Report to donors (June 2025)

June 17, 2025

Turbo Ghana started its work in 2018, and was formally constituted and registered with the Charities Commission in 2020. This report to donors details the work we have done in the period May 2024 - May 2025, and our plans for the following year.

Our achievements during 2024/25

Teacher accommodation in Anyankammamu. We have built a 5-bedroom teacher accommodation unit, which accommodates up to 10 teachers during the week, saving them huge expense and wasted time commuting to this popular but hard-to-access school. This will improve the teachers’ ability to work with students outside regular hours, fostering a better learning environment. The project has already significantly enhanced the school’s capacity to retain dedicated teachers, and will contribute to the overall educational experience and outcomes for the children of Anyankamamu. These photos were taken in February 2025, and the building was not quite complete (the ceiling needs installing, and some plastering and painting need to be done).
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £14,475.

School extension in Pataase, Sesease and Kokoben (also known as PSK). We have finished building the school rooms at PSK. We completed two rooms that the community had started building but ran out of money. Those two rooms form the wing on the left (the part on the right existed already). The new rooms house the 50 pupils in JHS1 and 36 in JHS2. An opening ceremony was held on 10 April 2025.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £6,919.

Apprenticeship scheme. We started our apprenticeship scheme last year, and have gradually built it to a total of nine apprentices. Five of them are learning tailoring, two are learning to be electricians, and the remaining two are a tiler and a builder. They are learning their trade from local tradespersons in Nsuta. We pay the apprentice a monthly stipend (about £40), and we pay for their training, tools, and graduation costs. Each apprentice will take an exam set by the national association for that trade, and will graduate in 1-3 years (depending on the trade, and their prior experience). The current list of our apprentices is here.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £3,489.

Teacher toilet in Aframano. We had built teacher accommodation in Aframano in 2022, but we had not equipped it with toilets because we had refurbished existing buildings that didn’t have toilets in them. This year we have built a toilet block for the teachers that reside in our accommodation.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £2,853.

Completed Kontonho school and teacher accommodation, including solar panels. Last year, we reported that the Kontonho school and teacher accommodation was almost complete. We completed it in the early part of this reporting period. The school is now fully operational, and we have met the two teachers. We also gave them a small budget for start-up costs. After Aframano got grid electricity, we were able to recover some solar panels and associated equipment which we had used there. We have put them on the Kontonho teacher accommodation that we completed in 2024, as that settlement is very unlikely to get electricity. This enables the teachers and local community to charge their phones and have 2-3 lights during the hours of dark.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £10,622.00 (on top of the £20,098.30 in 2023/24).

Amaniampong Senior High School toilet block. The school had received some funding about five years ago to build a toilet block, but they had run out of money and it had been left in a half-built state for a long time. Money had been spent (they said about 100K cedis, which at that time was £5K), but the toilets had never been used. Children and staff alike were having to use the bush for their daily needs. When we visited, we found the walls half-tiled, some toilets and cisterns still in their packaging, and some plumbing equipment that hadn’t been fitted. We decided to adopt the project, and we used our own contractors to finish the job. This consisted of finishing the tiling (including buying more tiles), fitting the sanitaryware, and installing all the plumbing. We also built a stand for the polytank (a plastic tank to feed water to the basins and toilets), and fitted a new tank.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £2,694.

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 have continued our scholarship scheme this year; we selected four students (two male, two female) for 2024/5 (front row of picture). We will expand this scheme. We have also funded some university fees and university accommodation costs for a student pursuing a career in accountancy, and this year we will fund a student pursuing a career in nursing.
Total spent in FY 2024/25: £1,199.

Rebuilding the plinths in Aframano junior school. A common problem in Ghana is soil erosion around the bottom of the walls of buildings, and this can quickly threaten the whole building by allowing the wall to collapse. Schools suffer from this because they have no budget for making repairs. We repaired the plinths around the government-built Aframano junior school.

Full details about all these projects with photos can be found on the current projects page of our website.

Project monitoring

Visits by trustees. Mark visits twice each year. He visited in November 2024 and again in February 2025, for two weeks each time. 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. He inspected all our historic and current projects, and planned new ones based on the needs and priorities discussed with community members. 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.

Apprenticeship coordinator. As we now have nine apprentices in trades including electrician, builder, tiler, and dressmaker, we have appointed Vivian Danso to coordinate them. She is responsible for ensuring that we have a monthly report about each apprentice, covering three things: (a) What they have learned during the month; (b) How many days they have attended during the month; and (c) The trainer’s evaluation of their performance. We send the monthly stipend to the apprentice after we have received a satisfactory report.

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.

Our plans for 2025/26

The six new projects listed below total about £ CHECK VALUE XXXXX. We will begin the projects as soon as funds allow, and we will visit in November 2025 and February 2026 to monitor progress. We adopted the projects after holding numerous meetings with community members in several different villages. The projects will improve the lives over 4000 people.

Apprenticeship scheme. As well as continuing to support our four existing apprentices, we aim to expand the scheme up to 10 individuals, but only if we have good candidate apprentices and good, proven hosts. We will continue to search for solar power apprentices as a separate project. Budget: £16K.

Rebuilding 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. Budget: £8.6K.

Furniture and water pump for school. We want to help the Mampong Muslim school that desperately needs new furniture and a borehole pump. Budget: £4K.

Toilets in Bunuso. We want to build a public toilet in a large village of 3600 people that has no toilets at all. People in that village currently have to use the bush for their daily needs. Budget: £12K.

Business starter. Following our our sheep rearing business starter which remains successful and thriving two years after it commenced, we will fund one or two more starting businesses. Budget: £4K.

Education support. We will continue our education support projects. Budget: £3K.

Our total budget is therefore £48K. Full details about all these projects with photos can be found on our website – see current projects.