Principal Investigator:
D. R. Elder, Agricultural Technical Institute
Collaborators in Ghana:
EPDRA , VoiceGhana, EPUC, Volta Regional Hospital, Rising Star Academy, and Mawuko Girls’ High School.
Collaborators in the United States:
The Noble and Romich Foundations, First United Methodist Men’s Group (Willard) , Westminster Presbyterian Church (Wooster), & Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO)
Description:
For the past 5 years, Dr. D.R. Elder, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ohio State's Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) has been engaged with the Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC) in Ho, Ghana working with EPUC faculty on projects aimed at alleviating poverty in rural villages. Along with Mr. Senyo Dzoagbe, professor in marketing at EPUC, Dr. Elder is working in six villages surrounding Ho coordinating microfinance and other community development activities. Additionally, they are currently conducting research in parent-child technology transfer in agricultural families. Many projects, including one's focused on microfinacing and animal health education involve collaborations with a number of private and non-profit entites in both Ghana and the United States:
Recent Developments:
Funding of eight revolving credit groups of more than 100 agriculturalists- Construction of two large and 13 small solar dehydrators to dry seeds and crops.
- Developed of two operating drip irrigation projects
- Providing immunizations for Mange, PPR, & Newcastle disease for more than 1000 goats, sheep and chickens in 6 towns each year.
- Created libraries in 10 schools with 100 books each, adding 50 books to each library annually.
- Provided 50 donated solar lanterns to midwives and traditional birth assistants in 2015. We will deliver 50 more in May 2016.
- Provided a small and a large solar pack to the Engineering Department of Mawuli Senior High School, with the capacity of charging dozens of laptops and cellphones and providing lighting of the dining hall.
Future Plans:
In May 2016 Jeremy Shechter, '14 graduate in Agricultural Engineering, will travel to Ghana to build a prototype aquaponics system with the help of EPUC students. The expectation is that EPUC will use this integrated system to teach agricultural students how to improve food security and incomes for small farmers they will encounter in their extension jobs upon graduation.- Also in May 2016 Dr. Nathan Crook, Assistant Professor in English and Agricultural Communication, will travel with our group to engage them in collecting stories from 32 storytellers in 8 small towns. By engaging students in primary research, students will discover Ghanaian storytellers' views of the changing role of storytelling in Ghana's modernizing rural society.