This project is funded by The Northern Ireland Policing Board

Zuarungu is an isolated set of 20 rural village communities in Ghana's Upper East Region.  It is extremely poor and suffers from very limited educational and medical facilities.  Charles Dagore, a local pastor, is one of the many community members committed to changing this situation.

In 1997 Charles began giving lessons, under a mango tree, to children who could not afford to attend school.  When AfriKids, a small, highly effective charity committed to improving the lives of very poor adults and children in Ghana heard about Charles' work, they gave him a small grant to build a shelter for his school.  Afrikids were so impressed with the results that it was agreed to provide additional funding for Charles and his team of local volunteers to scale up their work and the Zuarungu Children's Centre was born.

The centre, which opened its doors in early 2005, is now at the heart of the community and is slowly but surely making a real contribution to reversing the fortunes of the people of Zuarungu, through the following activities:

• Primary education, school lunches, good toilet facilities and clean water for 300 children. 
• National health insurance and first aid for all 300 children. 
• Micro - finance support for all the children's families; every family has or will receive a micro-finance grant to invest in income generating activities such as basket weaving, shea butter, extraction or production of local crafts. 
• Goat rearing; all the children's families have or will receive two goats for rearing on their land.  These families will return one of the goats' offspring to the centre every year in place of school fees, helping to make the family and the centre itself sustainable. 
• Medical care for the entire community at the centre's clinic which is now run by the Ghana health service. 
• Vocational training in batik, tailoring and cloth weaving to over 100 students; the course fees and profits made from sales of the produce are channelled back into the centre's running costs. 
• A commercial poultry farm, due to be opened in 2007 to create an income to cover staff salaries.

A new bore hole for residential and agricultural use is to be dug in 2007.  

The activities of the centre have reinvigorated Zuarungu's economy and community to such an extent that the future of the children is now much brighter and the Centre is on course to generate all its running costs within five years.

In the meantime AfriKids is committed to funding the Centre's running costs and the remaining equipment it needs.  Right now it urgently needs school desks and benches.  The school has expanded so rapidly that an old class block next to the school has had to be refurnished to accommodate all the new children.  However, currently only half of them have desks to sit at.

The £500 raised through the Northern Ireland Policing Board Christmas Appeal bought all of the furniture for one classroom.

AfriKids is a Child Rights Organisation, which works alongside indigenous communities in Ghana to improve the quality of life for rejected and vulnerable children. The charity specifically targets the root causes of the children's problems, by improving community support services and by providing access to basic education and primary health care.  It is also committed to ensuring the sustainability of all its projects' activities.