My name is Ben Apedo. I represent the Apedo family sponsored by the Annapolis Striders. I have five siblings. When I was selected by PPPF to receive training and set-up support in the MORE system, I was so grateful. My initial vegetable farm during my training consisted of 30 beds which were 4 feet by 16 feet each (see picture 1 below). I raised so much vegetables that I made almost $830 equivalent from these beds. Without the MORE training, I wouldn’t have made even $300 from all the 30 beds.
My entire life has changed because of the knowledge and skills I received through the kind sponsorship of Annapolis Striders and Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation. Today, I have completed my National Service and I am now teaching what I learnt to young female farmers at the Women’s Training Institute at Bechem in the Brong Ahafo Region. This December 09, I intend to lead the school to win a Best Farmer Award. My own farm is thriving so well with various combinations of goats and tree crops, vegetables and rabbits, and so much corn.
I and my family are so grateful to my sponsors. My hope is that MORE young Ghanaians and families will receive the training in the MORE system all across Africa.
-Ben Apedo representing the Apedo Family
Letter of Appreciation: I am Allorsis Frempong. I represent the Allorsis Family. I was very happy to be selected by Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation and to be sponsored by Kenneth Square YMCA and the Philadelphia Marathon.
I have always wanted to set up my personal farm since I was a kid. But I did not want to have an ordinary farm. I heard about MORE training, but I had not enough money to support myself to attend the course. So when Mr. Samuel announced to me that I have been selected by PPPF to benefit from the MORE training and that I will be assisted to set up my own farm after the training, I was so happy.
Now here I am, with enough traning and skills to effectively manage my own MORE farm, and I have my own integrated farm. My rabbits do not stop multiplying, and I always have vegetables to sell. I am very grateful.
Thank you,
Allorsis Frempong
Allorsis: Healthy Rabbits multiply
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:
- Final Touches on Items given out on MORE Village Launching.
- MORE Village Launched.
- Post training workshops conducted.
- Families Express their appreciation to their sponsors with hand made banners.
- Christian Sims from London (UK) visits Adopted families to discuss the effectiveness of the MORE training.
- World Environmental Day celebrated by a brief workshop on water management.
- 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 19th, 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.
The number of adopted families continues to increase and so are the numbers of families on waiting list to be adopted. PPPF has therefore completed 30 rabbit hutches and 30 poultry pens to be distributed to farming families in April.
This new hutches and pens have dimensions that ensure the highest maintenance practices. The materials used are MORE durable and adopted families who witnessed its construction cannot wait to receive them. The distribution is scheduled for May 1st, 2009.
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 30th 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.
