THOSE behind the village to village charity in Buriton say a lot has been achieved in 2016, and they are in a good position to continue helping those living in the Dominase region of Ghana next year.

The charity helps to improve lives and schools in the rural villages of Dominase, and so far has provided sanitation, organised school books, and helped train teachers.

Charity committee spokesman Doug Jones said: “Thanks to money raised in and around Buriton, the ‘Village-to-Village’ charity has been able to make some very good progress in the last few months.

“This includes completing almost all the 71 family toilets that were started earlier in the year, and there’s enough with money for another 70 ready.

“Our group of teachers have all completed their teacher-training courses and we have now identified another group of eight teachers we can support from now on.

“Work has commenced on another block of school toilets at another school village, which should reduce sickness levels at the school and boost attendances.

“We have also started exploring how we might be able to help provide another 2,000 reading books for school libraries in the first part of 2017, and plans are progressing for another inter-school reading competition, with heats and practices with the finals likely to be in March.”

And thanks to these successes, the charity has been able to access funds from foundations and charities, to carry out more work in Ghana.

Grants have been gained from the Waterloo Foundation, the De La Rue Charitable Trust and the Open Gate Trust to help us with our projects.

And the regular giving initiative is now boosting the charity’s income and helping the team plan future support.

Donating £1 a month buys a child’s reading book every month, £2 a month buys school librarey books, and £5 a month buys a toilet for a family every year – or enough school books for a whole classroom of children every year.

Mr Jones said: “Our sincere thanks to everyone who has already started to help in this way.”

There is more information about the link with Dominase on the community website: www.buriton.info/dominase