GRID and NEA

Sustainable Development in Ghana

GRID

Opportunities to hear the Mensahs

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David & Brenda Mensah

Dr. David Mensah, GRID and NEA’s Executive Director, and his wife Brenda have been invited to present at three venues in late summer and early fall of 2014.

Sunday, August 10th at St. Paul’s Leaskdale

David will be speaking at both the 9:00 am and 11 am services. In between services, Brenda will be presenting about GRID and NEA in the Fireside Room.

Sunday, September 7th at The People’s Church

As part of People’s Global Missions Conference, David will be speaking at all three services that day.

Saturday, September 20th at Uxbridge Baptist Church

The Ghana Health Team is hosting its annual Night in Northern Ghana as a fundraiser for the team. Tickets are available for the 5:30 pm meal (cooked by Brenda and her crew!) and dessert auction. Following the meal, there will be a program open to all in the auditorium, and David will be speaking during that time. For tickets, please email Kim Lawson.

 

Pharmacists Making a Difference

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Each year a team of 60 health professionals travel to the GRID/NEA project area in Carpenter, Northern Ghana. In two weeks, they treat nearly ten thousand people who would otherwise not be able to access health care. This multidisciplinary team includes surgeons, doctors, dentists, optometrists, nurses … and pharmacists.

The volunteer service of health team pharmacists Susan Fockler, Linda Dresser, and Paula Vanderpluym was recently recognized by the Ontario Branch of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, which presented them with the E. Amy Eck award for a Humanitarian/Volunteer Project.

In addition, Susan Fockler, who has been the health team’s lead pharmacist since the first year, was also recently recognized for her accomplishments as Director of Pharmacy at Ross Memorial Hospital. She has led the hospital pharmacy in making incredible gains in efficiency and effectiveness in the past seven years, and in February 2014 received the “Leadership and Best Practices” Award from the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists.

Congratulations to Susan and your teammates! We are grateful for your commitment and service that is making a difference both in Canada and abroad.

Susan Fockler receiving the 2014 CSHP Leadership and Best Practices Award
Susan Fockler received the CSHP Leadership and Best Practices Award (Feb 2014)

eMi Team Opportunity

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GRID and NEA want to improve health in the Carpenter area in a sustainable manner. We have been implementing large health projects and hosting international health teams in support of that dream. Both organizations believe that establishing a hospital in the area may be one of the next possible steps to achieving year-round access to quality health care.

This year, our board members are studying the feasibility of building a hospital in Carpenter. To do this, we need to have accurate information about building plans and costs, and so we have applied to Engineering Ministries International Canada (eMi Canada) for assistance. eMi Canada is a non-profit Christian development organization mobilizing architects, engineers, and other design professionals who donate their skills for projects like this.

Right now, eMi Canada is recruiting professional volunteers to conduct a Carpenter site visit and develop hospital plans so that our board members can make a fully-informed, prayerful decision about launching a hospital. A full team description is available on the eMi Canada site.

If you are interested in contributing to or learning more about this team opportunity, please contact Kevin Wiens of eMi Canada.

Super Saturday

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This was it…our final day. The excavation team worked a full day and they left the pond in Teselima with the project complete and the machines in wonderful working order. The build/teach team spent half of the day in Babator and were able to paint most of the exterior of the church, finish up renovations at the school, and sort out all the teaching materials left.

A few of us stayed in Carpenter to finish organizing the materials left here in storage. In the afternoon, many of us headed back to Teselima to see the work the excavation team had done since our last visit there. It was great to see both machines working beautifully together.

Tonight in our closing ceremonies, after our fabulous dinner eaten outside, and after watching the soccer match on a borrowed TV, some team members spoke on behalf of all of us. Phil praised the Ghanaians for their part on the team, noting that they rose earlier than the rest of us to fuel up and prepare the machines, and admiring how well and how quickly they were able to replace the bulldozer chain considering they did it all ‘by hand,’ with no fuel pumps to fill the tanks and no air compressors for powered wrenches.

Joyce encouraged and blessed the teaching team for all of their efforts and true investment of themselves to the challenging task at hand, and Pat thanked Abraham and his hospitality team for the amazing job they did feeding us three hot meals every day, cleaning up our living quarters each morning, and working so hard to get our very dirty clothes ‘whiter than white,’ scrubbing it all by hand and hanging it out in the sun all day. Joe praised the build team for their hard work that effectively touched the village in three areas: the church, the latrine and the school. Gifts were exchanged and it was such a joy to see each Canadian team member in awe of the beauty and forethought that was put into each gift. We missed Brenda’s presence these two weeks, but David and the NEA team did a wonderful job in her place!

Luggage is packed, weighed and sitting in the gazebo for its early morning pick up. We board the bus with ‘breakfast to go’ and start our way back to Accra. Please pray for continued health safety on the roads. Pray that as we watch the landscape pass by through the windows of our bus, God will remind us of the lessons learned. We are all aware that we are soon returning to life and business as usual three weeks away, but we rejoice in knowing that back here in Ghana, there are wonderful pastors and friends lifting us up in prayer as we do what God has called us to do.

May you too be encouraged and blessed for holding down the fort while we were away, and holding us up in prayer. Thank you all!

Kim

Thank you to our volunteers

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In our May 2013 Newsletter, we had the opportunity thank the volunteers, families, and supporters of our 2013 Ghana Health Team. It is impossible to describe the depth of gratitude that we have to all of you who enabled this team of professionals to bring healing to the poorest of the poor in Ghana.

But we’re also indebted to another group of volunteers, who worked in frigid conditions in the middle of an Ontario winter. This past February, these dear friends packed and loaded a container of supplies for our ongoing work in Ghana.

David and Brenda Mensah were in Carpenter when the container’s contents arrived. They write:

We were all excited on Wednesday when we heard the truck pulling up by the training centre where we were in the midst of studies with about 80 pastors. They were a great help unloading it and within a couple of hours had everything off and to their various corners on the project site. We had a pickup truck by the back that took the school supplies, books and used clothes to the hall. By the time we had finished there was a mountain that pretty much took over the room!

We really smiled when we saw all the building supplies come out: scaffolding, ladders, wheelbarrows, shovels and the like! Amazing. This should make our next building project a piece of cake.

The manure spreader rolled off the truck and down the ramp just perfectly. They had a pickup close buy for the anesthesia machine and it moved pretty easily too.

I’m not sure who was the most excited — Soale with all his aquaculture equipment or Abraham with all his kitchen equipment! Whatever the case they are both putting the items for their departments to good use already. The Canadian aquaculture specialist arrived on Wednesday and they are already laying out the airstones to produce more fish. Abraham and his crew, finished with the pastors, have a group of about 30 chiefs/elders today and are getting ready for 80 Leyaata volunteers/health professionals who are coming next week!

Our deepest thanks to all who were involved on those snowy, cold, winter days in Glenn’s yard to make this possible. Every item will serve its purpose and add to all that is happening in and through the work God has called each of us to here in Mo land.

2013 Ghana Health Team Departure

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Ghana Health Team logo
The 2013 Ghana Health Team is ready to go! Barring any delays due to Ontario’s weather, the team plans to fly out of Toronto this evening.

This is an amazing team of volunteers. To give you a sense of the breadth of skills and depth of experience that they represent, we’ve shared a list of team members and their current professional roles.

Please pray for the team as they travel. We want them to arrive safely, in good health, and with the energy that they’ll need for the many patients waiting for them.

We will post updates from the team here. If you would like to subscribe to receive these updates by email, please complete the subscription form. (If you’re receiving this by email, then congratulations! You’re already subscribed, and you can expect to hear from us soon as we receive news from the team.)