Hi all,
I hope everyone is doing well!! I just want to give those who keep up with the blog an update of what I’m doing with the projects! The two ongoing now are:
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]]>I want to let you all know that following individual donations have led us to an estimated 5560 € / $7877 / 4855£ of funds raised for the Maternity Block Project!!! I am very excited about all your goodness and consideration, and this means we’ll soon start seeing concrete results!
A special thanks to my parents, Karen and Gerard Planche, who have tirelessly supported all my projects in as many ways as I could imagine!! Even when they came to visit and saw that the previously constructed well was damaged by a Coca-Cola truck, they fully funded and supervised the fixing of it, and made a nice little brick construction to protect it! :)
Another special thanks to Estelle Candau, who organized a 80’s themed dinner party in London which helped raise funds towards this project!!
Some of you have asked for further details about the project. Here is the link for the project description in the form of a proposal:
Email me if you have any questions!
- Evaluation of the land was done in May 2010.
- Preliminary Sketch and meeting with the hospital staff and ACWA was done in June 2010.
- Production Design was completed by the end of June by Kojo Darko-Asante and two of his students.
- Establishment of supervision and estimate of costs was done in a subsequent meeting.
- I have so many people to thank for Fundraising!! Tonata, Ruth, Aunty Gladys, Edna and the Planche family for supervising, Tonata, Mimich, Edna, Cyril, Glenda, Aunty Hilda, Steffi, and Scott for making yummy contributions. A final big thanks to those who donated. We are now well over 1 500€, and just getting started! ;)
The building will be divided into a sub-basement, ground floor, first floor, and second floor. The estimated total is at 460,000€ and will be divided between ACWA’s fundraising and the hospital’s budget. Whatever you contribute through ACWA will go towards any part related to maternal and newborn care: central sterilization unit, operating theatre, intensive care unit, delivery room, labour ward, emergency room, nursery, waiting rooms, nurses’ stations and rooms, bathrooms and washrooms. The hospital’s budget will fund any additions, as well as the potential second floor dedicated to new offices, allowing more staff to work at this central and ever-growing unit. It is important to remember that the price estimate is a very flexible one, as the construction of a building that size depends on so many factors such as the price of the cement, inflation, modification of the structure design, etc.
I hope your thoughts and prayers are with us! Contact me if you would like to get a copy of the proposal for this project, which includes the production design and the latest update on the costs.
January 3rd, 2011
The current situation is a sad one and it’s even more heartbreaking to see it personally. The building is evidently small compared to the needs and number of mothers and their children. Unfortunately, many are forced to leave nearly immediately after giving birth due to the next patients coming in, this added to the fact that the population is just generally increasing. For this reason the qualified staff has to hurry the work and has extremely little time for pre- or post-labor care. This leads to a number of orphans left in the care of the hospital, and many unfortunate although preventable maternal and child deaths.
I developed the project after speaking to several architects and contractors. We determined several phases:
- Evaluation of the land
- Preliminary Sketch and meeting with the hospital staff and ACWA.
- Production Design
- Establishment of supervision and estimate of Costs
- Fundraising
- Execution of the project.
Many thanks to those who have been encouraging and incredibly enthusiastic for this project!!
June 2010
In exactly two weeks, the water project was finished! there is now clean and constant water running throught the pipes at the children's hospital, serving the maternity ward, the laboratory, the malnutrition rehabilitaion centre and the children's building.
Thank you to all, continue to support us!
These are pictures of the commissioning ceremony which was held, first there were a series of speeches, then I (Rainbow) was given the honor of cutting the ribbon before officially switching on the pump!
]]>We told the people and some engineers about this project andt told them ce could fund it, and a few days later they came in with a drilling machine to start the work! ...
My parents, Karen and Gerard Planche, have paid for the entire project, so that it could be done while I was here to see it. Right now the engineer and electrician in charge of the project have taken the water to a laboratory to test for cleanliness. It is almost finished! The commissioning will be tomorrow and I will take some pictures there.
November 20, 2009
The Maternal and Child Health Hospital does not receive any extra funds for their rapidly decaying building (which was built in 1924 by the colonial forces). This branch of the main hospital is forgotten and left to thirst by the government, which has just implemented a system of National Health Care. The consequence is that the patients come in many numbers, and the hospital can no longer receive funds from private payments.
So what they need is funds to build infrastructure, a generator for a reliable electricity system, but more importantly water. They rely on old donated water tanks, currently rusted; they get their water from Ghana’s public water system, which supplies them once per week and often leaves shortages. I was told a gruesome story about doctors who were bringing a child to the world, and ran to the sink with bloody arms and … did not have water. The children whose condition requires them to be washed can often not be done quickly or with the quality water needed, sometimes worsening their sickness! It’s one of those things that we have only heard of on TV or reportages… it is so different and overwhelming to realize it is real.