Electrifying Teshie

Bernie Healy joins the first group of ESB volunteers who travelled to Accra on the Teshie School Project.

Picture 3,000 schoolchildren, ranging in age from infants to 18 years old. Many come from some of the poorest Third World conditions you can imagine, crammed into dark, unlit and depressing classrooms with dreadful sanitation.

Fast forward a few months and those same children return to Teshie to get a preview of what their newly refurbished school will look like in September 2008 – when the work of ESB/ElectricAid will be complete and they will see those same buildings gleaming in the sun. The school will have a Resource Centre and IT Room with many of the facilities taken for granted by First World children of today.

The joy, hope and tears of the children and teachers alike, on the Open Day held on Wednesday, April 22nd, stirred huge emotion in the volunteers and ESB personnel present. The efforts of the group, most working in conditions and heat, unlike any they had experienced before, was rewarded a thousand fold.

For the two weeks that this work was going on, the pupils had been given holidays but many turned up most days to take extra grinds and take part in examinations, as well as calling to say hello and introduce themselves to the painters and electricians from ESB Ireland – home of Damian Duff!

This initial group of volunteers was made up of ESB Power Generation, ESB Networks, ESBI and Corporate Centre staff – from the four corners of Ireland and many of whom had never met each other before. By the time the plane landed in Accra on Sunday, April 13th, serious bonding had already begun!

The two weeks were very different for the group on site. Week one saw much hard work, quite a few suffering from tummy bugs, acclimatising to intense heat and coming to terms with the poverty and sanitation that is Third World. Week two saw the fruits of our labour coming together, health problems over and the uplifting spirits and joy of the community at Teshie.

During the weekend in between, those who were fighting fit joined together to hire a bus to Elmina and a visit to a Rain Forest. Elmina is in a beautiful location by the coast, but Elmina Castle has a chilling history – it was built by the Portuguese in 1471 and became the largest slave trading post in the world. It was here that the slaves were kept until they were transported to their unknown destination. Many Afro- Americans originate from here.

This and the three-hour journey there gave us an insight into the history of Ghana and Africa, as our trip took us through many types of terrain and areas of huge poverty but also of some affluence. While there, a number of the ESB group managed to present a cheque to an Aids Hospital (Garbhán Blake), visit an Orphanage (Séamus O Ceallacháin), for which the group hopes to raise funds and approach the local Credit Union in Teshie (Dave Walshe) to possibly work with the teachers at the school to start a savings scheme.

Other resourceful members located improved food supplies, materials and equipment locally. The three 'team leaders', Gerard McCarthy, Martin O'Brien and Mick O'Connor, received much praise and homage from the rest of us for their unbelievable efforts and we feel sure Project Manager, Brian Cronly will be happy to enlist these three for any such projects in the future!

Spirits and banter on site were something to believe. As well as being highly qualified technically – it would appear that all of the volunteers did a sideline in stand up comedy! This was all part of the bonding and team effort of course and kept people going when times might have been a bit tough.

Everyone looked out for each other and everyone took such huge joy in all the little accomplishments along the way – switch on of first block, completion of painting of each room, switch on of Resource Centre, sourcing of some badly needed piece of material etc.

We often found it heart wrenching to have the children tell us they would love to come back with us, and the boys particularly all wanted to join English soccer clubs and hoped we could help. It was hard to detach yourself listening to tales of such hope and longing.

Educational standards at the schools are exceptionally high and we were well impressed with the level of study. To accommodate such large numbers the school works on a two-shift basis.

Electricity will mean so much to the school now – night classes can be conducted, a library is being fitted out and a large IT Room. This in itself will bring such huge positive changes that it is hard for us to realise what it must have been like before this project was undertaken.

We left Teshie with unbelievable memories: a truly wonderful group of colleagues who gave their all, a most amazing country full of history, hope, colour and such friendly people – but also of unimaginable poverty. Most of all we have left Teshie sadly, it has to be said, but with an tremendous feeling of having been privileged to be part of something really worthwhile.