My Trip to Ghana - Day 1
I’m going to be posting a diary of my trip to Ghana in instalments… a little late, maybe, but it should give you an idea of what I did as it happened!

I had several objectives for the trip: to meet our staff over there; visit some of the projects we’re involved in and meet partners; get a better insight into particular Ghanaian issues; and finally to meet Ministers and other decision makers to advocate for more funds to be put into eyecare.

Travelling through Ghana
After arriving in Accra from Heathrow, the first task was to drive to Boltanga. Accra is on the coast, and Boltanga is almost on the border with Burkina Faso, so this drive essentially covered the whole of Ghana from south to north. Initially we had planned to fly, but internal flights were cancelled. Although this meant we used almost a whole day for travelling, it gave me a real insight into what the country was like – the difference between the capital, towns, shanty areas and rural mud huts was stark.

Rehabilitation projects
On arrival we had a brief meeting with the partner running the rehabilitation projects in Upper East (the Anglican Church) and others. The meeting was led by Father Jacob Ayeebo, the Project Coordinator for all three projects.

This programme provides good service to ‘service users’ (as the beneficiaries are called), but there is a concern that the partner is wholly dependent on Sightsavers. In order to encourage sustainability we want to encourage them to find funds from elsewhere as well. For this reason we have offered them help in fundraising, both from local companies and the local District Assembly.

The rehab services they provide include showing how people who are blind can find their way around using a white cane or how to do everyday tasks such as cooking, how you tell the difference between different denominations of money or skills to find wo