Harpenden - Ghana Scouting.

I have just got back from a 1.5hr "quick" meeting with Jo Busby regarding Ghana and the expedition this year. Sally Crawford, one of the Explorers on the trip has written an article telling about her experience. You can find it here and it's well worth the read.
Talking to Jo you can see that she is passionate about the work and friends in Ghana and I had forgotten that it all started 20 years ago with the Harpenden Beaver Scouts collecting 20p coins in Smartie tubes. Each tube could hold £14 worth of 20p coins and that first year the Beavers collected >£1000. Of course the tube design has changed since then and you cant do that now. Things have gone full circle as now some of those coin collecting Beaver Scouts were on the trip this year.
Jo told me that her son, Thomas, while a Cub Scout at a camp in Scotland saw a black skinned Scout. This, it turns out, was 50 year old Francis who had come over from Ghana. The Cub Scout, Jo and the Commissioner became firm friends and little did she know that that was the start of a Scouting relationship that would last for 20 years and is still going. There has been 3 working trips to Hohoe in Ghana in 2006, 2008 and 2011 to work on different projects as well as many reconnaissance trips.
Jo has known Norman Hoare, the Headmaster of St Georges, for a long time and in talking to him got the school involved with her work. St Georges and the Gbi (pronounced B) schools are now linked and St Georges has donated around 4000 text books as well as the pupils raising >£1400 through various schemes at school.

If you haven't already done so I recommend that you have a read of the article by Sally. It is good to hear how the young people of our District, at the same time as having a good time, can help others that are not as fortunate as we are in the Harpenden area.

Rod Keen
Webmaster.