Moringa Community: Our Work

Moringa Community School of Trades "MCST"

Our completed Training Center as of May 2010

Moringa's Woodworking Shop February 2010

Moringa's Home Canning & Food Preservation Classroom February 2010

Training Center Eastern Elevation Feb. 2010

Center10-09

Construction Phase September 2009

Nana Kweku peers intently as Abu explains Moringa Community's proposal on a laptop given to him by supporters in the US.

Our bright blue truck has become a symbol of hope among Baako and its neighboring villages.

To accelerate construction, the villagers undertook the herculean effort of replacing a plank pedestrian crossing with a bridge capable of supporting the Moringa Community truck!

A young girl, along with other children, gathers rocks to make concrete for the Community Center.

Volunteers prepare concrete.

Christian, Muslim and African Traditional religious leaders bless the construction site— what a beautiful model for the world, in which everyone works together in the spirit of hope and cooperation!

Our Trade School in Breman Baako, Central Region.
Since completing the construction of our Moringa Bridge in July 2009, and building our dirt road into the bush to better access our compound by truck, the final phases of our building construction moved ahead by leaps and bounds. The reader can get a sense of our hard fought construction efforts and progress by scrolling down to view earlier entries in this chronology below.

Understand this remarkable trade school was wrought from uncleared and inhospitable bush in less than two years time. Our labor was 100% that of the hand with no aid of heavy machinery or beasts of burden. Our materials,,, from our nearly 2000 onsite handmade masonry blocks to the lumber that frame our roof trusses hewn from the trees on our nine acre compound, to the stones for our concrete aggregate gathered by the village children, all this was the collective work of our fully vested village volunteers. They did this work for no monetary wage, there only pay thus far is the hope of building a better future for themselves and their children. Remember, Moringa's model is to help Africans help Africans, not simply gift them and do the work for them. They own this project fully and therefore take enormous pride in it.

(Brief sidebar from Jeff Lohr) Folks, here is a perfect example of where I/we desperately need help from someone willing to volunteer to organize and edit our web site. We so need a dedicated Webmaster! Managing this site, writing updates, and also managing the business, fundraising, correspondence, and the day to day operation of MoringaCommunity.Org , the fact is I simply don't have enough time to do this Web Site justice. I am doing my best here but I also have to make a living through my "paid" day job at www.JDLohrWood.com Anyone interested in doing some satisfying volunteer work, please email me at JeffryLohr@aol.com

A bit of history of how we built this building from whole cloth.

See the construction progress and tangible results of the efforts of the villagers of Baako in Current Progress & Future Plans.

We hope the following will tell the powerful story of an entire community coming together to build a brighter future for themselves and their country. For frequent updates on our day to day progress, please see our Moringa Community Blog.

Support from Chief Nana Kweku

Upon his return to Ghana in August 2008, Abu travelled daily to meet with chiefs, elders, and others of influence in order to implement Moringa Community’s programs. After learning Moringa’s vision, chiefs Nana Kweku Adu-Twum and Nana S.A.B. Aidoo, as well as Elder Abusuayin Kwesi Gyansah embraced our project, generously granting 9 acres of land near the village of Baako for the construction of the Moringa Community Center. Especially fortunate is that the land Nana Kweku has given us is near electric lines, which eliminates the need to start the Community Center using generators alone. All Nana Kweku and the others ask for in return is that we provide the tools, supplies, and technology that will bring our vision to reality.

Moringa Community Truck (and Bridge!)

An important step to keep the momentum and community support growing on our Moringa Center land clearing and construction was the purchase of our Moringa Community Truck in October 2008 that was funded by Jeffry and Linda Lohr, and Ralph and Diane Morini. Our Ghanaian friends and project workers were very excited to have this truck to better enable transport of our work crews and building materials.

However, the materials still needed to be carried by hand to the site, as there was only a small plank bridge crossing a stream. The Baako community banded together to build a bridge that could support the Moringa Community truck. For additional pictures, visit 2009: Training Center Construction.

This truck has become the symbol of hope for a brighter future as it travels from village to village, attracting more and more volunteers to our vision.

Involving the Entire Community

We are deeply moved by the many volunteers in Baako and surrounding areas who are contributing their time, skill, and energy to our vision. This is why the word "community" is included in our name, "Moringa Community"— we are bringing people together in creating a better future.

Of all the photos that Abu, our project director in Ghana, has sent us, some of the most touching photos are of the children working together in teams to collect rocks to make the concrete for the foundation of our Moringa Training Center.

Unlike much of our terrain here in the USA, there are no significant deposit of easily accessible rock in Ghana. Added to this, we of course have no earth moving equipment, tractors, backhoes, and steam shovels available to us in this region to harvest this much needed basic building material. Even if there where such resources available Moringa Community does not have the funds to hire such help.

As a result, what the people of many neighboring villages to our construction site have done is organize the children to hand gather rocks throughout the countryside. Once gathered, the rocks are carefully sorted for size. Those that can be used as is are separated from those that must be crushed by adults and then loaded on our Moringa Truck by the children for transport to our site.

For more details about the work of our amazing volunteers, our progress in building a bridge to transport materials, and other activities, please visit our blog.

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