Mission Direct - Volunteers helping the world's poor

The Mollers have overseen a number of water and sanitation projects in Yawo towns and villages, including drilling a borehole rig, providing piping and irrigation with water from nearby springs and digging a trench pipe into a village.

The Yawos have traditionally grown tobacco and maize, but they have been badly affected by sharp price drops in the tobacco market. After researching the situation, Keith Moller has encouraged and supported farmers to plant crops of beans alongside the existing maize. The beans fetch three times as much for the farmers, greatly alleviating their poverty.

A great deal of the area has been badly deforested by the local need for fuel. There is now a nursery, and they currently aim to replant 70,000 trees each year.

There are no formal churches, but the Mollers have worked hard to present a holistic Christian witness to the region. Sections of the Bible have been translated into the native tongue and there are regular Bible studies. They are keen that the Christian community that does arise is based around the culture and experience of the Yawo, rather than importing an outside ‘Christian’ culture.

The future

Education is very limited in the area, with children walking for up to five hours daily to attend the nearest (overcrowded) school. The aim is to have a junior school in most Yawo villages. The first one is planned scheduled to begin in 2010. The government are keen that there should be proper schooling for this region, and is offering to provide pay for staff and teaching materials if a proper school can be built. Proper education for the children will transform people’s lives in these villages and will be a huge witness for God’s love towards the Yawo.