The recent floods that struck Ghana did not spare the Abakam community in which a CRAN sponsored school is situated. The CRAN Abakam Presby School was completely flooded and the situation was so bad that the school had to be closed down for some few days until the flood waters subsided. The floods came after two days of torrential rains had caused massive water flow from upstream into the low-lying areas of Abakam which is located on the estuary of the Kakum River. The school resumed after one week and was able to complete the lessons for the term and has since gone on vacation. It was the first time in 44 years that such level and intensity of flooding had caused severe havoc in the Abakam village. A number of the community members had their mud and thatched houses destroyed as a result and had had to be assisted by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) of Ghana with some relief items. The situation is now over and life has since returned to normal in the Abakam community.

In a related development, the CRAN Shama-Kedzi Methodist School also had to break for about a week because of the floods. In the case of Shama-Kedzi, the school itself was not flooded, however, the only dirt feeder road to the school which also connects to the village from the rest of the world, was completely taken over by the floods and it was impossible for anybody to cross. After a week when the water had subsided, the school resumed but without the little children; classes one to three pupils were still asked to stay at home for the rest of the term because the flood waters in the way was still too deep for them to cross over.

The Coordinator of CRAN Germany, Mr Hans Wallhäuser and his wife Anna paid a two-week working visit to CRAN Ghana in their bid to familiarise themselves with the progress of CRAN Ghana as a whole as well as finding out the difficulties that are facing the organisation and how to tackle those problems. The Coordinator was in the Volta Regional Branch for about a week to see at first hand the progress of work there. He later came to the head office to interact with staff and project beneficiaries. He and the wife took the opportunity to visit both old and newly completed projects as well as those that are still under construction.

At the end of the visit he acknowledged that a lot has changed since he last visited CRAN some five years back (as a single man then). He thanked the Management and all the staff for their dedication to work and hoped that when his colleagues in Germany hear and see the pictures, they would be encouraged to do all they can to support CRAN’s work in Ghana. They have since returned to Germany.

CRAN has been at the forefront of promotion of earlier childhood development education in many rural communities in the main regions in which we operate. Many activities have been undertaken to support pre-school programme in several rural people including construction of KG blocks, provision of furniture, books, teaching aids, etc.

In the month of February, CRAN has been able to provide thirty tables and sixty benches for the KG children of the Shama-Kedzi. Shama is one of the communities located in the Ahanta-East District of the Western Region in which CRAN’s activities on education has been prominent. The provision of the furniture became necessary as the old tables and chairs for the children which were provided long ago had become out of use. As a result, some of the children were not able to sit in school while other had to sit on the broken chairs and tables, others still carry their own tables and chairs from the house to the school and back each day. The provision of the new furniture will go a long way to help solve the sitting problem at the centre while creating a congenial atmosphere for teaching and learning.

Three main social and micro enterprise projects which began in November 2006 are progressing gradually and hopefully they should be completed in the month of February 2007. The projects being a three-classroom KG block for the people of Ohiaba and a ten-seater water closet (WC) project for the people of Asebu all in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central Region. The other is the provision of modern facilities for palm oil processing as well as modern shed with a store room and an office for a group of people who are engaged in palm oil production. This group is base at Jukwa Koforidua in the Cape Coast District of the Central Region.

The projects are being carried with contribution from the community members who are contributing stones, sand and labour as the policy of CRAN stands that any community in which we shall carry out a project must agree to provide these facilities before the project starts. The main idea behind this policy is to compel community members to play active part in projects that come to them and to erase the perception that NGOs have money to shower on people. It is also to save cost from our limited resource so that we will be able to reach out to more groups of people. Soon after these projects two other projects will begin, a gari project as well as a three classroom KG block.