Piano Improvisation by Charity Volunteer David Piper

Below is a video of David Piper who volunteers for the charity improvising for all charity supporters.

Why Not Sponsor a Mother

The Foundation for Community Inspiration has now started sponsoring mothers in Kolkata, India. You can sponsor a mother through the foundation.

Sponsoring mothers is one of the most effective ways of ending poverty and improving peoples lives. This is because the effects of nutrition, and clean water and health care on pregnant mothers and young children has huge effects on the life span of people in communities mainly through the direct effects of this health care on the individual mothers and children. The knock on effects on the community in terms of economy and quality of life increase also. By inspiring people through health care and helping improving peoples lives, the communities will feel empowered to live better lives.

During the program a health care worker will visit poor families in slums and poor villages around Kolkata, monitor the health of pregnant mothers until their children are around 5, take any necessary healthcare actions, and ensure that the family eats healthily, supports mothers, help with family planning and immunisations.

At the foundation you can donate an amount of your choosing toward sponsoring mothers.

Ghanain Foods

Nutrition as we have talked about a lot at F4CI is crucial towards ending poverty. Providing good nutrition for young children is essential towards their healthy development as adults and contributes significantly towards the health of a person in later life. Good health can stave or Malaria, HIV, AIDS, Diarrhoa and many other illnesses which can cause death. Helping people live longer helps them work, be educated, earn higher leves of income and benefit the economy.

Today we are going to have a quick look at some foods in Ghana and how good the current Ghanain diet is.

Ghanain Foods

Fufu

 

Conventional west African fufu is made by boiling such starchy foods as cassava, yam, plantain or rice, then pounding them into a glutinous mass, usually in a giant, wooden mortar and pestle.

Banku

Banku/Akple: Fermented corn/cassava dough mixed proportionally and cooked in hot water into a smooth whitish consistent paste. Served with soup, stew or a pepper sauce with fish.

Ampesi

Ampesi: A meal of either boiled yam/plantain/cocoyam/cassava or a mix of any two or all of them served with stew/gravy/kontomire or thick palm-nut soup.

Gari

Gari is made from fresh cassava, which is grated and the excess liquid is then squeezed out. The remaining cassava is then fried with over an open fire, on a broad metal pan that has been greased with a little oil, could be palm oil or other vegetable fat.

The result product is crisp and crunchy to taste, and is stored easily and can be eaten with stew or soup or shito and fish. Or in secondary schools it can be soaked with water milk and sugar.

The Current Diet

The above foods are examples of popular favourite Ghanain dishes with the most popular being fufu. These dishes are often starchy and based on root crops such as yams and cassava. Ghanains also rely on fruit and cereals. This means that most Ghanains have food that meets their energy requirements however there is a lack of lipids and protein in the diet. This would not appear the most serious of problems, more so would be the acute and chronic malnourishment in particular areas of Ghana such as the north, and among some of the young, of which a quarter may be staunted. The prevalance of malnutrition has come down in the country, partly also due to breastfeeding increasing which is needed to help boost the nutrition of young children. The issues of poor nutrition in the north and among children persists mainly due to transport issues, unstable production and insufficient purchsing power.

Ghana has made progress in pockets of the country, namely in the more built up south, however areas such as the north need more work to help them flourish.

In summary Ghana has a starchy diet with foods such as fruit and cereals. Most of their favourite dishes are based on various derivations of these basic products. The diet as well as breastfeeding and school feeding programs have helped Ghana become reasonably sufficient nutritionally at least in pockets of the country. The country is making progress in these areas and is moving towards a more consistent nutritional coverage of the country. This shows the country is making progress and that at least malnutrition is not as widespread as it used to be. In terms of moving forward NGO’s and governments should look to assist the northern regions of the country and continue to help those in areas already being help ensuring that the pockets which are suffering are subsequently assissted.

Hedge Fund Land Grab Robbing Africans of their Livelihoods

For the past few years Hedge Funds and other large western institutions have been buying up huge swathes of land in Africa – equivalent to an area the size of France. This is detrimental because the land which is being bought is being leased from african governments however the land is inhabited by local Africans. Up to 90% of African land is untitled and hence owned by the state. This all means that Africans are being driven off their land which they need to farm, work and live off and is detrimental because the western institutions buying up the land are not using it for any purpose but to make themselves richer. The point is that the land is now being unused when it is needed by local Africans for the reasons stated.

What is happening is that because most of the land is untitled and ownded by the state corrupt government electives are selling it off to western institutions so that they get a piece of the pie. This should really be illegal because the land is owned by the people and should be used for the people. It is not right that officials should sell off land which is not theirs for personal profit.

Unfortunately it is yet another example of how western financial institutions are making money at the expense of everyone else.

The solutions to this problem are;

1) Stop African Government Electives from having stakes in the western financial institutions investments by having an international body to monitor and prosecute them if they cross the line.
2) Give African communities who currently have land the rights to that land.
3) Prevent the land from being given to foreign institutions and create a system to ensure that land is primarily given to and used by small scale farmers.
4) Recognize the rights of local Africans by providing a good legal structure

Resources

[1] http://www.landcoalition.org/sites/default/files/publication/1205/ILC%20GSR%20report_ENG.pdf
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/02/african-governments-land-deals

Video Testimonials for Budukwaa Project

Denzil from Blue Skies has produced a video testimonial for our Budukwaa Project which F4CI completed.

Video Testimonial from our Budukwaa Project

Denzil from Blue Skies has produced a testimonial video for the kitchen extention F4CI funded in Ghana. See below.

Budukwaa Rural School Project Photos

The following slideshow shows the pictures from our Budukwaa Rural School Project which has been supporting the community children for the past 3 years in education. The centre is equipped with much needed drainage facilites and rainwater harvesting for the children.

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With 7 billion on earth, a huge task before us

With the advent of the worlds 7 billionth person, the worlds resources are becomming increasingly stretched, agricultural systems are being pushed, rainforests are being cut down, groundwater is being depleted, species are threatened. How will we deal with the pressure being put under the worlds resources if the population keeps on growing the way it does?

See the following video with Jeffrey Sachs on CNN, and read their article http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/17/opinion/sachs-global-population/index.html.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=bestoftv/2011/10/21/am-jeffrey-sachs.cnn

Charity Walk April 2012

Thanks to everyone who took part in our charity walk 2012. The walk took place around Rutland Waters peninsula. It was a sunny day with no rain fortunately. The dogs came and enjoyed a breath of fresh air, we had a nice lunch afterwards and raised a little money for the charity. We did we have to admit cut the walk a little short after it took us 2 hours to walk 2 miles (or as some argued 4 miles) so we could make it back in time for lunch. We are now looking forward to our next event which will take place on jubilee day where we our looking at some people having open houses on the foundations main offices road.

Enjoy donating to Specific Programs at F4CI

You can now donate to specific programs at www.f4ci.co.uk. Programs at time of writing include our Blue Skies program which allows you to donate to support a community in Ghana. The community will be supported by by providing it with facilities such as a bore hole or a school. We are waiting for Blue Skies to select programs for funding at around the end of May 2012.

Donating to a specific program allows you to track the success of your donation. Because you are donating to a specific cause you can follow that program on our website as it develops or by signing up for our emails or through following our social media, all of which you can find thorugh our website www.f4ci.co.uk.

The sort of information we tend to post includes testimonials which allows you to feel how our work really effects communities from their perspective and allows you to gauge how much community memebrs appreciate the efforts. You can read and watch vidoes about our partners, and learn about the communities to feel closer to them.

All in all donating to a specific progam really allows you to connect with a program and experience the appreciation of your gifts from the communities involved. By seeing the photos of finished programs you are able to see the results of your work and watch any videos about them. We hope that by becomming involved at the foundation you will get as much joy as you give through your support.