03 June 2009

Students forge strong partnership with Ghana

Students from the University of Sheffield are helping their counterparts at Sunyani Polytechnic in Ghana to reach out to their local community in order to empower the Ghanaian people in the areas of building, education and business.

The Sheffield SIFE team who run a number of successful initiatives in their own community, such as working with Sheffield´s only Hospice, St Luke´s, to ensure the long term sustainability of the Hospice, are now using their experience to help the Sunyani SIFE team to make a greater impact in their community.

The main project will see Sheffield SIFE, in partnership with SIFE Sunyani, help turn the SRC (Students Representative Council) Business Centre at Sunyani Polytechnic into a profitable business for the Union, students and SIFE. Sheffield SIFE will also help with the renovation and strategy of the Business Centre.

Using previously tried and tested methods, such as microcredit and business teaching, Sheffield SIFE believe the partnership will allow them to create a greater impact which will lead eventually to SIFE Sunyani taking over the implementation of the project and further helping more communities.

This project is unique in that SIFE tends to focus towards helping their own community, however this project will broaden the scope of Sheffield SIFE to reach both the Sheffield and Ghanaian businesses and communities to create better relationships and forge good business practice.

Calum Moore, Managing Director of Sheffield SIFE, commented: "This is a brilliant opportunity for the Sheffield SIFE team to learn and put there business skills to the test helping a foreign community. Between the two SIFE teams I feel we have made a really great impact, and one which I believe will be able to be carried through to the other communities in Ghana in the future."