues. Questions included ‘what do you think, as young people, the senior citizens contribute to your life?’ The answers from Brenu reflected the strengh that education and religion play in the community with the older generation keeping an eye on the young and their attendance of both school and church! There is clearly still a strong respect held for the elderly here. An interesting question from one lady in Chesham was ‘do all children have access
Upcoming events
Donation News
After the huge success of last year’s Dragon Boat Race event, we’re doing it again due to popular demand! Afterall we did have the winning team! Please come and
support the teams on a very exciting 14th June in Marlow, Bucks. For more details, to book a paddle or donate please visit Sabre Events.
Last month saw the arrival of six men from Coventry for a week to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. Before their arrival in Ghana to help build a kindergarten school, they spent many months collecting donations. As keen footballers they focused on football kits as well some school supplies. On the final day of their project everyone was invited to the school where they presented their donations to very excited staff and pupils. It really was fantastic to watch the awe with which bag upon bag was opened to reveal football shirts, socks, balls, books and educational
to school and are they supported by their parents?’ which sitting here in Ghana highlighted some of the misconceptions that Africa can hold. Education is incredibly important to Ghanaians and all children have the opportunity to attend school. On the whole parents see the benefit of education and encourage their children’s attendance. Perhaps where it differs is that in Ghana everyone has to pay for their education and this can be incredibly difficult for the poorer families. Read more by clicking on:
www.sabretrust.org
Sabre Charitable Trust Registered Charity No.: 1105489
Issue 1 APRIL 2009
Who’s who in Sabre
Aubrey Malcolm-Green is the SCT Operations Director based in Ghana and is responsible for almost everything that happens on the ground. Dominic Bond is the Development Director based in the UK and is primarily responsible for Sabre’s corporate sponsorships, grant applications and school partnerships. Tom Malcolm Green is the newest member of staff, although his association with Sabre goes back to 2004 as he volunteered on our first Overland Expedtiion. He now looks after volunteer management and communications.
Hello To
materials. When it can be a struggle for many schools to provide any resources the importance and delight at receiving these amazing donations is very evident. There are now a lot of proud colourful footballers at the school! A huge thank you to ‘Chief’ (the birthday boy was given a chiefs ceremony!) Jag and his team.
The new school term begins with the arrival of 10 new volunteers from different corners of the world - The USA, Canada and Britain again feature heavily! Goodbye To
We bid farewell to three volunteers from the Dwabor Sustainable Kindergarten project - 10 Davis Langdon Volunteers have now completed four weeks of hard work on a transformed site - thank-you for your sterling efforts.
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SIGN OF THE MONTH
Lost in translation Conversations can be interesting or just confusing here! Take the following conversation: Where do these crocodiles come from? From Burkina Faso and a river far from here. How far? Oh, near far...
Sabre Snapshot
Sabre Stories New school design & build
For the last year SCT has been supported by Davis Langdon (DL) as their charity of the year. One of the most exciting things to happen from the partnership is the design of a new sustainable Kindergarten building. Dwabor, a rural community in the Cen-
Thank you Unfortunately we can’t write a personal thank you to everyone here, there just isn’t enough room! We would however like to say a couple of thank you’s for two very interesting and important reports that were carried out recently by volunteers and will go far to help with future projects. Firstly thank you to Joe Fishburn and Amalia Hordern for their report on the Sabre Charitable Trust Health Scoping Project in Egyiekrom, one
tral Region, was highlighted by the District Education Office as being in desperate need of a Kindergarden. DL together with Arup and Forge Architects as well as A-kon Consultants and Artilier Architects here in Ghana have designed a sustainable building using local materials as well as considering light and airflow. Work started from scratch, including clearing the land by hand, last month. It has now been levelled and
the laying of foundations is soon to start. Every week volunteers from DL and Arup are coming and going for what is an incredibly exciting project. To follow it’s progress take a look at Kindergarten Project.
of the villages Sabre is involved with. Joe and Amalia researched local health issues and concerns especially for those of kindergarten age. They also looked at current provision of healthcare and the forms this takes. Our other thank you is to Ian Vincent. Ian wrote a discussion document regarding drainage and related health issues in another of Sabre’s communities, Besease. Ian also oversaw the laying of the
drainage system around the new kindergarten building that Sabre helped build. Not one to rest on his laurels, he has also designed a new dining room building! Thank you once again for all your hard work and dedication.
A final Word From - “The Besease Wanderers“
FBI FILES Introducing a small clip of life in Ghana as seen through the eyes of Finlay, Barnaby and Isabel. According to Finlay we need the carpenter to come and fix (fit) a carp (carpet)... They have been known as ‘Feline’ ‘Barbi’ and ‘Jezabel’ amongst other names.
Football as we know speaks a universal language. Every community here seems to have a football team and Besease is no different. It was noted by past volunteers that the local team didn’t have a strip though and had to rent it from their rivals. Interest started to dwindle in the game and there was no pride in those who did play. It was then that Steven Cole, a construction volunteer, stepped in. He contacted his dad, Eric,
back in the UK and together as a collective family ‘Cole’ project managed to organise the donation of many strips courtesy of the fantastic Sandbach United. Not only kit arrived but footballs too and the team were soon excitedly training for the first match in their new strip. And the score I hear you ask, 2-1 to Besease of course, so winners all round! The Cole family should feel very proud
of giving Besease more than just kit; They have given them back their sense of pride, joy, wellbeing and community which is what it’s all about. Thank you.
In the Next Issue: The Snow Leopard, Snapshot of the SCT office in Ghana, The March Bus Run and more exciting project updates.
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Sabre Stories