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To commemorate the tenth anniversary of The Wulugu
Project, I joined Lynne in Ghana to see how
much an impact the organisation has made.
Known to the Mamprusi tribe as Punabba - Chief
of education and enlightenment, Lynne Symond's return home to her
people in Ghana was an emotional one.
In Norfolk Lynne is a teacher but in northern Ghana
she received a welcome fit for a Queen. Ten years ago Lynne set
up the Wulugu project from her home in Great Melton and since then
her work has encouraged education in the most deprived parts of
Ghana.
It all began at a teaching conference in Japan
when Lynne met the headmaster of a school in Wulugu, Karimu Nachina.
"I started telling her about the problems.
It was a new school, opened in 1991 and this was 1993. [We had]
no books, no furniture, no accommodation for students," he
said.
"So I started exposing all this to Lynne and
I think it caught her sympathy," he added.
A container load of books was sent out and ten
years on the project has raised more than a hundred thousand pounds
in Norfolk alone. The money has been used to build schools, furnish
classrooms and generally improve standards of education in northern
Ghana.
Although The Wulugu Project is about raising money,
the friends that Lynne has made are just as important.
The kayak in which Lynne and crossed the White
Volta river |
"It's lovely seeing old friends. We don't
speak the language but we know what we want to say to each other
- we can feel that," she said.
As the project has grown so has Lynne's popularity.
Two hours drive from Wulugu, on the other side of the White Volta
river lies the village of Daboya, where the Gonja people had a party
in her honour.
The only way of reaching it was by a small kayak
across muddy waters infested with crocodiles. It wasn't the only
surprise awaiting the African Queen. Unknown
to Lynne, the locals had decided to make her Chief
for the second time.
There was much music and dancing during the
Chief ceremony |
"I'm completely overwhelmed. It's something
they didn't tell me about.. It's an honour that's indescribable.
I understand now why there are so many people here. They all knew
something that we didn't know," she said.
It has been a real cause for celebration. Lynne
formerly known to these people as Chatcatura, Queen of all philanthropists
is now Chief of the Mamprusi and Gonja people, a total of more than
one and a half million people.
Read more:The
Wulugu Project»
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