Community Fora Overseas with World Vision
on Charlotte in Ghana (Ghana), 28/Sep/2010 11:36, 34 days ago
Thursday 24th June 2010 -Kunkwa Visit to Overseas with World Vision and Ghana Education Service staff - Mr Augustine from WV speaks to the women.The village elders all turned out.This mentally disabled young man watched procedings. There is little or no support in the rural communities for people like him.More village elders, they listened attentively and accepted some challenging remarks from Mr Augustine.Mr Kwame Robert Boateng doing what he does best! He was fantastic at engaging the crowd and challenging them with some real home truths about their community.Individuals shared some of their concerns.The children came to see what was going on. They had a chance to identify problems at school and come up with a possible solution.They were keen to get involved.We sat the children at the front of the group and they served as a wonderful visual aid and reminder about the importance of addressing issues which would impact upon their future lives. Here I am talking to the community about identifying the areas of need and trying to be proactive about dealing with issues.This girl was one of the local school teachers. She and her colleages committed to turning up to work each day.After a long day we went back to the World Vision centre to eat. Mr Nassamu is chewing on a guinea fowl bone.We ate soup and water melon on the veranda. Friday 25th June 2010 JademaThe school building at Jadema was in need of repair.While we were waiting for the villagers to arrive I entertained the school children with some songs.Some of them were a little afraid of me. For many, I was the first white person they would have seen.When, after waiting a while still only a few villagers had turned up, we sent the children back to their homes to fetch their parents.At last the villagers were assembled! We spoke to them about the legal requirements of education and the importance of encouraging girls to complete their education.Many individuals were very honest about serious concerns for childrens' safety and wellbeing.This gentleman spoke about the experienceof his three daughters, none of whom had managed to complete their education.Kwame Robert delivering a serious message in an interative and captivating manner.I spoke to the community about ownership of their school and the importance of identifying the key issues that were holding them back. We then split the community into groups: Chiefs and sub-chiefs, Assembly men and women, teachers, students, youth, women, School Management Committee and Parent Teacher Association. Each group was tasked with identifying the main problem for them and coming up with a possible solution.We asked each group to give us the names of three individuals who we could hold accountable for delivering on their proposed solution.The women needed to be encouraged to get involved at first.Many views were aired and shared.Then a representative from each group fed back to the whole community and stated their intention and who would be held accountable for delivering their solution.Back for a well deserved meal of Kenkey and dried fish soup. Delicious!Kwame demonstrates how to eat with your hand.Saturday 26th June 2010  Loagri Mike, Anna and Louisa were meant to be joining us today but the heavens opened and they were unable to leave Walewale until later. They had a three hour drive through the rain but eventually managed to reach us. We had stayed put as no villagers would turn out in the rain!Madam Ramatu went back to bed!We all sat around and waited.Eventually the rain stopped and the villagers were back from burying one of their elders and the community forum could go ahead. Four white people caused a big stir.The women were out in force.The men were ready to listen.It was a great turn out.This was Mike's first visit to the Overses area. He was fascinated to be a part of the forum.This lady spoke passionately about the needs of women in the community.Mr Nassamu briefed the village on the legal requirements of the Ghana Education system. Some of this was news to them.Kwame Robert was on top form! Look how much the villgers are enjoying his interaction with them.They listened attentively.Then it was my turn to talk about the importance of education, particularly for girls.I wanted them to know that they needed to have ownership of their local school.I used Anna and Louisa as visual aids to talk about the need for girls to go to school every day if they were going to achieve and value and hopefully finish their education.Everybody seemed to listen well.At this point we were just about to split into discussion groups.Madam Ramatu grabbed a moment to have a picture with her "daughters".Kwame Robert did not want to miss out.The children were terrified of us initially but by now they were getting bolder and even dared to touch Anna's hair. Eventually we were so mobbed that we had to retreat to the car for safety.One little girl passed the time by drawing lovely pictures in the sand.As before, a member from each group fed back to the whole community. Again they wrote down names of individals who agreed to try to deliver on the solution to the identified problem. World Vision will follow up on these in the weeks and months to come.After a long day, we managed to get back in time for the second half of Ghana's World Cup match. Our neighbours George and Diana had invited us to watch on their TV and then presented Mike with a traditional smock as a leaving present.