Black Star Surf Shop is actively engage in helping Busua and nearby villages create an environment of sustainable development with local ownership and local input in the development process. We have also initiated other projects just seem like the right thing to do. Below are the projects that we are currently focusing on:

Black Star “Learn to Surf” Campaign

Black Star Surf Shop was founded, in part, to help local Ghanaians take ownership of their ocean and beaches by giving them free access to surfboards so they can learn to surf and become more intimately attached to their natural environment, encouraging local environmentalism. We are interested in teaching Ghanaians to surf so that when Ghana becomes a surfing destination the locals can take advantage of opportunities for tourism that include surfing. There are now more than a handful of locals who are beginner to intermediate surfers. Some of the locals are even good enough now to give surf lessons! We also hope by promoting surfing for Ghanaians, that someday there will be a “Black Star” surfer that shines on the international surfing scene just like the Ghanaian national soccer team, The Black Stars, did in the 2006 World Cup. Wouldn't that be cool!

Ahanta Environmental Club

Black Star co-owner, Peter Nardini, is one of the founders of the Ahanta Environmental Club. The objectives of the Ahanta Environmental Club (AEC) are both to improve the overall environment in Busua and nearby villages as well as educate kids on the importance to them in having a healthy and clean environment.

More specifically, the Ahanta Environmental Club goals are to:

1. Provide environmental awareness education by sponsoring beach clean-ups, reading and poetry competitions, drama and performance art, garbage art projects, and sporting events;
2. hold regular after-school club meetings for junior club members focusing on environmental education including recycling, sanitation and turtle and animal preservation;
3. sponsor environmental club sports teams in which all team members are members of the environmental club and who actively participate in the environmental club activities;
4. involve chief and assemblyman in making environmental campaign a community project;
5. build “Don’t throw garbage here” signs and garbage cans sponsored by local business and painted by kids;
6. regular beach clean-ups to rid beach of unwanted trash. involving junior members;
7. introduce concept of recycling to Busua ;
8. work on sanitation issues and be a community advocate for better garbage disposal, improving and increasing use of public latrines, and building one new public latrine;
9. start a sea turtle preservation program to protect and increase the number of sea turtles that nest at Busua Beach.

Community Tourist Center

Black Star Surf Shop is spearheading a project to bring a community tourist center to Busua. The inspiration for this project comes from the success of similar projects in the Volta Region of Ghana. The project consists of finding a centrally located building to set up a Tourist Information Center that is staffed by local representatives. The tourist center would provide information on the many activities in the Busua area. It would also provide accommodation and entertainment information as well as offer guided tours. We are hoping to coordinate our efforts with two NGO’s, Ricerca e Cooperazione (RC) and SNVWorld (SNV), who are working in the Busua and surrounding communities on a community-base tourism project. RC and SNV recently completed tourist guide workshops and have certified guides in three villages, including Busua.

The tourist center would also collect a small fee from all guests. These donations will then be used to fund community projects. In one village in the Volta Region where this model of development is being utilized, collected donations where used to build a new water system and a health post. We would like to see this type of sustainable community development here in Busua as well. The picture shows a potential tourist center site in Busua.

Trinity Yard Project

Trinity Yard is a project being implemented to provide a secondary level skills-based education in the nearby village of Cape Three Points. Black Star Surf Shop is collaborating with Trinity Yard founders and planning to provide volunteer staff through its surfing and volunteer programs.

The need for this school is very clear. There are three government schools located in village; a kindergarten, a primary and a junior secondary school, all of which are over crowded and understaffed. There is no secondary school in Cape Three Points or any of the surrounding villages, leaving Junior Secondary School graduates unskilled and without access to a higher level of education. After many meetings with the chief, elders and members of the village it was decided that the best way to serve the community of Cape Three Points is to build and run a self-sustaining full faculty school with a library, classrooms, teacher housing and a student run sustainable farm.

Some of the long-term goals include:

1. setting up a program to help tutor younger primary students;
2. opening a store to market student and teacher crafts in the city;
3. building a small clinic to treat common illnesses and spread awareness of health areas concerning the area.

For more information on the Trinity Yard Project visit their website at www.trinityyardschool.org

Dixcove Hospital Project

Black Star co-owners, Peter Nardini and is wife Katrina, first came to Ghana in the summer of 2006 when they volunteered for three months at Dixcove Hospital, located in the village next to Busua. During his stay in Dixcove, Peter worked with the hospital administration to facilitate a relationship between Dixcove Hospital and Direct Relief International (DRI), an American organization that sends medical supplies, medical equipment, and medicines to hospitals throughout the world who serve low income communities. As a result of their coordinated efforts, an ocean container medical supplies worth over US $300,000 arrived at Dixcove Hospital in the spring of 2008.

Final Words

Please check our activities and events list to see what community projects or events are coming up. If you would like to volunteer or donate to any of the above projects, please contact us and we will direct you to the appropriate organization and contact person. Also, by coming to visit the Black Star Surf Shop and the Okorye Tree Restaurant you make it possible for us to continue our community work in the Busua area. We hope to see you soon!