Shaw residents to forge links with Ghanaian village

Charity launch night set for Wednesday, October 5, at St Mary’s Church

RESIDENTS in Shaw are launching a community enterprise to forge links with the village of Lawra in a remote part of Ghana.

They are joining forces with local charity Action Through Enterprise (ATE), founded by a former schoolteacher from Ramsbury, Sarah Gardner.

Ms Gardner, aged 32, left her job as a teacher at The Winchcombe School, Newbury, to help improve the education of poverty-stricken children in Lawra, north-west Ghana.

In late 2012, she launched ATE and two months later she had rolled out a programme to provide a daily meal for each child at Karbo Primary School, to get children into education rather than spending days searching for food to feed their families.

The programme has seen school attendance rocket.

ATE is now feeding more than 850 children each day and this year it expanded its school feeding programme to a third school in a remote village called Dowine.

And there has been a significant increase in weight and height in pupils at Karbo Primary School, located on the outskirts of Lawra Town.

Shaw villagers meanwhile have formed Shaw Community Action Through Enterprise (SCATE) to add their efforts to the initiative. The launch night is on Wednesday, October 5, from 6pm to 7.15pm at St Mary’s Church, Shaw, when a film will be shown about the work of ATE.

Drinks and nibbles will be provided on arrival and all are welcome. For more information email shawchurchoffice@btconnect.com or telephone (01635) 40450.