ROTARY INTERNATIONAL in GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND
Club Case Study: Matching Grant with Tamale (Ghana)
 Report by Gavin Plews, Feb 2002

Rotary Club of Great Missenden is working in partnership with the Rotary Club of Tamale, in central Ghana, to provide the equipment to enable women from a cluster of villages in the region, to make butter to be traded in Accra for eventual manufacture of edible oils and soap.
Some 250 to 400 women from Tamale and neighbouring villages, Dobo 1 and 2, Nkanchina, Mile7, Lesseni and Lugni take sheanuts harvested from trees, and then crush them, prior to frying and pressing, to make a dough type material that can be kneaded and made into butter pats, which are then bagged up and sent off to market in Accra. The new mill, to be provided by this project, will be driven by a diesel engine, easing the work that is currently done manually, and it is hoped that we may be able to help with provision of a shelter to house the equipment next year.

          
 A sheanut tree


A woman pounding sheanuts before frying. 
Some of the nuts are still in sacks behind her.

 This venture will provide employment for many women who hope that the income will provide a much needed boost to their standard of living, and ease the hardship of so many, especially the widows.

Our liaison with the Tamale club came about through personal contact between a member of our club, and a visitor from Ghana in the summer of 2000, and indicates how projects such as this can really take off following face to face discussions that breathe so much life into a desire. The agreed cost to our club is $550, and The Rotary Foundation will contribute a further $550, although it has now been realised that these funds will be insufficient; our club has now agreed to make up the difference to the Tamale club of some $300 so as not to impede progress.
I believe the equipment is available locally, so progress can be made as soon as the funds are available, which should be a matter of just a few weeks now. A significant loss of time was incurred when The Rotary Foundation withdrew it’s support, asking us to postpone for one year, as they were over-committed financially, largely due to the success of the Matching Grants programme.

  
Sheanut kneader & crusher


Sheabutter extractors at a meeting. 
Men on the left help in the purchase of nuts.

It has to be said that communications with such a remote region are difficult, letters being the only option, and advice from local experts in Ghana can take a long time, especially, as in this case, the expert lives 170 miles away. Despite these difficulties, we now believe we are progressing to a successful conclusion, and hope to hear, as time goes by, how the community has benefited. We will keep in touch, and have a special contact with the expert mentioned above, who is expected to be offered an Ambassadorial Scholarship next year.

 

For details of sheabutter with a historical note about its discovery by Mungo Park, visit:                                        http://www.sheabutter.com/Mungo.htm

Gavin Plews may be contacted by e-mail: 

gavin@plews.fsbusiness.co.uk

 

 

 


Finished sheabutter ready for the market

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