Piers chose Plan International after seeing their good work whilst hiking in Ethiopia, and we were already a technology partner of theirs so it made a great deal of sense. We approached them and asked if they had any projects Teneo could help them with and contribute towards, and they came back with 3 options. We put them out to a vote amongst the Teneo staff, who would be expected to raise 10% of the money necessary to fund the project. We voted overwhelmingly for the Ghana Motigu preschool project, which involves building a new block with three classrooms and some latrines for children aged between 3 and 8, who currently have to take their lessons under a tree, in both the heat of a sub-Saharan summer and the rainy season. Inevitably attendance is low and sickness is high, so this really seemed like somewhere we could have a positive impact.
The staff raised money from a huge variety of activities, including triathlons, long bike rides, IT support, dress-down days and even a benefit gig, and Teneo ltd provided the main bulk of the funding.
The idea was that the CEO Piers Carey would travel to the school with the 2 people who had been most active in fundraising, Jonathan Campbell and Seth Cornwall but unfortunately JC had prior commitments, so instead 2 of the company directors, Richard Jones and James Hall went in his place.
Seth spent a great deal of time liaising with Plan and organising hotels, and also getting together donations of school stationary and equipment/goodies that we would take with us. We even managed to secure a baggage waiver from the lovely people at British Airways so that we could take over an enormous amount of stuff.
The flight to Accra, the capital city of Ghana, was as uneventful ad you could hope for, and we were met at the airport by Arielle and Adams from Plan, who would be our guides, interpreters, advisers and friends over the next week and (hopefully) beyond. They took us to our hotel which was bafflingly luxurious and felt totally out of place, but you can't complain! We had a few drinks and got to know Arielle, but went for a fairly early night, as we knew the next day would be a bit of a culture shock.
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Location:30,000 feet
