Project completion and Beach days
In the last week a lot has happened again and now we are already sitting here in Cape Coast and doing the last necessary organizational tasks under palm trees and with the sound of the sea in our ears. It is actually already the last blog entry for our project, madness how fast the time has passed! 😅
Since our last update here, we’ve been working diligently again on the last upcoming tasks. After an interesting (and very loud) Ghanaian church service in the morning and our first fufu at noon, we used Sunday afternoon to plan the new workshops. Thereby we bundled all our information from the conversations with the artisans and technicians and drafted a general workshop plan for carpenters, plumbers, painters and bricklayers. The building for the Maintenance Workshop is already under construction and so we designed the inside of the building with a sensible workflow within the workspace. 👍
Another task that was still pending was the creation of log books for the documentation of broken equipment. We then distributed these books to the medical departments. In them, all employees in the wards should note when a device is broken and the technician is not immediately available. We hope to further improve communication between medical and technical staff.
The last major task was to clear out the current workshop. Countless broken devices have accumulated that will certainly not be repaired. However, since no one has bothered to dispose of this equipment, a correspondingly large chaos has been created. In addition, there are supposedly quite a few devices waiting for spare parts, but on closer inspection of the devices it quickly becomes clear that in many cases it would be disproportionately expensive to buy spare parts for an obsolete device instead of simply purchasing a new device. After we have disposed of all the trash and removed all the broken equipment from storage so that it can finally be taken out of service by an authorized committee, we sorted through all the remaining equipment. We arranged the spare parts and labelled the different boxes. Last but not least, we created a tool trolley so that all screwdrivers & co. and also screws have a fixed place now. The workshop is hardly recognizable, one could even organize a dance party in it now so much scrap has migrated from the workshop and so much space is there now. We are pleased and hope that after a period of getting used to the new workshop system, the technicians will also stick to a tidy and organized workshop.
All in all, we have achieved a lot both in Berekum and in Techiman. Even if it was sometimes very exhausting, we had a lot of fun, learned a lot of new things and had a great project. Many thanks to my wonderful project partner Luise and to our loyal back office team! This eventful time will always remain in our memories!!! 🙂 We are now enjoying a few more days at the beach in Cape Coast 😁
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Text: Katharina Mai