Hermione's Trip to Ghana

News - Oct 12

I’d like to thank everyone who donated items for me to take to Ghana this summer. I was overwhelmed with the generosity here at Colyton and I am thrilled to say that I took pretty much everything with me (I had to leave a few of the heavier books). Due to the huge amount donated, I couldn’t keep track of what each person gave, and so I took pictures when we distributed to different schools.  

It was a pleasure to see children and adults alike so thrilled with receiving your donations  and something I will never forget. In particular, the stationery and small toys were very well received. The toys were popular and provided hours of entertainment! Each class in the 7 primary schools received pencils and something else such as a ruler or colouring book. All classes received a giant world map for the wall and a collection of first aid items to put in the Headteacher’s office. 

I gave three talks about menstruation with all the donated sanitary items. This included talking about personal hygiene (specifically sanitary hygiene), how to use tampons and answering lots of questions which were tabooed by the culture. Most girls had a very limited understanding of the human body and had never even heard of tampons, so it took quite a while to explain. Cultural beliefs also meant that facts were often not believed. We would gather all the girls from one school and sit in a classroom to give the talk, and each girl was given a selection of sanitary items to try out.  

The donated medical supplies were especially useful. Most of them were given to Projects Abroad to take on outreach visits with future volunteers, as this is how every person in each community accesses first aid treatment.  Surprisingly the minor ops kit was put to very good use, so to whoever donated that, thank you very much! We used the kits when helping a man who had a lot of very large open wounds on his ankles which needed dressing every other day and these were amazing for making the space more sanitary.

Hermione C