Ghana – Day 3

This morning we left the Freeman Centre – a Methodist guest house – for the Methodist Women’s Training Centre in Kumasi. We were greeted by Mrs Aretha Graham Addai, the college principal, who explained the history of the centre.

The centre was originally built as a training institute for the wives of Ghanaian Methodist ministers back in 1947. British missionaries would teach ministers’ wives the skills they would need to run a household. In the 1960s, the centre turned into a training college for women, teaching them employment skills.

Today, the college runs high school-level courses in fashion, hairdressing and catering, and has a student population of 167 women. The three-year courses are recognised by the polytechnics, and the four year advanced courses prepare students for universities. There are also two week courses that teach the basics of bead-making and how to decorate flip-flops. Many of the women board at the college, sleeping 10 to a room with their single trunk acting as a wardrobe. Besides their core subject, the women are given a grounding in English (all the lessons are taught in English), maths, Information and Communication Technology and science. They will visit a better-equipped school in Kumasi if they need to use a science lab. Many of the computers, sewing machines and hair setters that we saw had been provided by funding from the British Methodist Conference.

Mrs Graham Addai explained how heartbreaking it is when a woman at the college is forced to leave because she cannot pay the fees, which amount to £255 a term for boarders and £150 for day-students. The payment of the 32 staff, contractors and general running of the college totals around £1,000 a month. There are plans to build a wash room with flush toilets when the money is available.

We left the college around 11am to travel to Wa in the North West of the country. The catering students provided us with many delicious snacks for our journey, for which we were very thankful.

Along the route, we stopped by the Wenchi Methodist Hospital in the town of Wenchi. We were shown around the hospital by Bernard Clement Kwasi, the CEO, who told us that there had been many improvements since he started in the job 18 years ago; from the provision of facilities to the numbers of staff. We met with medical staff as we were shown around the wards, with the builders of a new facility for patients’ families and with the two hospital chaplains. Bernard outlined the current situation at the hospital, explaining what was working well and what needed to be improved.

Shortly before 5pm, we were back on the road once more, heading north to Wa in the Upper West region of Ghana.

Photo: Students at the Methodist Women’s Training Centre.

Karen Burke – Media Officer