First day on the job

Day Three

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Today, we awoke to birds signing and alarms ringing.  Breakfast was free at the Student Guest House, so we ate some eggs, toast, and coffee/tea, then packed into a van and filled a car with tools, parts, and other things to help assemble graters and presses.

A few of the Olin ADE team members having a good time in the trotro before departing for the first day of work at ITTU.

We hit some traffic on our way to ITTU, but the ride was interesting – there is a lot to look at along the busy roads.  At ITTU, we were greeted by Francis and Bonnie, two of the technicians/engineers who work at this off-campus, KNUST College of Engineering building.  We proceeded to take inventory of all the parts and tools we need to build one grater and one press by Saturday, when we will visit villages around PKK and show them our new designs.   Our sub-teams put together agendas and tasks, and immediately got to work.

The manager of the Intermediary Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) and the director of the Technology Consultancy Center (TCC) at KNUST, as well as Asante (a long-time partner of ADE Ghana and an engineer at KNUST) all joined Ben, Anna, Peter, Wendy, and Ken for a business meeting about the possibility of incorporating the venture as a non-profit business / NGO.  Initial plans and terms were briefly talk about but nothing was finalized, as many things must happen before that can occur.  However, the introduction of this idea to the manager of ITTU and the director of TCC was well received, and Asante was happy about the discussion as well.  We talked about many things, including:

•            the importance of the next ADE Ghana pilot test (the “50/50” pilot test, or 50-grater and 50-press build and distribution – a kind of intermediary step before scaling the venture)
•          who will be assigned to what roles in the NGO (Board of Directors, Technical Advisors, etc.),
•           the DIV (Development Innovation Ventures) Grant and application,
•          and what the potential roles of the REP (Rural Enterprise Program) and other partners/donors (including Rotary International, and others) may look like, with regards to our venture.