Background

The Yamoransa Community Centre was built for the people of Yamoransa as part of a Yale Alumni Service Corp (YASC) initiative to help develop the community. The building has 4 compartments which comprises an ICT Centre, Home Economics Room, Library and a Conference Room.

Basic schools in Yamoransa and its environs study a Basic Design & Technology (BDT) subject which comprises Catering and Sewing collectively named Home Economics (HE) and an optional choice of Visual Arts. Catering and Sewing lessons involve not just reading but a lot of constant practice to master the course. However, there is a need to have a fully furnished HE room where students can visit to practice lessons learned from the course. The HE Room in the Yamoransa ICT Centre needs to be furnished with at least the basic components to practice the course. 

The IMPLEMENTERS team, at the request of the President of both Helping Africa & Friends of Yamoransa Foundations, Dr. Deborah Rose commenced an initial needs assessment process in October 2019 to determine the key requirements to successfully complete the project.

After a carefully completed assessment process for the project, the following are the findings:

•  The HE room was initially constructed to use biogas as a source of energy for the catering aspect of HE. This makes Biogas a very important component of the project. 
• Basic Schools in Yamoransa study Catering and Sewing as their options for the BDT course. Thus, a HE room would need to have allocation for both catering and sewing resources for practical studies. 
• Due to the use of gas in the room, there is a need to undertake a fire audit and assessment to install the needed equipment to prevent any imminent fire accidents.
• The Ghana Education Service (GES) needs to be involved in the process to promote effective utilisation and supervision of the centre as done for the ICT Center.

The Stakeholders Meeting / May 12, 2020

The IMPLEMENTERS team met with members of the Yamoransa Model Board as well as some leadership members of the community to hold an initial project execution stakeholder meeting on the Home Economics Project.   

The project execution plan was discussed with the team. It involves the implementation of the various components of the project i.e. construction, biogas completion, purchases of home economics equipment and fire auditing and assessment.

The need to form a management committee for the home economics center just like the ICT labs was discussed. This is to ensure the center’s sustainability after its official opening. 

The team accepted all ideas and plans and expressed their enthusiasm on the progress of the project. They also indicated their willingness to support till its successful end.