Tower and Town, February 2021

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Action Through Enterprise

Action Through Enterprise (ATE) was founded in 2012 by Sarah Gardner from Ramsbury.

Sarah had been introduced to the world of international development while a student at Oxford Brookes University when she travelled to Marlborough’s linked community of Gunjur in The Gambia. This encouraged her to apply to VSO who sent her to train teachers in rural Lawra, Northern Ghana.

Here she recognised that she was living in an extremely poor community where many people lived without access to clean water, electricity, education, etc. This provoked her into action.

Working with Ghanaian colleagues she set up ATE - ateghana.org - registered the organisation as a UK charity, based in Ramsbury, and developed a strategy for development in the Lawra District.

BizATE works with a wide range of small businesses, from seamstresses, to electricians and carpenters. Each small business owner is paired with an ATE mentor who provides essential business advice.

EducATE recognised that attendance in Lawra schools was extremely low, not least as children were spending so much time working on food production, farming, catapulting wild animals, climbing trees, etc. ATE now provides a school feeding programme for over a thousand children in seven schools, thus ensuring that children receive education and incidentally providing employment for many women producing the meals.

SNAP (Special Needs Awareness Programme) improves the lives of families with children with disabilities. Through raising awareness, providing basic health-care and education, they work to reduce stigma, increase access to services and enable disabled children to be included and to contribute to their community.

The latest concert of classical music organized by Nick Maurice in St Peter’s Church raised £589 for ATE.

For further information and support for ATE please contact sarahg.ghana@gmail.com or phone her on 07909 091920