Monday, October 28, 2013

Focus on Learning: GHEI Reading Club

Ten minutes early. I was shocked the first time I walked into the classroom where reading club meets. A dozen students were already present. They had pushed the desks together into a big table and were all sitting down, focused on their books or finishing up some bit of homework. In Ghana, where things never really start when you expect them to, this was incredible.

GHEI’s youth reading club meets twice a week, is open to any junior high school students in the community and is advised by our library administrator, Lawrence Donkor. Normally, the group focuses on Junior African Writers’ Series books, but lately they have been experimenting with different titles. The students just finished E.B. White’s Stuart Little, and prior to that, particularly enjoyed working through Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. White was a significant departure from the norm for the group. His rhymes and playful use of vocabulary created a fun challenge by forcing students to actively think about pronunciations and creative word usage.

Each student shares a book with a partner and they take turns reading a few paragraphs out loud to the group. They are focused; almost every one of them diligently reads along, pushing their fingers under each line even when it is not their turn. Many bring pens and notebooks and occasionally reach to add to their list of new words to learn. Slower readers are not met with ridicule or derision, but patience and soft prompts of support as they stumble through their section.

After working through a couple of chapters, the group transitions to a discussion. They start by focusing on less familiar vocabulary. Often, one student will venture a guess while others race to see who can look it up first in one of the three dictionaries they bring to each meeting. Lawrence then leads the discussion to summarize the chapters and challenges the students to think critically about what they read.

The thing about reading club is that there are no bribes or incentives offered to coerce students to come. They come purely because they want a space to practice reading, engage in conversations about books and become stronger learners. Lawrence encourages them throughout their meetings and often closes with advice, reminding the students of truths like: “Nobody is born already able to read. So practice and don’t be too shy to ask questions and slowly you will learn.”

The issue now is that these students will soon run out of books. Take a moment to think. Do you know any teachers or school administrators who may have a classroom set that they can part with? Our students are happy to share. We can take as few as ten copies and GHEI will use these books both for our reading club and YEP English classes. If you are interested in donating, please contact communications@ghei.org


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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Soap and Water: Global Handwashing Day 2013

Global Handwashing Day is one of the most anticipated events on the GHEI calendar. Every year, GHD is comprised of short educational outreach programs at every school, marked by smiling youngsters singing about washing their hands. While these may seem insignificant, GHD actually serves a very serious purpose: explaining the benefits of and promoting the consistent practice of handwashing with soap.

Handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent communicable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia.[1] Children suffer disproportionately from these diseases. According to the most recent yearly measurement in Ghana, diarrhea and pneumonia led to seven and 13% of deaths in children under five, respectively.[2] Handwashing not only means healthier children, it also translates to more time in the classroom. Research shows that handwashing with soap at the three critical times can reduce school absenteeism by 42%, allowing children to do better in school and promoting their continued education.[3]

The goal of our Handwashing with Soap program is to create a targeted change starting with a single group. Children are open to new ideas, and are powerful agents in spreading them to their families and larger community. We focus on handwashing at the three critical times: after using the toilet, before preparing food, and before eating to offer a manageable change when handwashing is most important.

In all nations - not just developing countries - rates of handwashing with soap at critical times range from zero to 34%.[4] Even in places like Ghana, low rates of handwashing with soap are rarely caused by a lack of suitable soap and water. People have access to these things, but neglect to use them. Our program works to go beyond education to changing behavior and encouraging people to form new habits. To do this, we make facilities accessible in schools and employ social pressure to persuade people to use them. Once handwashing behavior has been adopted, it sticks.


Wireko Memorial students practicing handwashing technique
For Global Handwashing Day, our health team led community education outreach programs at eight local schools and preformed a live radio broadcast for everybody in the district to hear. Since the true GHD, October 15th, also happened to be a public holiday in Ghana, the first day of Eid al-Adha, we ran our celebrations on the 14th and 16th.

Our first school outreach program was at Anglican Primary school. Aggie began by introducing the school’s handwashing monitors, student representatives chosen from each school as the first line of defense in maintaining their handwashing with soap program. Next, the students were led in singing the handwashing song “Soap and Water” in both English and Twi (scroll down to watch our community health workers singing below). While singing, the students mimed washing their hands and used the length of the song to ensure a thorough scrub. Following the song, two boys and two girls were chosen to demonstrate proper handwashing technique and Mensah began the educational component by asking the students “What are the critical times to wash your hands?” A bunch of eager students raised their hands, and the first one he called on answered correctly. Finally, the program ended with the presentation of a new supply of soap, educational handwashing posters and for Anglican Primary, an award for having the best handwashing record during surprise visits throughout the year. The headmaster was beaming as he accepted the award and then led the students in an excited encore of the handwashing song.


After Anglican Primary, the team moved on to do similar presentations at Anglican JHS and Wireko Memorial Primary on Monday, and Kojina Primary, Muoho Primary, Muoho JHS, and DC Primary and JHS on Wednesday. In total, more than 1,600 students attended our programs, with an average of 86% of each school’s total enrollment present at each.

For the first time in several years, the GHEI health team, our CHWs, and two brave handwashing monitors hosted a Twi language live radio broadcast celebrating GHD on a local station. After introductions, they performed the drama “Wash Your Hands with Clean Water and Soap to Stay Healthy,” sang the famous GHEI handwashing song, and led a short education section on the critical times for handwashing with soap and its importance. The group was well-prepared; rarely having to consult their scripts as they moved through the program. The show was about twenty minutes long. Click to watch a short segment of it below.

Back in the van, everybody was excited about the performance. Even after hosting school programs all day and a radio show, they elected to sing the handwashing song a couple more times through. The team returned home feeling victorious.


CHWs and Handwashing Monitors at Unique FM
Over the three days in Humjibre, people were talking about tuning in to hear the radio broadcast, Aggie singing “Soap and Water” on the Humjibre morning announcements and the GHEI team coming to each of the schools. We succeeded in not just disseminating information on the benefits of handwashing with soap, but in creating a catalyst for community-wide behavioral change. By educating and fostering energy and enthusiasm around the simple practice of handwashing with soap, GHEI can help improve the health and education of the community.


[1] Why Handwashing? The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, accessed September 30, 2013, http://globalhandwashing.org/why.
[2] Robert E. Black et al., “Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2008,” The Lancet 375 (2010): 9730, accessed September 30, 2013, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60549-1.
[3] A Bowen et al. “A cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of a handwashing-promotion program in Chinese primary schools.” The American Center of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 6 (2007): 76, accessed 30 September, 2013, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17556631 
[4] Why Handwashing?


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Thursday, October 10, 2013

International Day of the Girl Child

Tomorrow is International Day of the Girl Child. Established just a few years ago, this day was created to recognize girls’ rights and bring attention the unique challenges they face. Girls worldwide lack access to education and investment in their well-being, meaningful participation in decisions that affect them and suffer from the cycle of discrimination and violence.[1] One of these issues that we work with here in Humjibre is the basic right that all children have to go to school.

Educating females is a key step in development and considered to be one of the most successful paths for communities out of poverty. According to the United Nations, there is:

“…overwhelming evidence that girls’ education, especially at the secondary level, is a powerful transformative force for societies and girls themselves: it is the one consistent positive determinant of practically every desired development outcome, from reductions in mortality and fertility, to poverty reduction and equitable growth, to social norm change and democratization.”[2]
Even at the household level, educated women are able to their use skills and knowledge to make informed decisions and take authority, helping to ensure the health and education of their children, the next generation.

When Ghana made primary education universal in 2005, it led to an immediate substantial increase in enrollment- especially among females, helping to narrow the gender gap.[3] However, families still focus on their sons and there are fewer girls than boys in schools, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels. Currently, there are about two girls for every three boys in senior high schools in Ghana. In rural areas like Humjibre, that ratio is worse.[4] Rural Ghanaian girls are not just slighted in the chance to go to school, they are also given less educational enrichment at home. Those females who are in school may be more negatively impacted by teachers’ strikes than their male peers because they are more reliant on teachers for their education. The endemic problem of girl children being relatively deprived of attention means that girls are less likely to be in school, and more likely to have a greater need for it.

There are several barriers that keep girls from attending school, make them more likely to drop out, and can lead to low educational outcomes for those who are able to complete their schooling. To begin with, educating girls in Ghana and many other developing countries is seen as an economic burden. It is believed that not just are girls more useful helping the family, but that educating them is a bad investment. Some argue that if a girl does not become pregnant while she is in school, she will eventually begin bearing children and will have no need for an education.

With this path set before girls, it is no surprise that they are minded less by their parents and teachers, receive less encouragement than their brothers, and are given more chores around the house that keep them from studying and even attending school. Girls are intimidated in the classroom, and taught to be quiet and set low aspirations. All girls are affected by these norms which keep them from fully, confidently participating in school.

However, with a joined global effort, barriers are being broken and negative views are changing. There are more girls in school in Ghana than ever before and there are plenty of family and community members, and initiatives from the government and NGOs like our own that work to support girls’ education.[5]

Supporting girls allows them to stay in school, achieve better educational outcomes, and become role models for younger girls. GHEI requires that at least 60% of the students in our Early Childhood Literacy program, Youth Education Program and Scholarship program are female. Beyond this requirement, we offer intentional spaces for young women to come together such as Ladies’ Night at the Tutoring Center and our two-week Girls’ Empowerment camp for Form 3 JHS girls during the summer. We believe strongly that every girl has the right to an education. GHEI works with girls to help and encourage them to reach their goals, and with the community to demonstrate they are in fact, worth it.




[1] United Nations, International Day of the Girl Child, http://www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/ (9 October 2013). 
[2] United Nations, Day of the Girl. 
[3] UNGEI, United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, http://www.ungei.org/ (9 October 2013). 
[4] Camfed Ghana, “What Works in Girls’ Education in Ghana: A critical review of the Ghanaian and international literature.” January 2012.
[5] UNICEF, International Day of the Girl Child, http://www.unicef.org/gender/gender_66021.html (9 October 2013).

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