Gary and Elenor Paisley visited GRID-NEA projects in Northern Ghana in February of this year. They had a fantastic time and have many stories to share. What follows are a few of the highlights from their trip, in their own words.

Our visit to Yaara had been declared a holiday, and while we sat under a large shade tree waiting to be greeted by the Elders there, the children just sat and watched us or wrestled around in the dirt for nearly two hours!

In Yaara the village honoured our visit by bringing us four huge pans of yams, two guinea fowl (live) and a smoked dried grasscutter (groundhog). Food is their most precious commodity and this was a very humbling experience. We were able to accept the gifts and pass them along to others in need.

In Yaara we met a young boy, Gideon, who is being raised by his grandmother. In an area where children have no toys to play with at all, he had made this tipper truck out of bits and pieces of tin and discarded flip flops. The school in this area cannot maintain regular classes, something that can hopefully be addressed in the future.

We received so many gifts during our visit, most of them being yams, a local food staple. The yams are peeled, cut up, boiled and then pounded into a sort of a paste called fufu which is served with a watery broth, perhaps containing small bits of meat or fish.

GRID-NEA are working in the Deg region, with the main project site based in the village of Carpenter. Their goal is to start development that is sustainable. One of the many projects that they have launched revolves around processing gari, which is a local staple porridge made from cassava. In the past, residents of the area sold the cassava at very low prices. Now, with NEA’s help, they have a gari production facility in Carpenter, which allows them to sell the processed gari at a much better price. The project employs women, who don’t have many job opportunities.

Most Deg people do not get enough protein to eat. GRID-NEA want to change this by creating fish ponds close to villages. These large ponds will not dry out during the dry season and thus can be stocked with fingerling fish. NEA trains village representatives to manage the pond so that it provides a sustainable source of protein. GRID-NEA have a long-term goal of creating similar ponds for many more villages.

To prepare for stocking fish ponds, NEA has constructed several large fish tanks, each capable of holding 1500 fish. Fingerlings can be matured in these tanks and then either sold to generate income for the project, or used to stock village fish ponds.

In another income-generating project, GRID-NEA are developing piggery. The pork is being purchased as fast as it can be produced, and there are interested buyers as far away as Accra. (Accra is about 9 hours by road from Carpenter.) A large refrigerated truck is now sitting in the port awaiting clearance of paperwork for release to GRID-NEA for use in such ventures.

Talbot Creek was challenged to give a Christmas gift to GRID-NEA. People generously responded, and the gift gives GRID-NEA the potential of purchasing a female goat for 30 women. The women are trained by a veterinarian in the care and feeding of the female goat and the agreement is that, after 3 kids are born, each woman agrees to give a female kid to another woman, training her in its care as she was trained, thus creating a self help chain so that much needed protein can be added to the local diet.

During our visit to Northern Ghana small bush fires were an everyday occurrence because it was the dry season. One particularly large bush fire totally destroyed a huge area, including banana and cashew farms as well as over 40 homes. Leaders in the area came to the Carpenter site of GRID-NEA seeking help and received a full pickup truckload of used clothing, some of which had been sent by Talbot Creek on a recent container.

Pastor John is still pastoring and worshiping in Carpenter, although he is now nearly blind. Several years ago a motorcycle was given to him by GRID-NEA to save him walking countless miles each week to the several churches in his circuit. The motorcycle has since been passed on to a younger pastor for continuing the work.