Important equipment provided to Dominase schools

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Help from Buriton makes a big difference

In spite of all the disruption caused by the worldwide Covid virus, Buriton’s small ‘Village-to-Village’ link has been helping thousands of children return to school and continue their vital education.

Most of the children in Ghana have missed almost a whole year of education – and there is no such thing as home-schooling there, no computers or on-line learning … 

But, with help from money raised in Buriton, it has been possible to provide each of the 26 schools in the Dominase area with important hand-washing equipment – and they have now all re-opened so that lessons can resume.

As there is no running water at any of the schools, the Buriton Group has provided ‘Veronica Buckets’: a device invented in Ghana about 25 years ago which consists of a large bucket of water with a tap fixed at the bottom (at hand height) and a bowl underneath to collect waste water.

This simple piece of equipment enables children to wash their hands thoroughly, under running water (from the tap), rather than in a bowl of water which many other people may have used. Experts feel that washing hands in a bowl, with others washing in the same water, could do more harm than good.

Following a visit to Dominase in February 2020, before the outbreak of Covid19, Buriton’s Village-to-Village Group had already decided to provide each school with this equipment as there are many diseases in Ghana which can be transmitted by unwashed hands – and hand-washing is not a habit for many families.

But the equipment became even more vital once Covid reached the country and now children and teachers are able to wash their hands frequently to help stem the spread of the disease.

And the Group ensured that local workers made the metal stands that support the buckets, so that money from Buriton went into the local economy.

Although not badly affected by the pandemic so far, there are concerns that cases and deaths in Ghana may yet rise significantly and so there are still many reasons to continue to think of our friends far away.