May was a unique month for the MORE Institute and PPPF USA and all our adopted families. This is because a completely new approach to adopting families called the MORE Village concept was launched. Thirty adopted families from one town displayed their produce and the items they have received from the MORE program and some families received their final enterprises on the MORE thermometer. May also marked the beginning of the major rainy season when the ‘rains have come to stay’ so all farming work gets to its peak. A couple of refresher courses were therefore run for the families to discuss lessons from their MORE farms and this was followed by post training visits. The Big News for Ghana now is that US President Barak Obama is to visit Ghana in mid July and even Adopted Families and all Ghanaians are looking forward to this visit.  So Mays report falls under the following headlines:

1. Final Touches on Items given out on MORE Village Launching.
2. MORE Village Launched.
3. Post training workshops conducted.
4. Families Express their appreciation to their sponsors with hand made banners.
5. Christian Sims from London (UK) visits Adopted families to discuss the effectiveness of the MORE training.
6. World Environmental Day celebrated by a brief workshop on water management.
7. Executive Guards of Earth visits MORE families.

Final Touches on Items given out:

Some final touches were made on 30 rabbit hutches and 30 poultry pens that were to be given out during the MORE village launching. The rabbit hutches and poultry pens had newly improved dimensions that ensured maximum ventilation and optimum space for the rabbits and rural poultry. The designs also ensured easier care for the animals as well as easier maintenance practices. A couple of days before the launching, the wood was treated with local wood preservatives to ensure that the hutches and pens last long against termites and wood weevils. Locks were also placed on all of them to ensure the safety of the animals for the beneficiary families.

More Village Launched

Over 30 farming families from the Essienimpong community have received the MORE training. They have also received set up support (enterprises on the MORE thermometer) to establish their own MORE system. This is the only village with that huge number of families supported to receive the MORE system. A whole economic and social resuscitation has begun in the town because people’s lives have been improved immensely. On May 19^th, 2009 the Essienimpong township was launched as the MORE village. In that colourful ceremony attended by Chiefs, and important government representatives, etc., other families also received the final items on their MORE thermometer.

Our goal is that the Essienimpong village shall continue to soar in the prosperity such that the improvement in the lives of the 30 farming families shall ripple unto all the families in the village and surrounding communities. It is our hope that in the near future, the MORE Managers as they are called will have their own micro finance project or even a bank, where they can trade in MORE currency and perhaps give out MORE Green stocks. We have created an economic loop that will soon pull the whole Ashanti Region along.

Among the items given out during the launching were 30 rabbit hutches, 30 poultry pens, 90 rabbits, 150 rural poultry, 3000 mushroom bags, 1800 assorted fruit and cash crop seedlings, 20 bicycles, and 6000 agro forestry seedlings provided by Trees for the Future.

Post Training Workshops Conducted

MORE Institute has adopted a new teaching technology called the Pre-training, Actual training, and Post-training concept. Developed together with the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture, this concept breaks training down into three components; Pre, Actual, and Post training.

The MORE Program divides training in the MORE farm enterprises into two: – the impartation of knowledge, and the impartation of skills. Before families participate in the Actual Training, resource persons visit the family in their homes to assess their skill and knowledge levels and needs. Families are also sensitized about the program so they can prepare well before the Actual Training. This is Pre Training. It goes a little beyond ordinary needs assessment and sensitization.

After the actual training, the resource persons visit each family at home to ascertain how they are putting the skills and knowledge into practice. Families have the opportunity to discuss their experiences and observations with the resource persons. The resource persons are able to clarify for them whatever questions they might have. This is MORE’s concept of Post training.

After the five – days Actual Training conducted in April, there was the need for the follow up post-training. In early May therefore, resource persons conducted a comprehensive individual post –training activity. The overall observation was that the 5 day workshop in April was extremely successful.

Below are some pictures of POST Training workshops.

Families Express Appreciation with Woven Banners

Adopted Families know their sponsors, so in May, in the countdown to the MORE village launching the families started making a big thing about giving something back to their sponsors. They had various propositions. The outstanding one was to have a hand woven cloth sent to their sponsors after a picture has been taken with the family holding it. They all did these cloths before the launching, so during the launching, they took pictures with their cloths and handed the cloths over to be given to their sponsors.

Christian Sims of the City and Guilds (UK) Visits Families

A Policy Analyst and Advisor to the London City and Guilds Vocational and Technical Training Directorate (UK) visited The MORE Institute in May 2009. His visit was to ascertain the effectiveness of the MORE training and how replicable it is. He conducted series of meetings with adopted families who were in various levels of their MORE training. He was particularly interested in the fundamental principles underlying our training; why we train families this way. He was also interested in the type of course materials we used and the gender ratio of the families we are working with. With a set of targeted questions Mr. Sims also aimed to ascertain from the family participants their understanding of the concepts and in their opinion what works and what does not work for the families. At the end of his section he said he is ‘particularly impressed about the high levels of confidence the participants had about the knowledge and skills they have acquired’.

General News: US President Barak Obama to Visit Ghana in Mid July.

It is reported that President Obama is looking forward to this visit. Ghanaians feel honored that the President did not choose to visit Kenya his father’s home land first but chose Ghana as his first place to visit in Africa as President of the United States. Earlier, it was reported that President Obama says that Ghana is America’s very important and strategic ally in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills (an acquaintance of Mr. Riordan) is also reported as saying that President Obama is Africa’s pride and the fact that he is President of United States is a testimony that all nations can achieve equality for all, and that there is a lot to learn from the American people in this regard. President Mills also said that President Obama’s ideals are very respectable.

In Ghana, the White House said Mr Obama and his wife looked forward “to strengthening the US relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa”.

During the visit Mr Obama hopes to highlight the “critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development”, the White House said.

Since January 2006, PPPF has worked with the MORE Institute to research and expand knowledge in the MORE system and provide training for adopted families in the MORE system. PPPF has provided tech transfer and tools for capacity building to improve curriculum at the MORE Institute to better train participants in the MORE system. MORE Institute has been off the grid since 1993 when it moved into its current site or location. Students and trainees have therefore lived on power supplied by a generator bought and shipped to the school by PPPF in January 2007.

In March 2009, PPPF has provided support for MORE Institute to be connected to the grid. MORE Institute has been wired and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has promised that permits and reading meters will be ready by 30^th April 2009.

When MORE Institute gets hooked to electricity, the MORE curriculum will be documented unto computers, and the advantages to the MORE training cannot be overstated.

The MODULAR ORGANIC REGENERATIVE ENVIRONMENT (MORE)  INSTITUTE was certified  under the government of Ghana’s Company Code, 1963 (Act 179) on the 11th of February 2009 as a Non Profit educational Institution after complying with all provision of Sections 27 and 28 of the Ghana government’s company code, 1963.

The MORE Institute’s primary objectives include

• To provide professional, technical training to small farmers.
• Research appropriate tech transfer to support regenerative agriculture.
• Offer extension services in sustainable and regenerative agricultural design to rural villages.
• Provide financial, agribusiness and business development training to farmers.
• Strengthen and conserve biodiversity for increased agricultural productivity.

The MORE Institute goes beyond conventional training by providing equipment and technical assistance to small farm families to set up their own MORE system improving yields by 300 to 1000 percent while building the environment.

The mission of The MORE Institute is to remain at the forefront of research, training, in the use of modular closed loop systems. MORE Design training is a bottom up approach for environmental conservation and wealth creation for farming families.

Refresher Training Workshop for 30 Adopted Families and 17 new families on Four MORE Modules Completed in Essienimpong, EJisu Juaben Municipal

A one-week refresher training workshop for 30 adopted families and 17 new families on the waiting list has just been completed in the month of March at the Essienimpong Community in the Ejisu Juaben District. The workshop covered four of the Modules including, Rabbit production, Rural Poultry, Mushroom Production, Tree nurseries maintenance, transplanting management, and young tree care. Also covered under the workshop were Savings and Banking culture, Group dynamics and healthy food and nutrition.

The refresher workshop had become necessary because adopted families who are making more money requested training in savings and Banking culture. Others presented problems in their MORE farms that needed to be addressed and the families needed to receive new improved skills in the MORE system.

Present at the workshop was the Municipal Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) , and the MOFA Extension Officer in charge of the Essienimpong, Kwaso, Achinakrom and Abenase Division. Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs. Beatrice Asante Mante, the Municipal MOFA Director said, they have heard so much about the MORE system and the MORE training and she has been eager to participate in the training to observe its effectiveness. She is now convinced that the training is very appropriate and she would wish that all the farmers in her Municipal can benefit from the MORE training. The Extension Officer, Mr. Nchel also added that, the Ministry will continue to provide extension services to the Adopted farming families until their incomes increase tremendously.

Another batch of Peace Corps volunteers received training in the MORE system from the 22^nd to the 26^th of March 2009. The 33 PC volunteers and their local counterparts received training in 4 modules of the MORE system including agro-forestry and tree nurseries, bee keeping, rural poultry, and mushroom production. Speaking during the ceremony, Mr. Samuel Danquah, the head of the Environmental Section of the Peace Corps said the previous batches of Peace Corps volunteers who received the training were very impressed with the MORE skills and its level of applicability at the community level. He mentioned that in an end of year evaluation 100% of the volunteers who received the training said the skills were very applicable in their work at the village and community levels. He intimated that, Peace Corps Ghana is very grateful for the MORE skills and that they shall continue to bring batch after batch to benefit from the training. He also mentioned that Peace Corps Ghana will want to set up their own MORE system to for continuous training and supply of MORE materials for volunteers in the near future.