This past June, we were in Ghana for two weeks. The first week we co-hosted a team from Drake University (Des Moines, IA) and the second week was for TMP’s Board to come together onsite for the first time as a group. The Board spent time in the community meeting with stakeholders, TMP Academy staff, and the leadership of Tsipasi. Future plans were reviewed and as a group, we continued to put details to the larger vision that has been cast. As we’ve stated before, moving forward hand in hand with the community is what we’re all about. Without Tsipasi leading the way, we don’t move.
Staying true to this, we held multiple meetings to ensure we stay in step with the community’s expectations and our previously agreed upon approach. The great partnership we have with Tsipasi can’t be overstated and we are very grateful to work with such wonderful people. While we were discussing future development plans, the village leadership took us for a walk. Unbeknownst to us, they had already decided as a group to donate land to TMP for our organization to use for community development purposes. We are excited to begin making plans for the use of the land which will enable us to build teacher housing, raise chickens and goats for TMP Academy, and other projects that will provide jobs to the community along with job skill training. There is a lot to look forward to.
This year, TMP partnered with Acts in Afrika to provide a free onsite medical clinic, using TMP Academy as the gathering place. It was part of our vision for the school to be used for community events such as this and it was great to see that come to fruition. Over the course of the clinic, we served over 200 people from the community, providing basic medical care and medications for free. Each student of TMP Academy was included in this clinic and all of them received medication to ensure the basic issues they face, such as malaria, are treated appropriately. This clinic was made available by some very generous donors to TMP and we are grateful for those that get involved to make work like this a reality.
The trip was concluded with time spent with our in-country staff and team. Without our wonderful group, the work we set out to do wouldn’t be nearly as effective as it is with them. This group oversees all of our daily operations, hires staff at TMP Academy, and manages all projects we do in Tsipasi. We really enjoyed our time discussing plans, celebrating, and planning for the future. We truly have a great group.
As we look forward we have a lot of work to do, chiefly, that work consists of education efforts at TMP Academy. We are in need of your support to continue to provide high quality education for the children in Tsipasi. If you give currently, we thank you! If you haven’t yet made that commitment, we’d ask you to consider either a one-time or recurring gift. Your contribution goes directly the work you hear about. So, if you’d help us meet our goal of funding our 2020 budget we’d be grateful. In order to fully fund our annual budget, we need to raise $34,000.
Will you help us?
You can donate at www.themoveproject.org/donate