Our First Mission Site Visits of the 2025 Trip

 There is so much to write about today, it is hard to know where to start.  Monday morning was the start of our mission site visits.  We began with a currency exchange to ensure we could continue to support the sustainability projects (aka artisan crafts and souvenirs) as we worked our way around Ho.  

The first destination was the leper clinic and village.  It is a new mission site that we heard of in 2021, but are visiting for the first time today. We bumped along the rutted easement drive to wind around shops and homes before arriving at the entrance gates.  The caretaker/manager welcomed us as we stepped into the open-air pavilion to find many of the residents assembling on benches, chairs, and wheelchairs to greet us.  Bright, colorful bags were displayed behind the welcome table in a formation we will quickly recognize as the welcome ceremony.  We were offered seats in rows of plastic chairs as market bags, overnight bags, and satchels were added to the display.  The bright colors of the cloth bags echoed the beautiful cloth of Saturday’s shopping trip. 

*There will be pictures to come, but I am writing this after 11PM and I need to gather photos from the rest of the team!

An official welcome ceremony begins with Rev. Elisha Emmanuel Attu, our EP Church escort, greeting the caretaker or administrator and explaining to us the work of the church at this location.  Rev. Elisha introduces himself to the people assembled, and then the caretaker introduces his mission using the Ewe language, with Rev. Elisha translating to English for us.  What follows is Osofo Patrick Morris’s introduction of the group.  After the introduction, we often have a presentation on the particular needs of the location.  In this case, the immediate needs are funeral costs for two members who have recently passed, funds to empty the septic system, and repair or replacement of street lights that were damaged in a storm.  However, there is on-going need for support. We learned that the clinic and village are not funded by the government but instead rely on donations and the money they can raise when mission groups like ours visit and purchase the bags made by four of the women who reside there.  Needless to say, everyone left with a beautiful cloth bag or two.  Our group responded with an immediate donation of 3,000 cedis to meet the costs of all 3 immediate needs.  We enjoyed a presentation of songs from the residents, presented bags of medical supplies to their clinic nurse, and then proceeded to tour the clinic.  As we waved goodbye and bumped down the road and on to our next visit, we began thinking about ways we can offer further support.  The video below includes the presentation of songs from the members.

                                        

With the excitement of purpose, we returned to the Kekeli Hotel and walked across the EP Church Headquarters compound to their medical clinic where we learned about the work of the clinic where they offer lab work, medical consultation, ENT and Eye specialist services, mental health, vaccinations and prenatal/maternity and women’s health.  The clinic also serves as medical support for nearby schools and the local neighborhoods.  Here we donated two large bags of medical supplies including surgical, IV, bandages and over the counter medications to stock their pharmacy and assist in their work.  The clinic sees 15-35 patients per day depending on the season and the specific need.  We were introduced to the director who is also the mental health doctor and the ENT specialist as well as a team of nurses and midwives.  The EP Church Clinic is a relatively new mission, having started about 2 years ago.  It is successful and filling a need, and is already expanding to develop new consultation rooms and requires funding to expand the maternity ward.  Currently, the ward includes two beds and a birthing table in a small room that would barely be considered a bedroom at home.  The need to develop the maternity ward certainly struck a chord with those of us that have experienced labor and delivery!

Our third visit of the day was to the Prima Water Company project.  The company is operated by the EP Church as a means to develop an additional income stream beyond weekly giving.  A mission and primary purpose of the EP Church Moderator when he was elected four years ago, this company employes 8-10 people where it harvests, filters, purifies and packages water into the 500mL bags used by the residents in local villages.  As we emerged from the van we immediately heard the cyclical pumping of water throughout the buildings.  We received a warm welcome from the manager and supervisor who took us on a tour of the facility.  We were shown the 100m deep well heads and learned about the underground pipe system that transfers the water to the tank farm.  The tank farm inclues 3 pair of large poly tanks for Raw Water, Buffering and Treated Water.  The system purifies the water twice before proceeding to bag.  We were shown the filter room and followed the water as it moved throughout the process for purification.  As we moved from filtering into the packing room, we donned blue hair nets which provided fun photo ops (see below).  The water is bagged in an automated system and collected into “box bags” which are then carried into the warehouse room for distribution. It was apparent to us that this water system was engineered with intentionality to maximize profit and efficiency.  The entire operation is streamlined as the water moves through the stages of purification to ensure both safety and quality, complete with state of the art packaging systems that allow machines to do the work with minimal manual labor.

The Prima Water Company is fully authorized by the Ghanaian FDA (Food & Drug Authority) who monitor consistency of product and accuracy of labeling.  Each bag is stamped with the FDA seal and the date of processing is heat set into the seam of the bag.  These bags are heat-sealed and cut in a mechanical operation. Employees collect bags as they come off the line.  Everything flows mechanically until it hits the warehouse where young men carry “boxes” to stack and then onto trucks.  Development priorities for this project include conveyor systems to move from packing to warehouse to transportation and a bottle packaging machine.  The room pictured below is prepared and available for bottle packaging, but the funds to purchase the packaging machine are needed to expand their production and increase the return on this investment.

This is the only manufacturing facility we have toured on these mission trips, as most jobs in Ghana are entrepreneurial sole proprietors, service industries or agriculture.  It was incredible to witness this development and once again we boarded the van with ideas and excited chatter flowing!  Prima Water Company is truly a first-world country processing facility being operated well in a third-world country, which proves what can be done with the right assistance and education.