Annual report to donors (2023/24)

April 12, 2024

DRAFT

This is a draft document.

TODO

Add reach for each project (number of people affected).

Turbo Ghana started its work in 2018, and was formally constituted and registered with the Charities Commission in 2020. Our annual report to donors details the work we have done in the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024, and our plans for the following year.

Our achievements during 2023/24

School and teacher accommodation at Kontonho. Our biggest project this year has been the three-room school and three-room teacher accommodation in a small community called Kontonho. At the end of the financial year (31 March), the school is not quite finished; we expect to finish in May. The school will serve 90 kindergarten and primary school children, who currently have to walk two hours to go to school. The teacher accommodation is needed because the community is too remote for teachers to commute daily. The village has no electricity or water, but we will install solar panels in the teacher accommodation to allow night-time lighting and phone charging. The two buildings are expected to be finished by June 2024, and the school will start operating in August.
Total spent in 2023/24: £20,098 (the buildings are almost complete, but the plastering and some fittings remain to be done, so further costs will be incurred in 2024/25).

Three boreholes: Atonobi, Anyankamamu and Kontonho. Fetching and consuming water from rivers and streams is laboursome and dangerous. We build three boreholes in three communities, transforming the lives of the people that live there. Building boreholes probably delivers our impact per pound. The water is not free, though; borehole pumps go wrong, and need maintenance a few times per year. So the community collects money for the water and uses it to fund the borehole repairs.
Total spent in 2023/24: £6,963. These projects are now finished.

Apprenticeship scheme. Four women have started three-year apprenticeships funded by Turbo Ghana. They are working with dressmakers in Nsuta, and now have the possibility of building better lives for themselves by learning a skill that is much valued in Ghana.
Total spent in 2023/24: £483 (the apprenticeship scheme began on 1 April, so only tiny costs were incurred in 2023/24; most of the costs will be incurred in 2024/25 and beyond).

Business starter. We funded the start-up costs for a sheep rearing business (the costs included fencing, veterinary fees, and the initial sheep). The business will be self-sustaining and give a livelihood to the elderly woman that runs it with her son.
Total spent in 2023/24: £1,920. (This particular project is finished, but we will expand this scheme in future years.)

School costs support. Senior high school is free in Ghana, but a condition of admission is that students buy a range of items, including a mattress, clothing items, shoes, and other equipment. The cost of these items often prevents able children from attending. We funded the school items cost for two children (male and female) in 2023/4 and we have selected two more (m+f) for 2024/5. We will expand this scheme. We have also funded some university fees and university accommodation costs for a project manager working with us that wants to pursue a career in accountancy.
Total spent in 2023/24: £535. (We will expand this scheme in future years.)

Full details about all these projects with photos can be found on our website.

Project monitoring

Visits by trustees. Mark visited twice during the year, once in December 2023 and again in February 2024, for two weeks each time. He visited all our historic and current projects, and planned new ones. He met apprenticeship candidates, community members, and local government officials, as well as service providers such as builders, carpenters, roofers, borehole drillers and pump installers. Details and photos of these visits are on our website (click Blog).

Project manager. We are very lucky to have Kwasi Alare managing all our projects. Kwasi was born in Aframano; at the age of 23 was elected “assembly member” (local council representative) for his community. He served three terms of four years each. He stood down when his university studies and work with Turbo Ghana (together with farming, which is everyone’s occupation in this area) grew to take all his time. Kwasi has been responsible for all our building projects (two schools, each with teacher accommodation, and three boreholes). He has selected and managed all the contractors, and helped us keep in touch with the communities we have served.

Friends and family. By now we know many people in our communities, including Vivian (host), Stephen (driver), Acheampong (who has taken many photos for our website), John and Thomas (local authority executives), Samuel and Alex (teachers in Nsuta). They all help us by monitoring projects and recommending suppliers and contractors.

How we spent donors’ money

From 2018 to 31 March 2024, every penny of money received from non-trustee donors was spent directly on projects. That’s because all admin expenses (including flights and accommodation for monitoring, fundraising costs, government registration, banking, and website) were covered by donations from the trustees. Now that we are growing, this is harder to achieve. But we guarantee that for the year 2024/25, admin expenses will not exceed £5K or 7.5% of donations, whichever limit is smaller.

Our plans for 2024/25

Apprenticeship scheme. As well as continuing to support our four existing apprentices, we aim to expand the scheme up to 10 apprentices, but only if we have good candidate apprentices and good, proven hosts. We hope we will manage to find good candidates for solar power installation apprentices.

Completing a school building in PSK. We want to help a community finish a school-building project that it started using its own funds, but ran out of money.

Toilets in Bunuso. We want to build a public toilet in a large village of 3000 people that has no toilets at all. People in that village currently have to use the bush for their daily needs.

Teacher accommodation in Anyankamamu. We want to build teacher accommodation at an inaccessible school, to improve its prospects of attracting good teachers.

Building back better the latrines in Aframano. We will build latrines for some newly established households, and rebuild some previously-build ones that got destroyed by exceptional rains, in Aframano.

Furniture for junior school in Aframano. We want to equip a thriving school with decent furniture, because what furniture they have is falling apart.

Other ongoing projects. We will continue our education support project, and commence new business-starter projects.

Full details about all these projects with photos can be found on our website – see current projects.