Many in Blockley and Bourton-on-the-Hill will remember visits from Bishop Jacob and Rita Ayeebo, and their daughter Hilda who stayed with us while doing her Masters' degree in Liverpool. The congregations in Blockley and Bourton-on-the-Hill have been generous in their support of our friends in Ghana in one of poorest dioceses in the Anglican Communion. Blockley CofE Primary School now has connections with Tishugu, the Cathedral School in Tamale. Many of the school desks there now proudly say that they were given by "Brockley, UK" (yes, it was mis-spelled, but it was our village).

Covid has taken its toll in Ghana. Bishop Jacob's younger brother Canon Norbert died from Covid last year, leaving his wife and two children. Congregations have had to stay at home in just the same way as in the UK, but since collections are a joyful community affair in involving cash, the cathedral collections have fallen by around 90% as jobs have disappeared and people are advised not to come to church because of the infection risk. (There's a video of the usual scene at the collection here

The trust my mother set up has given money to install new washing facilities (remember, we are all supposed to wash our hands much more often) which got them through the autumn but now the water has been cut off since the school can't afford to pay the extra water bills. The children - the majority of whom are from Muslim or traditional religious families - who attend this Christian school are all having to use the Dean's house toilet instead. This is no way to control a pandemic.

If you feel moved to help our sisters and brothers in Tamale we'd be really grateful. Money would be sent to be spent equally between the school and the cathedral, and we'd get Dean Clement to report back on how the money has been spent. We've given the trust bank details below as well as a link to a Gift Aid form. Below that there's some more information about the Tamale diocese and how my late mother's trust has been helping in Tamale. Full details of the trust are here

You can give by online banking to the details below, or put a cheque or cash with your name and address in an envelope to the vicarage whose address is below. If you pay tax please do fill in a Gift Aid form to add 25% to the value of your gift.

Background
My mother Sylvia Beney first met the late Bishop Jacob Ayeebo when she received a letter from a young Anglican priest in the very north east of Ghana who needed to buy a motor bike to get around his large rural parish of subsistence farming families. Jacob had become a Christian in his teens and following ordination training had been appointed as the parish priest in his home village of Yelwoko. The decision to follow Jesus had been a costly one since his grandfather was the village chief and Christianity is not the heritage of that part of Ghana.

He and his wife Rita raised their children in Yelwoko, and later 4 hours drive to the south in Tamale where he was appointed Dean and later Bishop. Together they were instrumental in building the Anglican church in the three northern regions of Ghana, but also through Jacob's work with the Anglican Diocese Relief and Development Organisation, and Rita's with the Mothers' Union, they have been pioneers in education and healthcare, especially women's and children's healthcare. Jacob also served as the elected member for the North East region on the Presidential Council of State.

The Diocese of Tamale today
Many years later, both Sylvia and Bishop Jacob have died but our links with northern Ghana remain. The trust my mother founded is funding the training of two ordinands training for the priesthood and continues to provide financial support for the Cathedral school in Tamale, for the cathedral itself and a variety of other projects. Recently we helped to build a bakery which is providing employment for women in Bawku, the "last" town in north eastern Ghana, and we have given various grants for midwifery training and for the completion of a Masters' degree in England.

Following Bishop Jacob's death in 2019, Bishop Dennis Tong is now the diocesan bishop.

Registered Charity Number 1015929