NMSI has donated 20 concrete benches to the Fiscian Garden at Cape Coast School, situated close to the NMSI-built Takoradi apartments.
Funding Priorities
HEALTH
We see good-health as a key driver of economic and social development and therefore support organisations offering vital health services, infrastructure and education to under-served communities in a variety of thematic areas.
SPORT
We are passionate about sport, and rugby in particular, targeting projects using sport as a tool for development. In 2016 NMSI will further partnership with Tag Rugby Trust (TRT), to bring ugby Community Clubs to Ayenyah and surrounding areas. This builds on our previous partnership with TRT where we introduced rugby into schools and communities in Ghana, in addition to leadership and key life skills.
COMMUNITIES
Our commercial work in Ghana is in a number of communities – many of these are remote and dealing with social issues. We target a portion of our financial and technical assistance to community-based projects in geographical areas surrounding our work. We particularly support educational projects.
NMSI Partners & Projects
A Child Unheard
PartnerDuring 2016 NMS Infrastructure has been collaborating with A Child Unheard (ACU) and O'Africa, two charitable causes that NMSI has been supporting in Ghana over the past couple of years, in order to achieve an operational handover of the primary school in Ayenyah, so its future success could be guaranteed. Attendance numbers have almost doubled since ACU took over and NMSI is continuing with its collaboration and support for ACU, with further exciting developments underway.
GIZ
PartnerThe German Federal Government aid agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Iternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has acknowledges NMSI as a cornerstone partner in its 1.3 million Euro funded project. "Prevention is better than cure"
The main objective of the project is to achieve a better integration of preventative healthcare measures in public and private health sectors around Ghana.
The new District Hospitals will provide GIZ a foundation for planned activities in promoting preventative healthcare by: training the staff of these sites, establishing electronic healthcare management information systems, health screening employees, their families and people within the immediate community, as well as providing accessible preventative health services in the hospitals.
AfriKids
Partnerin 2016 NMSI will be working in partnership with AfriKids. AfriKids is an award winning international development charity with a specific focus on the rights of children. All of their work takes place in Northern Ghana, which hosts the three poorest regions; AfriKids work is predominantly in the isolated and rural Upper East Region (UER) where 64% of the population live in poverty. Their philosophy is to listen to what the community knows it needs and empower them to make the changes themselves whilst ensuring sustainability.
NMSI will be sponsoring the upgrade of the AfriKids Medical Centre (AfMC) based in Bolgatanga, the capital of the UER and one of the poorest districts in the whole country. AfriKids' work in healthcare in the UER is pivotal and the facility treats over 50,000 patients yearly. The sponsorship will be the specifically focusing on improving maternal health and the upgrade of the Maternity Unit and wards. The facility offers pre-natal and post-natal care to woman, as well as family planning and ultrasound scans. Due to the large number of patients, and lack of equipment and items (there is just one of the majority of the larger items), they can often get worn out quickly, and replacements are necessary to continue the good work being carried out.
Environment360
PartnerNMS Infrastructure will be continuing to sponsor Environment 360 works in 2016 by sponsoring the printing of 5,000 activities books which support the education of students about recycling programmes. This further builds on the support that NMSI gave with the Children's education campaign to prevent another generation from littering the environment.
have been supporting Environment360 with a children’s education campaign to prevent another generation from littering the environment.
In 2014, a mobile exhibition has been created to take the message to children - the original idea of having a static display was found to be sub optimal as schools lack the resources to cover travel costs.
The company’s support enabled the illustration to be prepared for inclusion in booklets, games, etc.
Noyaa School Association
PartnerNoyaa Association School supports Jamestown street and working children and their families through education and social services. Noyaa is thriving and attendance has grown from 47 to an average of 80 children in education, with their families benefiting from community empowerment, public health awareness campaigns and other social programming.
NMS Infrastructure will continue to support the school by operationally funding the school for the next academic year 2016-2017. This builds on the last 3 years where NMSI has been the sole partner in aiding this school to continue with its success in ensuring that education is received by the under privilege children of Jamestown.
O'Africa
PartnerO’Africa is based in the village of Ayenyah near to NMSI’s Dodowa Hospital site. They support orphans and vulnerable children, aiming to keep families together and avoid institutionalisation. OA currently supports over 500 children and their families, indirectly supporting over 4500 through their work with Ghana’s Department of Social Welfare.
NMSI will continue to support O'Africa in 2016 with the sponsorship of the annual living expenses of 10 special needs children in family support services. This builds on all the previous activities completed with NMSI and O'Africa.
In 2014 NMSI sponsored beneficiary children to ensure they were able to receive an education. In 2015 the partnership continued with NMSI re-building the community health centre and donating medical supplies and equipment to upgrade the facility, which supports O’Africa, who donated this facility to the Ghana Health Service.
Our staff and their families have volunteered at the centre and we have found their holistic approach to social support refreshing and highly effective.
Tag Rugby Trust
PartnerTag Rugby Trust is a UK based charity with experience running projects across Africa. They have supported grassroots rugby movements in Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Their projects help communities, teachers and children build relationships and key life skills.
In 2016 NMSI will once again partner with the TRT to bring rugby community clubs to Ayenyah and the surrounding areas. This is a great build on previous sponsorship with them.
In 2014 the first programme was started in Accra. In February 2014, 10 days of training in schools in the Madina Area was completed which resulted in over 350 children being introduced to Tag Rugby and 80 of these children playing in a final tournament. Furthermore, 25 coaches and 6 young leaders gained their TRT level 1 coach certificated.
Eight schools in total were introduced to tag rugby, including a special needs school, during this programme in 2014. Overall with the continued work by NMSI colleagues over 1000 children were introduced to tag rugby over a 12 month period.
Ghana Rugby Football Union
PartnerNMSI was a proud sponsor of the GRFU and the Black Eagles. Having signed an MOU in May 2013 we supported them with in-kind technical assistance, expert coaching, provision of the national strip, travel costs to tournaments.
NEWS
The menstrual health programme sponsored by NMSI, A Child Unheard (ACU) and Ruby Cup in conjunction with the NMSI-supported Community Health Planning Clinic in Ayenyah is progressing well.
The uptake of the programme within the community has continued to grow and there are now 83 women and girls who have been educated and trained in menstrual health and how to use the Ruby Menstrual Cup.
The distribution of the Ruby cups started on the 9th January 2017, when the school re-opened after the festive break. Once distribution has been completed, the programme will be monitored on a monthly basis to ensure that the impact of introducing the Ruby Menstrual cups is understood
The hope is that there will be improvements in both the girls and women’s health as well as seeing an improvement in the girl’s attendance at school.
During the months of October and November, NMSI enrolled Soland into one of our ‘Giving Back’ partners, A Child Unheard, where they are now completing the urgent repair and renovation works to ACU’s school roof.
This project, partially financed by the funds raised by William Hsu (son of NMSI Deputy Chairman Fred Hsu) and friend Charlie Stevens from their epic 10,500 km cycle ride along the silk road for ACU, is a great milestone for Soland, as they gain their first, of what is hoped will be many, new contracts outside the ‘Built To Care Ghana’ district hospital programme.
This is phase 1 of the renovation programme at the school and sees the renovation of the kitchen, classroom and office block. This phase of works is well underway and is due to be completed by mid-November.
Richard Goodall, Director of Strategy – A Child Unheard Foundation, said “due to the condition of the roof at our school, we found ourselves in real need of a professional and compassionate construction partner. Thankfully we found NMSI and Soland listened to our needs and they have exceeded our expectations. All of us at the A Child Unheard Foundation, the school and the children want to thank NMSI and their team for their fantastic help”.
Furthermore, Soland have employed labourers from the local Ayenyah community, in turn passing on and transferring long term skills to all those involved in the project.
The launch of GIZ’s “Prevention is better than Cure” project, in partnership with NMSI, took place at the Shai Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa on Saturday 8th Oct.
NMSI’s partnership with GIZ has progressed well over the last few months, with the foundations being laid for the initial roll out of the ‘Prevention is Better than Cure’ programme being headed by Miriam Sai, Genelec Support Services’ clinical specialist.” The programme has progressed well and on 2 September, it was introduced to local Dodowa Community leaders and stakeholders, who have consented for the project to be rolled out into the wider community. This is great news as this community engagement was always going to be crucial for the success of the programme.
It is also a great step forward in promoting preventive health measures and starting to educate communities on how to avoid risks to health and prevent illness. This is believed to be one of the first preventive health care programmes in Ghana.
The aim of this program is to provide:
- Access to information on preventive health in hospitals
- Trained staff for consultation on preventative health measures
- A bridge between traditional and modern medicine
Targeted information on high risks such as malaria, TB, HIV, waterborne viral illnesses The programme will provide for:
- Training for 30 Community volunteers and 18 Nurses from three local communities
- A 14-day Community sensitization programme delivered by the trained staff
- A 10-day screening program (BMI/Hypertension/Blood Sugar/Breast Screening/Nutrition) for the three local communities.
The launch of the programme will take place at the Shai-Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa, built by NMS Infrastructure under the Built To Care District Hospital programme and fully handed over to the Ghana Health Service in August 2016, with three communities having been identified to participate within this programme.
GIZ will be working closely with the Ministry of Health on this and if the pilot proves to be a success, it will be rolled out into other African countries.
On 8th October, Germany’s International Development Organisation (GIZ) and NMSI launched a €1.3 million preventive healthcare programme. The event took place at the newly-built Shai-Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa, where Dr Samuel Akaba, Director of Institutional Care Division, Ministry of Health, called on Ghanaians to be more responsible for their health. He said the race to get things done for the family could steal attention but knowing what can make “you healthy and less capable of achieving life goals and taking steps to stay healthy” is the best personal choice one can make.
From 11 to 15 August, Tom Vaughan of NMSI led a team of employees and volunteers on a CSR project to renovate the Noyaa Academy in Jamestown, Accra, with the help and support of the NMSI team. The roof had numerous holes meaning that during the rainy season classes were severely interrupted due to flooding, while the children’s school books and food was being destroyed. The roof was replaced with new roofing sheets; new guttering was added in order to channel run-off water and a concrete apron was constructed along the right hand side of the building to divert surface water away from the building.
In addition to the above, the team also created a new classroom, for older Year 4 students, by constructing a new partition wall in one of the larger rooms, using materials recycled from the Dodowa Hospital build.
Finally, the school exterior was completely repainted in its customary blue. Tom said: “it has been a great privilege to head up this very worthwhile CSR project. It fills me with great happiness and pride knowing that the underprivileged pupils of Noyaa may now continue their education come rain or shine and that one day they might graduate into the national education system. This could not have been achieved without the help of my colleagues here at NMS, especially my right-hand woman, Safia Wahab, and the support of the headmistress, Rachel, the students and the rest of the local community who took it upon themselves to help refurbish the school. Good job all round!” Rachel Annan, Noyaa Academy’s Headmistress said “I thank you and NMS for your help, it was so heart-warming seeing the love from the staff of NMS to us.
Words can’t express our gratitude for your efforts and the whole staff of NMS. Our roof is all fixed and painted. A classroom created to add up to what we have, and the kids will be so happy, and we won’t have to be shifting from one place to the other when it rains”
NMSI provides a full design/build/equip/train service for the development of locally appropriate health-related infrastructure. NMSI brings to bear the expertise of award-winning experts in the field to provide the latest in innovation and design.