OVERSEAS 6 - The People
on Charlotte in Ghana (Ghana), 27/Mar/2010 23:30, 34 days ago
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We met some amazing people. One chap had gone back to school, into Primary 5 (average age 11 years) when he was 25 years old. His father had died and he told me he had to herd cattle on the family farm so he couldn't attend school as a boy. Anyway, he stuck it out and completed school and was now a Head Teacher in his community.One evening we met the MP for the NDC party. He held court on a mound of sand in his front yard and offered us all sachets of water. He seemed well informed about his constituency and said he wanted to have some VSO volunteers to help him with his work.Out of all the people we worked with, upwards of 300 in total, only three women were literate. In some communities, out of the SMC/PTA, the illiteracy rate was over 75%. Bear in mind that our attendees included a teacher and Head teacher from each community so the reality is virtually no villagers were literate. Some of the schools had only been opened 10 or 15 years ago and most of the attendees had never been to school themselves. Most people registered by making a thumb print on the paper.It was great to see so many women attending.This is Umar, a volunteer teacher who we are going to help to get a teaching qualification by distance learning from Cape Coast University.
