During the summer of 2007, over two hundred Ashanti men contributed their labour free of charge to build the ground floor of a two-storey clinic/hostel in Gyetiase. Building costs were cut substantially, and the work was finished in record time.

The new building will be used for several purposes. First, it will be staffed by a state registered midwife or nurse, who will provide general healthcare and teach the villagers about health through occasional workshops. 

Second, it will provide a base for specialist eye care healthworkers; Ashanti Development is currently sponsoring two village women for five months training at Kumasi Komfo Anonkye Hospital. When their course is complete, they will live in Gyetiase, provide general eyecare and screen the villagers for cataracts and other operable sicknesses. Kumasi Hospital will then send its mobile van to the clinic to perform multiple cataract or other eye operations.

Operations will be funded thanks to the generosity of UK opticians, SpecSavers. London SpecSavers Branches have offered to finance one thousand cataract operations, making an enormous difference to the recipients’ quality of life. SpecSavers will also provide a full range of eye testing equipment for the clinic, together with recycled, graded, secondhand spectacles from their London stores.

In time, the clinic will also be used to enhance the training of outreach healthworkers, trained at Ashanti Development’s expense and stationed in many of the villages around Gyetiase. These healthworkers will be equipped with mobile phones and able to summon hospital transport when necessary.

Finally, the second floor, which has still to be built, will be used to house teachers and other volunteer workers from the UK who may visit Gyetiase from time to time.