MAT-TO-FORE

From: Osei Akoto
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2024 at 15:19
Subject: ANNUAL REPORT OF MAT-TO-FORE FOR THE YEAR 2023

INTRODUCTION 

It has been generally a quiet year for Mat-To-Fore as far as new projects are concerned. We spent almost three-quarters of the year maintaining our school, farming projects, and  relationship-building activities.

THE SCHOOL

The Mat-To-Fore Preparatory School continued to engage much of our attention throughout the year. Class numbers went down initially at the beginning of the year. This was probably due to a change in the Academic Year to a September-June cycle.

This change initiated by the Education Ministry required that holiday periods between the terms be shortened almost to nothing. As a result parents’ interest waned. Individual home visits had to be embarked upon to explain things to parents before they started to send their children back to school.

By April, 2023, the number on roll had risen to more than twenty, and kept growing till it reached over thirty by the end of the academic year. There were eight students that graduated from our pre-school facility to continue their education at the Basic School level in the next village of Atia. They now had to join their older siblings to do the daily six mile round trips to access the basic school education and further at Atia.

During this 2023 Academic Year we had to find a replacement for our cook who left us to pursue a career training in the municipal town of Juaben. Our new cook, Miss Abigail Amoah, a fresh Junior High School graduate, with an ambition to pursue a career in catering, was given a quick orientation course by the outgoing Cook,Stellar a Nonkor, and took over smoothly in our kitchen. We also had to engage a new Carer, Miss Bernice Owusu,  an Senior High School graduate, to assist in handling the 2-4-year olds in the Nursery classes. Throughout the year I maintained a regular two-day-in-a-week trip to the village to supervise the running of the school, as well as engage temporary workers to tidy up the school surroundings, as well as work on our farms.

FARMING ACTIVITIES 

As part of our efforts to feed well the children under our care and tutelage, Mat-To-Fore has always engaged in some farming activities in order to ensure the availability of foodstuffs to augment the feeding costs, and also keep the environment surrounding the school free from bushes and dangerous reptiles. The year 2023 was a “Plantain Year “ for us as our plantain farm yielded a good harvest, enabling us to cut down our feeding costs by as much  as about 25%.

PALM OIL EXTRACTION INDUSTRY

The Oil Palm plantation that was started about five years ago entered its “adolescent” stage with about 60% of the palm trees beginning to fruit. Our vision has always been to build a small cottage industry to produce palm oil and palm kernel oil out of the fruits that might be harvested. The challenge on our hands was how to raise funds to purchase the necessary equipment to start the production. Unfortunately when we managed to get the help that we thought was needed to purchase the basic equipment, the price had exceeded the initial price that had been earlier on quoted us by about three times as a result of inflation.

Moreover we realized that we needed to build the structure that would house the whole process of the project. We’ve therefore gone back to the drawing board to review the plan for the implementation of the project which can be a big support for the mission for a long time to come. Please pray with us for a good outcome for our deliberations.

Meanwhile we’ve had to engage the services of a two-man caretaker team to purposely manage the oil palm plantation since I am no longer capable of doing much manual maintenance work on the farm single-handedly at seventy-six years of age now, and after two major operations. Please pray for a “Caleb-Strength” for me to be able to do “My Utmost for His Highest “.

A DIVINE INTERVENTION

I have personally not been able to operate at my optimum strength lately for two major reasons: 1) A Major Accident, and 2) A Major Operation.

I believe that my ability to be up and doing my usual trips to the village is the result of the constant intercessory prayers of our supporters and friends like you, and we certainly need more of that.

CONCLUSION 

We do immensely appreciate and cherish the support and partnership we have with you all in our service together in the Lord’s Vineyard. I believe there is a lot more we could have shared with you in this short update.  But we will fill in the void soon, as we prepare to send you a follow-up report for the current year, 2024. Let us all remember Apostle Paul’s words of exhortation in 1Cor 15:58, and keep holding the fort together in LOVE.

PS:  Sorry I couldn’t send some supporting pictures along with this short update, simply because of technical challenges which I hope to overcome next time.

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GOD BLESS YOU ALL

SHALOM