In 2012 FuHoF asked us to provide funding for a six-seater latrine for the Adaklu Have school in order to provide improved health and also to encourage teenage girls to attend school. After building the school latrines we decided to start to providing household latrines since there were only 4 such latrines in the village. Since then we have provided approximately 20 household latrines per year. As of 2022 we have completed 200 in Adaklu Have (plus 150 in Bongo).

In 2015 FuHoF asked us to fund a water well in Dodome Teleafenu, also in the Ho district. We provided a hand-dug water well with a submersible electric pump to pump water to an overhead water tank. This has the advantage that community members can fill water containers on their heads rather than having to pick up 30kg of water from the ground.
In 2017 we funded a second well with pump and overhead tank in the same village. This well was a drilled borehole to avoid the potential dangers of hand-digging the well. After completion the community self funded and built pipes to several taps in the community to minimise the distance that water needs to be carried.

In 2022 FuHoF asked us to fund sanitary towels for girls in the local school. However, this is not financially sustainable so in 2023 we started to fund the supply of kits for reusable towels that last for three years and only cost about £7 supplied by 'Days for Girls' in Accra. A local seamstress will attend training to be able to provide these kits locally in the future. Kits are provided to all relevant girls in the local school with the aim to both improve their dignity and quality of life as well as enable them to attend school throughout the month. This should lead to greater levels of education for the young ladies in the village. It is well proven that higher female education leads to greater prosperity of a community.

Fund raising is ongoing by the Bongo Development Trust in the UK. We aim to raise sufficient funds to provide 10 household latrines per year at a current cost of approximately (depending on the exchange rate) £180 each. When additional funding is available we consider providing other facilities within the aims of the charity.

We have very low administration fees and these are entirely met by donations from the trustees. This means that 100% of all other donations goes to Ghana. We audit how the money is spent (see below) and are confident that all funds are being used to help the people of rural Ghana.

The latrine building work is co-ordinated by FuHoF in cooperation with the local District Water and Sanitation Team.

Funds are transferred directly to FuHoF. This covers (per latrine):

• £145 for materials including cement, wood, steel reinforcing rods, plastic pipe, corrugated sheets etc
• £20 to pay a local artisan to assist with construction
• £8 for transport of materials
• £2 for snacks at health training
• £3 to HUHOF for admin and report writing costs

Every effort is made to track the funding and make the process transparent.

• Receipts for all the above costs are collected and copies sent to us for auditing.
• Each latrine base has a serial number engraved in it.
• Each latrine is photographed and the photographs sent to us
  • while being constructed
  • when the serial number is added
  • when it is complete with a family member.

We use the 'Ventilation Improved Pit' (VIP) design, approved by the World Health Organisation, with a plastic pipe running up from the pit to above the hut. This acts as a chimney to remove odours and also attracts flies from the pit up the pipe where they are trapped with a screen. This keeps the hut relatively odour-free and fly-free.

A local artisan (trained by WaterAid) instructs the householders on the size of hole to be dug. He oversees the process, helps to make concrete blocks to line the hole, makes and installs the concrete base with a hole for the user to squat on and oversees the construction of the hut superstucture with ventilation pipe.

You can see the construction on the photos page. All of the manual labour is provided by the household receiving the latrine.