Even though not many days have passed since the plastering of the walls, the pictures which our partners sent us in November looked very different. As if somebody put the technicolor into the camera, the building shines now in bright colors.
We are really proud of the beautiful school and you can understand why if you see the pictures. The building shines in yellow and red and fittingly also windows with green blinds were installed. One could think that the painters got their inspiration from the Ghanaian national flag.

Hence the construction is complete. Currently the furniture is being made but this should also be done in a few days. Then is will not take long and the school can open its doors. In March education for 40 students should start. Since one classroom isn’t sufficient to be approved as secondary school, we will run it as a special type. Our so-called pre-school should prepare the kids for the Junior High school exams. For this purpose, three qualified teachers will be employed.

The start of the education and the running of the school come along with big costs for us. Exercise books, textbooks and pens have to be bought and of course, the teachers need to be paid. For this we have started a new donation campaign. With the slogan “2021 – In Taha Schule machen” we collect donations for the above-mentioned purposes. At the same moment we want to inform in Germany about our project and the educational situation in Ghana. You find a nice promo video here on the slide “accomplishing schooling”. Help us to improve the educational situation in Taha!

What a wonderful feeling to see those pictures! After all these years of hard work finally the price for our effort shows. Of course, the school is not finished yet, but the construction is really going on well.

Where one could only see a big, rectangular concrete area, now stands an impressive house. After the works on the floor were finally done, it could be started with the brickwork. These didn’t even take a week, so that it looked like our school shot out of the ground like a mushroom. After the masons it was the carpenters’ turn to erect a wooden roof truss on top of the walls.  Finally, they set a shiny crown in the form of a corrugated sheet roof on top of it. Now it shines bright in the Ghanaian sun.
However, after this successfully completed stage, the work immediately continued. The remaining walls to the pediment had to be raised. Then, our workers could already start with plastering. This hard task took quite some time, but the result proves that it was definitely worth the trouble.

The toilets are our second construction site and here it was almost the same as with the classroom – just in a smaller scale: First, the walls had to be raised. Doing so, four separate booths were built and one wall surrounding it. On top of the booths likewise a wooden roof truss was built and rounded off with a corrugated sheet roof. Finally, everything was plaster and the toilet house waits along with the classroom building for its paint. We will report on this soon.

 

Not even half a year has passed, since the beginning of construction in May, but what we have achieved in Taha during this time is simply great. The whole summer the workers were really busy and helped to let our school at record speed. There were only small interruptions because of the rain.
After the mounting of the foundations the floor was filled up, compacted and covered with a concrete layer. Then already the superstructure could be put up. The blocks which were formed on site from concrete during the other works conferred our school soon the appearance of a proper house.
Also, there was steady progress in the works on the toilets. The drainage pit hat to be mantled with concrete and the hole had to be finally filled again. Above of this the floor was laid with the suitable holes, which are absolutely necessary for the typical squat toilet. As a next step the actual toilet house will be placed on top of that.
The progress on the site gives us courage that we can soon achieve our aim of a school in Taha. See for yourself in the gallery.

Once again there was adrenaline, emotinons boiling up, blood, sweat and black eyes. The Students’ Charity Fight Night took place once again this year at the “Kolpinghaus” in Regensburg. Like last year students from different faculties fought against each other for a good cause. And the guests – all in dresses and suits – cared for the right atmosphere.

Also this year the Taha-Schul-Projekt sent a champ into the ring. Yannick “the punching Apache” Adler fought all the three rounds for our project. He was really compasionate and gave everything. We thank him very much for his performance.

After six further fights the ring was turned into a dancefloor and the guests and the fighters could celebrate till the morning. For everyone who wants to know more about the Students Charity Fight Night or who wants to take part next year, visit them on facebook.
For everyone who couldn’t be there, here are some few pics of the evening.

What a tough fight, no, what two tough fights! We are still proud of our two Champions Stefanie and Christoph, who boxed for the Taha school project at the Students Charity Fight night on the 19th of November. It was really a great performance. Unfortunatly both of them didn’t win, but they showed a successful boxfight und proved courage. They fought till the end.

The Students Charity Fight Night is a event which took place in Regensburg for the first time last Thursday. The idea behind it is to have a classy evening where students fight against each other for charity. Each participiant got 500 EUR which he could donate to a social project of his own choice. Our chairman Christoph Wenzl was the first to enter the ring for our project. He got brave support from Stefanie Amann who also competed for our project. And yet again we have to highlight the great achievment which both showed. Not only at this evening, also in the previous weeks of preperation they put their shoulder to the wheel for the project. We give a big thank therefor.

We also want to thank the two organizer Dennis Sillah and Stephan Schmidbauer, who made this successful evening possible. All who witnessed it were enthusiastic and for those who didn’t have time to watch it we have a few pictures of the fight.

On tuesday, the 28th of July, it was yet again time for the annual sports festival. The students of the Fraunhofer Gymnasium Cham changed their schoolbooks for running shoes and sportswear and went to the Quadfeldmühle. There they all took part in a charity run for our Taha-School-Project. In Advance the students had searched for sponsors who would donate one euro per round which was 620 meters. They had fifteen minutes to give their best and this is exactly what they did. After a phenomenal achievement the teacher counted 2340 rounds in total. Because of the donators’ generosity, the organizers of the sports festival, Margot Alt and Andrea Rothfischer, could hand over a check about 3010.23 EUR to Christoph Wenzl, the chairman of the Taha-School-Project. We just admire this great engagement of so many young people and we can’t stop thanking. A special thanks goes to the two organizers Margot Alt and Andrea Rothfischer.

With red faces and hurting legs our athlets crawled off the court. But highly content. And this is absolutely right because of such a great performance! In total the 22 runners absolved 196 rounds at the “Guter Zweck Lauf” by the Sparkasse Cham on Sunday, the 26th of July. The distance was 1.325 km und they were given two hours to run as many rounds as possible for charity. For each round the Sparkasse donated 50 ct to the Chamer Tafel, Kinderkrebshilfe Cham and Bürger helfen Bürger. Another 50 ct per round were donated to a free chosen social project and thus our busy runners could raise 98 EUR in total for our assocciation. Amongst those who have taken part was the whole board of management, numerous members, but also friends and relatives, both old and young. We thank each runner for his engagement, as well as the supporters who provided water and motivation for us on the court. Another gratitude goes to the Sparkasse Cham and the ASV Cham for the successful organisation. We wish you all the best to cure out your muscle aches!

 

Big interest at the Fraunhofer’s schoolfestival

At nearly Ghanaian temperatures we could inform about our project at the Fraunhofer’s schoolfestival on the 17th of July. The Joseph-von-Fraunhofer Gymnasium Cham supports us since the beginning. Last friday we told the parents and teachers about the project in general and the progress taken. The children also enjoyed our stand, they could try out the typical Ghanaian game “Oware”.
The next event, which the Fraunhofer Gymnasium will organize for us, will be a charity run on July 28, whose total proceeds will be credited to the Taha-school-project.

Responsible for this post’s heading is a message I received from Ghana today. I shows that our work is earning success. A few days ago our Ghanaian deputy Alhassan Salifu reported that he is going to mold about 3000 blocks from the money we collected the last months. This sounds pretty amazing but it’s a difference if you just read it or see the effort. And today he has sent pictures from the worksite. It looks awesome! So many blocks, the whole material, I wish I could go there and join the work myself. On this occassion I want to thank Alhassan Salifu and the inhabitants of Ghbalahi, who worked voluntaryly for their and our school. But there is another one I have to thank and this is YOU, our donators, because your money made this possible. Let’s go on!!!!

A report from 10.03.15. Christoph Wenzl held his talk “my year in Ghana” at the elderly people group of Cham/St. Josef, where he reported about his life and work in Kaleo, Ghana. There was a big attendance andorganisator Carola Gleixner was especially pleased to welcome so many male members. And the participants were not disappointed. Christoph Wenzl reported very colorful of the Westafrican country and of its culture in special. The elderly people showed much interest and asked many questions during the break. In the second part Wenzl told of his work at the Kaleo Senior High Technical school, as teacher for ICT and chemistry. In line with the presentation he also introduced the Taha-school-project and the association, whose aim is to build a secondary school in Taha. The elderly people donated the proceeds of their thank-you box to the project.
Everyone who wants to know more about the project and wants to hear the presentation “my year in Ghana” is invited to Kehlheim on 25.04.2015 at 19.00 or asks us for an own date.