Speaker Meeting with partners, 6.45 for 7pm

Action Through Enterprise (ATE) was founded by Sarah Albeboure with the help of her parents and sister 5 years ago and since then the charity has gone from strength to strength. Sarah first went to Ghana as a primary school teacher on a 6-week stint as a VSO worker. It turned out to be a life-changing trip. She gave up her job, formed ATE, and now she is splitting her time between her parents’ home in Ramsbury and her home in Lawra, north west Ghana, where she lives with her Ghanaian husband.  5 months ago she gave birth to a baby girl.

ATE aims to change the lives of children and adults who live in one of the poorest parts of Ghana. By providing free school meals, support for small businesses and care for disabled children, it’s making an enormous difference to thousands of people.

President Mike was delighted to welcome Sarah, the Chief Executive of ATE for this her third visit to our Rotary Club. 

Recently, a professional film-maker made a 20-minute documentary for ATE, free of charge, to showcase the work that it does in Lawra, the rural district in the north-west of Ghana reached only by an 18-hour bus ride from the airport in Accra. Sarah showed us a shortened version of the film and then reminded us that in 2015 we donated £2750 to ATE. She would take this opportunity to tell us how that money has been used to support 6 small businesses under the charity’s BIZATE programme.

She gave a little more detail of 3 of the businesses in particular. One was started by a qualified seamstress who was unable to do much work because she had no tools of her trade, not even a pair of scissors. She applied for a cash grant but instead ATE bought her a sewing machine, needles and threads and gave her training for one year. She now has a thriving profit-making business. Secondly, a man who made pots of extremely high quality, was given a cash grant, mentoring and training for a year (since extended to a second year) and he too now has a successful business the profits of which enable him to support his wife and 9 children. Lastly, a 74 year-old sheep farmer who wanted to increase the size of his flock to better support his family of 6 children. ATE bought him the extra sheep he wanted.

Sarah said that of the Rotary Club’s donation, £1300 has been given out in cash grants and the remainder has been used to buy tools, goods and to pay for the training and mentoring schemes. The 6 businesses are now all making good profits, the average across the six is £185 a month, and their turnovers have more than trebled. This means that these 6 small business owners can now fully support the 35 family members who directly depend on them.

Action Through Enterprise website