Speaker Barry Empson---Kare for Kaleo

Barry first visited the village of Kaleo in 2004 because his son was teaching there as a VSO worker. To get to the village it requires a 13 hour journey on mainly rough unmade roads from Accra. It is a village in the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana, about 400 miles inland from the capital, Accra.  Whilst Ghana is a third world country the UWR is the poorest region of the country so that poverty is extreme.  Care for Kaleo is a registered UK Charity (No 1119385) and provides a Nursery School for 80 children and a Primary School for 145 children from Kaleo and the surrounding villages.

When Barry and his wife first arrived there they found that the local church (a baptist chapel) had been completely wrecked in a storm so they offered to help rebuild it. But the local pastor asked that instead they helped with funds so that the local community could rebuild it. He said "if you give a man a fish he can feed his family for a day but if you give him a fishing rod he can feed them for life".

After the church was rebuilt the charity continued on providing funds to build first a nursery for 80 children followed by a primary school for 145 children. The latest project is a library which was completed last year. The next aim is to construct a Junior High School which commenced at the beginning of 2019.

For more information on the charity please see their page on the Baildon Methodist Church web site by clicking on the following link - Care for Kaleo

Their latest newsletter can be read by clicking here - Newsletter-Issue-13.pdf