RWE Companius in Ghana

“A project in Ghana supported by RWE Companius has proved a resounding success. Until now, the 300 children at the school in Ntotroso, Ghana, have had to walk miles and miles to fetch water for their school and the nursery school attached to it – and the water they bring back is often of a very poor quality. The school also lacked a proper kitchen. RWE Companius naturally wanted to help and so offered its support to Hilfe für Ntotroso e. V., an organisation set up to help the school. Thanks to the funds provided, the installation of a kitchen and digging of a well can now go ahead.

One of the driving forces behind this project was Siegfried Kaufmann of RWE Power who flew to Ghana so that he could help out on the spot. The teachers and parents of the children at the school planned what they wanted to do and then contracted out the work to a local building contractor. As most of the work was done with the help of the villagers, a lot of things took longer than expected and work on the new kitchen often had to be left to the weekends. Yet the kitchen was finished and fully equipped in time for the start of the new term in May. “The cooks and teachers are especially happy,” says Kaufmann, adding that “the children themselves haven’t yet grasped what the changes will mean for them. That’s something they won’t understand until they realise that they no longer have to make the trek to the nearest well, which after all is several miles away.”

But there is still a long way to go before that. The well is still being dug by hand, which is an arduous task, given that it is to be 10 to 15 metres deep! Furthermore, it is now the rainy season in Ghana, which makes the work doubly difficult. Not until the ground is less waterlogged will they be able to resume digging. “But even the well will be finished by the end of July. Then the children will no longer have to lug heavy buckets around and will be able to concentrate on their lessons instead,” says Birgit Cawni, an employee of RWE AG and the person who first had the idea for the project. She has long been doing voluntary work for Ghana. When she was introduced to RWE Companius at a meeting of the works council, she knew right away that she would become involved. “The initiative is a great thing for RWE employees,” says Cawni. “Without the support of RWE Companius, we would not have been able to complete the building work as fast as we did.”