GHEI News

The Annual General Meeting in Humjibre

2012-01-31T11:38:00.000Z

Clement

On Sunday night,GHEI had their Annual General Meeting for the Humjibre Community. It’s become an anticipated event here, and a goodmoment for GHEI to get the community up to speed on what we’ve been doing inthe past year. This evening was also animportant time for our mechanized borehole committee to update the assembled ontheir progress. A site has been selectednear the centre of town and work begins soon.

As it hashappened for the last five years, the chief and many important members of theHumjibre community were in attendance. And also, as usual, a DJ with absurdly large speakers got the eveningoff to a thumping start. And also, asusual, the lighting played havoc with our photos so, I’ll keep this short.

Here aresome interesting stats that we presented:

Over430 Junior High School students attended our tutoring centre in 2011

28 students have graduated High Schools thanks to GHEI scholarships since 2006

12new students are attending ECL classes with GHEI

Thelibrary saw 20,000 visitors in 2011 (!) and now has 5,500 books

GHEIextended the Malaria Prevention Program to a third community in 2011, Kojina, where the entire community received insecticide treated bednets

Oureducation outreaches on proper handwashing at seven primary schools reached 1,512 students

GHEIhas begun a new partnership with local drink spots to sell condoms atsubsidized rates

Over200 medical personal at clinics throughout the district received training on neo-natal recussitation frompediatric residents from UCLA working with GHEI

Wedid not go over budget.

Happy admires Happy on powerpoint

This lastpart is important as a practice for an NGO, but if you only knew how small ourbudget really is…We manage to do a lot with a little out here. We run four massive education programs, threeessential health programs, pay salaries for 10 full time staff, run an enormouslibrary, run a vibrant community centre, and reach thousands in need, in our villageand beyond. In a single year, we do all thisfor less than the price of an SUV (….we don’t have a company car).

For a lot less than what most NGO executive directors demand insalary, we use to run an effective NGO. For this, and for many other accomplishments, we are proud.

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An Afternoon with Brown in ECL

2012-01-26T13:35:00.000Z

Brown and his students in ECL2

“Tell methe words you see on this page.” Small handsgo up instantly. “Fish!”yells out one child when called on. “Night…”whispers another. “Shoop”says another, a little too quickly. Samuel Godfried Brown, the teacher for this ECL class,smiles, and says, “No, it’s pronounced SHOP. Say it with me.” All the childrendo.

Brown, ashe is commonly known, grew up in Humjibre, and was one of the first studentsthat GHEI sponsored for Senior High School though the scholarship program. He went on and completed Senior High Schoolat Kumasi, and then returned to Humjibre, hoping to continue on to Universityshortly, but decided to work for a bit first. Slowly, Brown became moreinvolved in GHEI, first volunteering with the tutoring centre, and then YEPclasses, and finally Early Childhood Literacy, or ECL. He was the first teacher to volunteer toteach to the ECL class.

The YEPprogram exists to push older students towards greater excellence, and ECL is forthose younger students in the first year of school that are already fallingbehind. While the education systemfunctions fairly ably out here, there is no capacity for those quiet kids inthe back, who quickly slip through the cracks. And if you don’t have a handle on literacy at an early age, the chancethat you will catch up later is slim.

Brown teaches ECL2. These are the kids who have completed a yearof ECL, and still benefit from the intensive, supportive learningenvironment. By now, these kids canread, albeit with some stumbling here and there, but it’s a good thing Brown’ssuch a laid back guy.

The bookthat they were reading was Frank The FishGets His Wish. It’s a cute storyabout a fish in a pet shop feeling lonely in his tank, till a new a fish namedTrish is put in his tank with him. It’sa good story for beginner readers, all the words are a few syllables long, andthe alliteration and rhyming scheme is good to get a grasp on proper pronunciation.

However, Icould not image how this book would be relatable to these kids. What does a kid in Humjibre know about a petstore? What’s a pet? Why isn’t anyoneeating this fish?

As I sat inthe corner and the kids painstakingly followed the words with their slightlydirty fingers, I wondered how we were supposed to bring kids to a western levelof English literacy when the majority of children’s books are so clearly biasedtowards kids in wealthy western societies.

The chapter ended and Brown deposited a largebox of books on the table. The kidshungrily grabbed one each, and I cornered Brown as he was cleaning. How do you translate foreign concepts like petstores and fish tanks and, for that matter, fish that are kept as pets. For some of the words, Brown said, wetranslate them into our own language. Ihad seen him do this for some of the more complex words like “swim” and “gills”. Yes, but how do you say ‘Pet Store’ in Sefwi?

He smiled, “TeachingECL is interesting because there are some words that can help you the teacher learnby explaining them in your own language. It helps with your own understandingby slowing down and explaining the words and the ideas. It is like you are learning by teaching.”

Besides, hesaid, the ECL students know what a fish is. They know what loneliness is. They know what it is like to have a new friend.

“And thatis also why we also have these books,” he said, gesturing to the table, wherethe kids were engaged in their own books.

A page from "My Yellow Book" by Kathy Knowles

These bookswere the Osu Children’s Library Fund books written by Kathy Knowles. They are simple, and great for early readers,and firmly planted in Ghana. Onesentence in “My Green Book” has the line “The Shea Fruits are green” and abovethe text is a picture of Shea Fruit, a fruit most in Ghana wouldrecognize. The students read these booksaloud, confidently, even the boy who was whispering earlier.

I wonderedif people in the west would better understand the enormous challenge ofencouraging literacy in Africa, if six and seven year olds in America wereforced to sit down and read “My Green Book”. Clearly, we need more books like this here in Ghana, and we need morededicated teachers like Brown.

“When Icompleted SHS, I wanted to get into business. I imagined myself as someone like that. But due to some things at home, I couldn’t continue to University rightthen. So I started to teach with GHEI because they needed volunteer teachers,and then I started to teach in Anglican Primary school as part of the government’sYouth Employment Program.”

“SinceI’ve been teaching my mind has changed. It keeps my mind active always and boostsmy morale to teach like this,” he said, gesturing again to the kids now puttingaway their Ghana themed storybooks. “Ithink it is because of working here at GHEI I want to continue being a teacher.”

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A New Year, A New Project, A New Approach from GHEI

2012-01-19T12:57:00.001Z

GHEI hasstarted 2012 strongly.

The Chiefof Humjibre called a general meeting for Wednesday morning in the community centre. There was no need to ask what the meeting is for, people simplydutifully showed up, in small numbers earlier, but the crowd grew to nearly hundred.

Nana Kwado Twum II, The Chief of Humjibre

Nana KwadoTwum II was briefed by Clement last week. Over the holiday break, GHEI received newsthat one of our projects listed on the Choose a Need website had received thefull amount of funding, and was ready to go.

WhenClement and senior staff sat with the chief, he explained that GHEI wereattempting something new. GHEI has sinceit's humble beginnings been entirely community focused. The talent and energy infused into the workby volunteers and staff from Humjibre for Humjibre, has been a big factor inits success.

Humjibre,though, is a rapidly shifting and growing community. Even since I arrived in April, I've seen itin little details like new items at stores and the far off hammering of new housesbeing built. Lately, phone creditentrepreneurs have added phone retail sections to their enterprises; they growfrom a young man's backpack sitting in the shade to a wooden structure with atin roof and a glass display case in less than eight months. ...Read More.

Review of Summer Serve and Learn Volunteer applications begins on January 15, 2012

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000Z

We are welcoming applications for Summer Serve and Learn now! 

GHEI will start reviewing applications from January 15'th on. Review will continue until all spots on volunteer teams are filled. Successful applicants will be contacted to schedule interviews.  

Learn more about the Summer Serve and Learn program

2012 Summer Serve and Learn project descriptions / FAQ / 2012 Summer Serve and Learn application

Email applications to apply@ghei.org

A Christmas and a New Year comes around again in Humjibre

2011-12-24T11:36:00.000Z

Humjibre: December 23, 2011 - 5:44 P.M.

We are inching intoChristmas here in Humjibre. It’s drier here than I’ve ever seenit; the harmatthan dust from the desert has settled in town, castinga spooky diffused light everywhere. It’s like Christmas in sepia,with children playing in whirling dust devils instead of freshlyfallen snow. I’m not sure how, but it cuts an equally magicalimage. After all, this time of year is about anticipation and the excitement ofeveryone gathering and celebrating, not about snow and shoppingmalls. And if you take a walk in town, the excitement is everywhere.

The holiday greetings here are "Afehyia Pa" in Twi. This means I wish you a good meeting of the year, or along the lines of 'one year has gone a full cycle'. The response is "Afe nko mmeto yen", which means, 'may the year go round and find us again'. To me, it sounds like when the years meet, that is when we will also meet.

Humjibre: December 24, 2011 - 8:13 A.M.

About a month ago,as the holidays were just over the horizon, I sat down with Lawrenceto get to know how it goesdown here. With themail service in Ghana the way it is, our Christmas themedcorrespondence needed to go out soon, and if we were to give oursupporters a taste of Humjibre Holidays, I needed to know what that looks like. ...read more.

GHEI F.C. vs Real Kojina

2011-12-14T15:51:00.000Z

After the intermural match between GHEI’s Early ChildhoodLiteracy class and the regular young patrons of the library last month, libraryadministrator Lawrence and education program manager Happy were impressed. On the uneven, rutted ground in front of thelibrary, these kids were showing some serious talent.

The Team Bus

I was in the office after the match as ECL teacher Saga, andHappy and Lawrence all conversed feverishly about the game. It was getting intense, each were gesturingmore wildly. What they were arguingabout was not the game, but the future of the team. The three men had big ideas.

Kojina, a nearby village, practically next door to Humjibre(where we have expanded our malaria program), was going to be the first matchfor a new, combined and refined GHEI football team. Kojina has only one primary school so playingour ECL students of the same age was a good match...or so we thought.

Word of the match travelled fast and the students andteachers in both villages were getting excited. While Lawrence and Happy wereplanning logistics with the Kojina teachers, Saga found some uniforms. Theywere a little big, but effective nonetheless.

On Friday December 9^th , students ran from schoolto GHEI so they were sure to be on the team. A dream team of mixed ECL and Library studentswas controversially assembled. This waswhen the Svengalis of the team got to work: Lawrence handled the teammanagement, Happy handled the transport, and Saga took to impromptu training. It seemed like the three grown men who weremanaging a kids football team were more excited than the kids were… ...read more

Visit Cape Coast Castle with us this Summer

2011-12-11T14:20:00.001Z

The Cape Coast Castle

This summer, as part of GHEI Summer Serve and Learn volunteerprogram (that is now accepting applications! Apply here!), volunteers will have a trip to Cape Coast Castle includedas part of their volunteering time with GHEI.

The Cape Coast Castle is a must visit for any traveller inGhana. This haunting and importantlandmark is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is very popular with tourists. Until the 1830's, when Britain outlawed slave trading in its empire, captured men, woman and children from throughoutGhana and other parts of Africa were marched hundreds of kilometres to thispoint. Once they arrived at the castle, they were kept in a cramped dungeon for months until they were led aboard ships destined for the Americas, where they would work as slaves.

Phillip Briggs, who wrote the write up for Ghana on respectedtravel publication Frommer's list of top ten places to visit in 2012, and also authored the Bradt Guide to Ghana, has thisto say about the castle, “This World Heritage Siteis reputed to have been one of the largest slave-holding sites in the worldduring the colonial era...Sited on the edge of town overlooking a rocky stretchof coast with crashing waves, this white washing building is far moreattractive than you feel a place with its history out to be. But once below ground, in the claustrophobicdungeons which saw ten of thousands...it is a grim and sobering place indeed.” (Bradt Guide: Ghana.Vol.3)

View of Cape Coast town with its multitudes of colorful fishing vessels

When I was there, I felt the same sort of odd juxtapositionin Cape Coast. There were beautiful palmlined beaches right under the chilling shadow of the Castle. In town, I was struck by how the reminders ofthe colonial era existed in some strange harmony with the modern Ghana. ...read more.

GHEI Hosts World AIDS Day Event in Humjibre

2011-12-02T10:00:00.000Z

Community Health Worker Isaac answering questions and demonstrating how to put a condom on properly

When GHEI hosted World AIDS Day for Humjibre in the community centre, it began like most community events do: with giant speakers, a DJ spinning some bass heavy hip-life, a GHEI staff member yelling invitations to the community, and the pounding of dozens of tiny feet dancing before the adults come.

World AIDS Day events eventually began formally and it started off getting people involved through a question and answer session hosted by Aggie, about AIDS, AIDS prevalence in Ghana, and proper ways to protect yourself.

It was a good exercise, so let's do it here on the blog, for World AIDS Day: ...read more.
...Read More