20 Questions

I was sitting on the porch the other night with our friendly neighborhood Peace Corps Volunteer, Raven KuyKendall, when a young man came by, introduced himself and said he wanted to ask us a few questions. The role of GHEI at the most basic level is to be a resource to the community. It’s our job to answer questions. So, when somebody came wanting to ask them, we were thrilled.

He stayed for almost an hour and asked us everything from how to tell if a condom is OK to use and how different viruses spread to how far a mosquito travels in its lifetime. Here is a bit of our conversation:

“What does it feel like if you have HIV?”

“It could feel like nothing. Some people even have HIV and have no idea.”

“So, how do you find out if you have it?”

“It’s in your blood. These are the places you can go to get tested and find out….”

“Then what should you do?”

“Tell others to get tested too. And always be careful, it’s not worth it to risk getting it.”

“I heard keeping your gutters clean can help prevent malaria. Why is that?”

“Mosquitoes breed in standing water. So you always want to get rid of any around your home.”

“Ok, what about the frog pond near the edge of the village? There must be a lot of mosquitoes there. Can you put oil or something in the water to kill them?”

“That’s a cool idea, but it probably won’t work.” Regardless, he was thinking. He wanted to know exactly what caused malaria, and how to eradicate it. “What about cleaning mosquito nets. Can you put them out in the sun to dry?”

“No, always dry them in the shade. See this line under the roof here? This is where we dry ours.” We talked about how fabrics fade in the sunlight and why you need to be extra careful washing bed nets.

“What kind of soap should you use? My mom makes soap from plantain leaves but said you shouldn’t use it to wash bed nets since the potassium would have a bad effect. Is that true?” He finally stumped us. “I have no idea but we can find out. Come back tomorrow and we’ll let you know.”

We chatted a little more and eventually he left. He thanked us and we told him he was welcome to come by with questions whenever he wanted. He said he would write a list of new ones for us.

At GHEI, We believe that healthy, well-educated young people have the power to lead their communities out of poverty.

He was a perfect example. This young man wanted to understand how to improve his own health and that of others in his community. He had the confidence to come to our house and just start asking questions.

We joked after he left that this was why we practically lived at the office- so that we were always available to help. Luckily, we have a great time doing it. And in case you were wondering, we couldn’t find any reason why plantain soap would be an issue.

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YEP, ECL Back to Classes

Today marks the end of the first full week of term three for Humjibre students. In Ghana, the school year is split into three terms, with the last starting in May and ending in July. With school back in session, the education team at GHEI has been super-busy; and as GHEI’s newest teacher-in-training, I have been working to understand how our classes are run.

With six extra contact hours per week, GHEI supplemental classes take a creative and engaging approach, and offer students a variety of resources that are not otherwise commonly available. Since their inception, these programs have been enormously successful. In the past several years, 100% of our Youth Education Program students have passed their standardized BECE exams. In 2012, 43% of YEP students scored in the distinguished “high pass” range in comparison to 27% throughout the district.

How do we achieve this? Observing some YEP classes, it became clear. GHEI utilizes a diverse group of teachers: from Humjibre, other parts of Ghana, and other parts of the world. They have very different styles- but share some common traits. GHEI teachers are intelligent, exceptionally motivated and trained to focus on making connections, critical thinking and enhancing study skills. In the classroom, they present fun, relevant, student-driven lessons.

The first thing you notice walking into a GHEI classroom is that everyone is smiling and engaged. Teachers comfortably interact with students, who happily focus on the task at hand. They have found the critical balance between joking around and getting serious work done. Our Education Program Coordinator, Shantie Bahadur, admitted: “I just want the kids to laugh. It needs to be fun.”

Beyond this, teachers create lessons that students can easily relate to. In a science class about energy, students discussed power production in Ghana and how the sun feels in the arid North. In English, two example sentences students came up with were: “Ghanaian women are beautiful” and “Humjibre girls are brilliant.”


Finally, GHEI teachers employ a teaching style that is sensitive to the strengths and needs of their students. Students participate in shaping the conversation and rather than being told the answers to their questions, they work alongside their teachers to discover them.

This formula of fun, relevant, student-driven teaching works. GHEI students are focused during their classes, think actively and are highly motivated. Barely anyone noticed me wandering around snapping photos. No one had to be reminded to participate in classroom discussions; and even after class time was over, students continued to ask questions. GHEI classes go beyond reviewing curriculum in a small-group setting to actually nurturing the growth of capable, competent, independent students.

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TBA Pilot Training and the UCLA Peds

It’s a muggy morning, you’re waiting. Not yet, but something at the community center is slowly taking shape. It’s the beginning of a two-day pilot training for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) by the UCLA pediatric residents Grace Deukmedjian, Mary Limbo and Michelle Aguilar. They posed the question early on: “What can you do to improve health in your community?”

One woman raised her hand and asked: “If there isn’t a car, what can we do?” TBAs are busiest in resource-poor environments. When there is not a health facility present- these are the women that expectant mothers turn to. They are well-experienced in delivering babies, but lack the same education and training that nurses and midwives have. A large part of their training is knowing when to refer women to better equipped health facilities.

Theoretically this works. Except places where TBAs deliver babies are places that do not have cars. This question prompted our residents to acknowledge an important point. We are in a rural village, births do not always go according to plan, and the situation will rarely be ideal. In this environment, the goal of the TBAs remains the same: do everything you can to protect the health of the mother and the baby.


For now, the best way to achieve this goal is preparation. Many of the area TBAs came. They were older women, each dressed in traditional fabrics with colorful intricate patterns and lively facial expressions. They chimed in with thoughtful questions and waited expectantly to see what their colleagues (Ghanaian and American) had to say. Many of the women nodded along and you could hear the occasional “mhmm” and “ehhen” in agreement. They are a group of women who care deeply about their patients and want to do everything that they can to best serve them.

There was no sense of privilege or superiority. This was a meeting of people who care for infants; cooperating and sharing their best methods. A translator was often needed, but the conversation flowed freely as the women discussed their experiences. Lessons evolved during the training and were tailored to respond to the questions raised by the participants. When the TBAs were split into small groups for skills practice, smiles and cheers erupted from each station from time to time, marking a newly breathing “baby.”

The residents have been in Ghana for about three weeks and have been extraordinarily busy. Beyond the pilot TBA training focused on neonatal resuscitation, clean delivery, and guidelines for referral, they have also been responsible for refresher trainings for area nurses and midwives. The residents are packing in way more than they anticipated, but simply explain their obligation: “Since we’re here, we’re gonna do it!”

After the TBA training finished, each woman was given a new kit of supplies and some minerals to drink (the TBAs all chose Sprite and residents all chose Coke). The pilot’s lasting impact is yet to be seen, but the TBAs have each found easy changes they can make to better their practice. If you can improve your ability to safely deliver and care for babies, you can improve health in your community.

To see more pictures from UCLA trainings, be sure to check out our Facebook where they will be posted on the 16th!

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Back to Humjibre, the "Resting Place"

The following is a guest blog written by Emily Wei, one of GHEI’s founders who recently returned to Humjibre for a short visit.

A few months ago, I arrived back in the village I once called home, eager to see old friends, colleagues, and students. In 2003, Ghana Health and Education Initiative was just a name, an idea, and a few people who wanted Humjibre to become a place where brainy students could go to school despite financial limitations, families could outdo the scourge of malaria, and community members contributed to make it all happen. Now, in 2013, in its tenth year of existence, GHEI and Humjibre are flourishing. On the land we were gifted by the community now stands not only the community center that I was privy to seeing built (not without struggles, and sadly a death of our engineer who the center is named after), but offices, a computer room, a library and ample volunteer housing space. The center is truly that, located at the center of the village, and a place for people to congregate, learn and hopefully, be inspired. I know in my short stay back in Humjibre and hanging out with some of the GHEI family, I certainly was.

Emily & Ernest

With ten years past, what struck me is not only how GHEI is flourishing as an organization, with a multitude of programs that we did not have when we started, and local and international staff that are incredibly dedicated and professional, but moreso, how past GHEI friends and participants have now become leaders in the community. I saw Ernest, now a full time teacher with GHEI, who when we first arrived, would come to our house all the time (which doubled as the first office) to read, talk and hang out. He has become an incredibly disciplined, well rounded, and might I say, fashionable young man who is now contributing greatly to the community, his family, and our work. Then there are those who have been the steadfast leaders who have been with us since the beginning- Clement, who continues to lead the work of GHEI and Sister Comfort, who hasn't missed a step in caring for GHEI international staff as though they are true Humjibrians- born and bred.

Emily & Sister Comfort

And maybe most inspiring was to see and hear about past GHEI students who are now teaching with GHEI and giving back to their community. Some of them are even aspiring to go abroad to study, to further their educations and broaden their experiences. Their path forward is only a reminder of how important the work GHEI is doing to encourage, strengthen and uplift those who just need a little boost to reach their goals and meet their incredible potential.

Clement, Emily, Mensah & Aggie

I look forward to coming back again (hopefully without letting 8 years pass by again) witness what other great things Humjibreans will do. But perhaps much sooner, Humjibreans will come visit us, the GHEI family, spread out around the US, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa!

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