Longitude Blog

Cyclones In KI

KI Village suffered its worst cyclone in 14 years, Laila, who arrived in late May of this year. This cyclone produced high-speed winds and torrential downpours that forced evacuations of some 50,000 residents, including those in the KI village.

Fortunately, the KI villagers returned after the storm to find their homes intact and their belongings in place. This was greatly different than the tragic losses they suffered in 2004 after the tsunami.

PROFESA students have recently received word back on their National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) exam scores. Many of the students passed with distinction in specific areas. In the photo above you can see that Cynthia did very well in her typing, but needs more work in her office procedures course. While the exams were very positive for most of the students, Meshach Bondzie, the Academy's founder, is troubled that only 8 students were able to register for the exam due to financial barriers.

Houses for Dalits

Work camps of volunteers headed to Chevuru Village this past Spring to complete unfinished houses started by the Indian Government. A group of 6 volunteers in March and 18 in May set out as the first international volunteer group to visit Chevuru. Insufficient funds had been issued to some of the villagers by the government to construct new homes due to destruction from monsoons on their thatched huts. Yet requests from the government for the villagers to raise their own money to aid in the construction have left these homes unfinished.

Students at PROFESA Academy, a non-profit vocational training school in Ghana, have begun writing their first semester's exams- check out the pictures below. As you can see, many of the students have to share desks due to lack of supplies. Please see our Friends of PROFESA monthly giving campaign in which you can sign up through the website to donate $10 a month taken directly from your account to aid in the education and future of these students. Click here to donate.

The Monsters of Cheveru. They tugged at our hands, They welcomed us like long lost brothers. They brought us chai and biscuits while we worked. Left us to rest when we were having our lunch breaks. But, demanded us to teach them games and English when it was their time. We played tag, and "Police & Thief" with them, but they could outrun us, even though they were barefoot. And, when we were about to leave, they made us little paper aeroplanes to carry us home.

Not really monsters, but little children. In the end, the Monsters of Chevuru got the better of me.

I knew something was wrong when the luggage belt in Delhi airport was pitifully empty, with no sign of my bag. Alone and very, very tired from the journey from Japan, I filled out all the forms and repeated the story to several people before making my way, with only my purse, to the domestic terminal. While I’d had several hours after touching down to get myself to the location of my next departure, I’d lost precious hours in choosing the long immigration line, realizing my bag was missing, and filling in paperwork.

Kim McNelly's Blog

The PROFESA School aims to marry the business community’s growing need for computer networking with the need of local women for sustainable employment. PROFESA is a Ghanian NGO founded in 2000 to provide vocational training to undereducated and impoverished Ghanian girls and women. 

PROFESA's goal in the coming years is to improve and expand existing secretarial training by creating a new Computer Networking certification and computer training program.

Below is the breakdown of the 40 students currently enrolled at the PROFESA Academy.

Special thanks to John Lavall and Jonathan Beller for capturing the fun, comraderie, and basketball that makes Lonitude's annual 3-on-3 Tournament so incredible. This year was the best year yet as 15 teams competed for the coveted title and trophies. Check out the video, and then be sure to get out there and play in 2011.

We are approaching the final hours of the March 2010 work camp in
Chevuru.  Today is our group's last day working with this dynamic
community.

This morning, thanks to the exotic powers of endless cups of chai and
crunchy glucose biscuits, we finished up some heavy work on the
roofing of a house in the western colony.  A colony is an
Indian-English term for a dense group of similar housing contained in
a planned section of land; this one is slowly making its way to
completion.  It will contain the newest residential buildings in the