In 2017, LWW and Idlewild embarked on a initiative to train people in Ghana to become Living Waters for the World Clean Water U Instructors. The results of last year's initiative is that now a group is trained to be able to train other people in Ghana to project manage, educate (teach) and install a water treatment system and health & hygiene education. In simple terms - LWW trained the trainers who will train the trainers - make sense.....it means that now Ghanaians can train Ghanaians to be Ghanaians IPs and not depend solely on IPs traveling from the US.
Pictures from last year's classes:
Fast forward to 2018 - the instructors that were trained last year by LWW formed their own IP team to lead, educate & install a water treatment system and health & hygiene education at Kwahu Praso. The instructors wanted to be the "doers" before teaching others - novel idea and great approach.
The Ghanaian team has done all the "on the ground" project management work for the installation and education. Jim Levernier & myself have been watching over their shoulders as they fulfilled the steps to plan a successful project. We reviewed their Water Issues Survey, Project Preparation Plan, the start of the Systems Management Plan (will be completed during our visit), budget, schedule, and so on. Charles Koranteng our LWW In-Country Coordinator did a pre-installation visit late last week and sent me these pictures of the preparation of the platform to hold the raw water tank (fed from a bore hole) and of the water treatment system & pure water distribution room.
The Ghanaian education team has been gathering their materials and planning their sessions with the intent of teaching the classes before and while we are there. Chalmers has been communicating with the education team via Whatsapp and letting them know she will be there to help teach and support.
Previous year's blogs have told of Michael Asiamah's, LWW In-Country Technician, positive impact toward what LWW and Idlewild are doing in Ghana. Michael is working with the lead 103 (installation) team member for the build of the water treatment system at Kwahu Praso.
So "first of a kind..." means that Idlewild will be the "Funding IP" for Kwahu Praso and the team in Ghana will be the 101 (project management), 102 (education) and 103 (water treatment system build) portion of the IP. A Global Team...Powered by WhatsApp!
I am sure we will learn some things out of this step function change in how an IP is created and works in Ghana. I am sure there will be some bruises and some mistakes - both will make the future better for LWW in Ghana. However, 24 hours from leaving the US to travel to Ghana there are many milestones of progress toward this installation and education at Kwahu Praso that raise the level of optimism for this trip and the future of LWW impact in Ghana.
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