Community Impact Project and My Home-stay Family

Hello all!

Sorry for the late posts, I’ve had a few drafts written but haven’t had access to reliable Internet in a while to upload.

As part of my internship program, I am also involved in an organization called Proworld, they are an NGO registered in Ghana (and other places around the world) but the head offices are in San Francisco. Proworld places study abroad students, volunteers and interns at different organizations based on the participants area if interest. Here in Ghana they partner with multiple organizations varying from healthcare facilities, environmental projects and economic development organizations. Proworld also sets up our homestays and provides language lessons and Global Community Initiative lectures once a week.

Once a month all of the participants help out on a local impact project. So this last weekend (May 18^th) we all went out to a local village to help build bricks that will be used to build a hospital. The project was initially going to be a small clinic, but the chief of the village granted more land, so now there is enough to build a larger hospital.

Our first task was to pump water from the well and carry it in buckets, on our heads of course, just like the locals, to the site. Then we mix the water and cement by hand and begin filling the brick forms, packing it in so they don’t crumble once they are dry.

pumping water from the well

We try to carry buckets on our heads, but Ghanaians do it with no hands!

mixing water into the cement mixture by hand, literally.

filling the brick molds

carrying the brick molds, they're much heavier than they look

pushing the brick out of the mold to dry in the sun

Dried bricks from the last group

Our group, proud of our work!

As you can see, everything is done by hand so the process to build a large building like this takes quite a while. Also, the materials to build all of the bricks are not purchased all at once, so today we finished three bags of cement, and next time we will do about the same.

After the work was finished for the day we were invited to have lunch at the village, where we were served a “family style” traditional Ghanaian meal. On the menu was banku a dough like ball made from fermented corn and cassava, a hot pepper sauce (much like salsa) and palmnut soup. The food is a completely separate adventure all on its own, but I’ve been able to find a few things that I like so far J

Banku and palmnut soup

Lunch Time!

I also wanted to mention my homestay family, who I have been staying with for a few weeks now. My homestay mom, who I call Auntie Evelyn, has been very welcoming and kind, she even lets me pick out what I want to eat for each meal! (which is sometimes a challenge since I don’t know what I like and don’t like yet) She has had 12 other Proworld participants stay with her since 2009, so living with her is easy and fun.

Auntie Evelyn has 4 daughters, Acquaaba (11), Maud (9), Charlotte (6) and Edina (2) and a girl, Mary, who also lives here to help with chores around the house. With a packed house all the time there is never a dull moment, and makes time go by very fast.

We spend most of our nights playing card games or watching tv and sometimes I help the girls with their homework. But, even that can sometimes become boring for the girls, who find other creative games to play, like climbing the pillar in the hall (which the baby is also involved in as well). haha

Charlotte, posing for the camera

Maud, also a little diva

Acquaaba, looking fierce

Me and the girls

I second as a jungle gym sometimes

Acquaaba and little Edina, smiling BIG!

I miss home, but I am also really enjoying my time here and I look forward to all the adventures that are still to come.

Thanks for reading! Until next time…

This is what I do

Hello!

I’ve just about finished my third week working at the Christian Rural Aid Network, or CRAN for short, in Cape Coast, Ghana. The experience so far has been interesting and quite the eye-opener to say the least. Let me begin by giving a little information about the organization.

The NGO was started in Germany in the early 1990s and the CRAN office in Ghana was established in 1993, the ultimate aim of CRAN is to promote self-help strategies toward community development and poverty reduction. The NGO has two branches, Microfinance for Development (this is where I am working) and a Social Development program. However, they are also involved in many community outreach projects, including education funding for needy youth and a relatively new project that provides solar lighting for those without access to electricity.

The Microfinance office is a Kiva Field Partner, so U.S. donors fund most of the loans through Kiva. The process, as I understand it, is as follows:

CRAN will send loan officers into different rural villages and interview potential loan recipients. These potential clients will have already established themselves into a small group of anywhere of 10 to 30 members and will receive the loan on a group basis, that way they will keep the others in check and if one should default the others will have the responsibility to repay that persons portion of the loan.  The loan officer will then proceed to ask a few general questions about their business, their family, their experience and their plans for the loan. This information is then compiled into a group loan document and then transferred and uploaded onto Kiva’s website for benefactors to view and fund the loans. (This is what I have been doing so far.)

Kiva allows CRAN a $100,000 loan capacity each month, however they have only reached this level a few times. My fellow intern, Rosemary, and myself have made it our goal to reach this amount all three months that we are here. If we are to succeed, Kiva will increase CRAN’s loan capacity.  I am really excited because it looks not only like we will reach the $100,000 mark, but we are doing it with a few days to spare, which means we get a head start for on loans for June!!

The general atmosphere in the office is warm and hospitable. Ghanaians are naturally welcoming and always enthusiastic to help us Obrunis, whether we need it or not. (Obruni means foreigner in the local language, but we are often called by this by children and locals to get our attention) Christianity is a huge part of Ghanaian life as well and every morning from 8 to 8:30am we have morning devotion, where we read a passage in the Bible and then some will begin a conversation about the interpretation and the meaning. Also, a small note of appreciation, the office is also air-conditioned! Air is rare in these parts, as I have learned.

I have gotten to know most of the office pretty well in just the few short weeks I’ve been here. This is mostly due to the power outages and slow Internet that allow us to talk more with co-workers. The power outages will happen at random and can sometimes last just a few minutes to the entire day, so sometimes we are not able to get anything done. This is just one of the things I have had to adjust to that I found myself getting very frustrated at in the beginning, but have gradually learned to work around it. I can already feel myself learning to be more patient, and will probably be my most improved personal attributes once I return home.

I should be going out into the field soon interview current clients. The purpose is to check back to see how they are using the loan, how it has improved their lives and their business, and also to educate them more about financial responsibilities and repayment procedures. 

I haven’t been able to take very many pictures so far, but I have a couple candid shots around the office.

       From left: my supervisor AB, and Teye

 These hang in the conference room for everyone to see and remind them of what we are striving towards.

 Me hard at work.

 Rosemary, the other "obruni" in the office

Our office is the front/main office so its usually pretty busy.


Thanks for reading! Until next time...