"Free Forever"

This was how Kwame Nkrumah described Ghana when he first declared independence on March 6th, 1957. His country was the first independent nation amongst former colonies in Africa, leading its peers by calling for freedom, justice, equity, and Pan-Africanism. Today, Ghana boasts a stable, multiparty democracy and continues to be a leader in development.

Students from Humjibre have been preparing for 6th March all week; practicing their marching, salutes, and cleaning and pressing their uniforms so they can look their very best on Independence Day. Even in the evenings, children constructed makeshift drums to try their hand in hopes of someday leading the march. On the day of independence, everybody in town came out to see the students from the four local schools; District Assembly, Anglican, Wireko Memorial and Deeper, perform.

Festivities began with students marching from the Anglican church through town to the football park.

A local band led them in their steps.

Once students from all the schools arrived at the park, Assemblywoman Madam Janet began with a speech.

Each group of students then marched by and saluted. Even the youngest nursery students took part. Some of these students required extra coaxing to stay in line.

Each group prepared a march and different salute to show to the crowd. Wireko Memorial boys marched like soldiers.

District Assembly boys took a knee to salute.

Deeper girls gained approval by saluting with a popular dance style.

Deeper girls saluted with a Ghana flag.

Anglican girls saluted with a sign that read “Peace.”

Students were not the only group to take part in the march. Farmers and other groups joined in at the back of the line to represent the important contributions they make to their nation.

Ghana’s Coat of Arms as posted in the Soroano Public Information Services office.

To learn Ghana’s national anthem, click here.

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GHEI, Partner in Development

It’s not too difficult for an NGO to exist in a vacuum. Non-governmental organizations are independent, non-for-profit groups that in some way advocate for the disadvantaged. As long as there is funding, an NGO’s goals and methodology are determined by the leaders of the organization and are a reflection of their personal ideals. These goals can be anything. At GHEI, we value cooperation with local leaders. They help define the needs of our communities and how we should work to satisfy them. We volunteer information about our organization and insist on monitoring and critical feedback; always holding ourselves accountable to the highest standard. For our communities, we strive to serve as a partner in development.

A few weeks ago, GHEI’s Country Director, Education Program Coordinator, Health Program Coordinator and Communications Officer traveled to the capital of our district, Bibiani. Armed with copies of the GHEI 2013 Annual Report, we sat down to talk about our programs with the district leaders.

Almost 30 copies of the 14-page report were personally delivered and critically discussed with district officials, head teachers, and chiefs from our catchment communities. The report states GHEI’s mission, lists all of our staff and volunteers, and updates and outlines the performance of each of GHEI’s programs for the 2013 calendar year. At each office, we invited feedback on our interventions; and often found ourselves in long discussions on the finer points of each program and how GHEI can better serve our communities.

This level of collaboration with government officials in planning and evaluating our programs is invaluable. In rural districts like Bibiani-Anwhiaso-Bekwai, local leaders commonly struggle with the problem of setting goals and making plans to improve development and the welfare of their population, without the capacity to follow through with the programs that they know are necessary. This gap between planning and implementation creates the perfect opportunity for organizations like GHEI to step in.

Many of GHEI’s programs have been guided by the advice of the offices that we regularly visit. A great example is the Vision program we are piloting this summer in partnership with University of Texas Houston’s Medical School. The local district has set a goal to do vision screenings at schools; however, due to insufficient staffing, they have prudently chosen against beginning a project they may not be able to finish. To help solve this problem, GHEI has been working with district officials to write screening protocols and bring a small version of the program to life. The Vision pilot we will be running will rely on GHEI resources, international volunteers, and district-level expertise to help complete vision screenings and basic interventions for local students. Our interventions work with already existing public programs, rather than against them (as some NGOs’ unfortunately do).

The value of transparent, accurate and understandable reporting beyond what is required by the state cannot be overstated. Inviting local officials to monitor our organization and directly communicate with us nurtures trust. We have formed relationships with the people at these offices, work well with them, and always enjoy a nice visit.

GHEI strives to function as part of the community. We collaborate with local officials to plan and implement the most relevant programs, and then closely monitor them and report back. We encourage leaders to give us their most critical evaluation. GHEI does not exist in a vacuum. We work openly and strategically with those around us.

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GHEI Celebrates 10 Years

On Tuesday, GHEI celebrated its 10th anniversary as an officially registered NGO in Ghana. GHEI began in 2001 when Diana Rickard, then a medical student in the U.S., partnered with Humjibre’s then assemblyman, Clement Donkor, to lead a new community organization. Now, with more than a decade of experience in our communities, GHEI has consistently demonstrated a commitment to local sustainable development.

Ghana Health and Education Initiative was created with the mission of building local capacity, and providing necessary resources and support to enable communities in Humjibre’s district to improve their children’s health, learning success and opportunities. While our mission and values have stayed the same, GHEI’s interventions have changed. Part of our success comes from the fact that our programs are constantly evolving; allowing us to focus on best meeting the changing needs of the community.

We believe in long-term investment and empowering local individuals: both the beneficiaries of our programs, and the staff who lead them. The vast majority of our staff is from the communities where we work. They understand the context - what the communities’ needs are and how to work successfully within the local culture. Their leadership and ability to transfer their skills to others means that eventually these communities will be self-sufficient in leading development.

For GHEI’s family of staff, the day was a cause for celebration. Each of our full-time staff members proudly contributed to a group donation: giving back to the organization. To include the community, we made two public announcements informing everybody of the milestone, the programs GHEI offers, and of course, thanking everyone for their support. There was a celebratory football match in the afternoon. 

The match was against a local team of young men, World 11. An eclectic bunch of full-time staff, volunteer teachers, community health workers and some of our eldest YEP students came together to round out the GHEI team. While it was not a group that practices, teachers and students played side-by-side and GHEI easily came together to work as a strong team. After a tough match, the game ended in a draw 2-2. 

Afterwards, we moved to the Lovers’ Inn for speeches and a commemorative drink. At this point, all of GHEI was present: current (and some past) full-time staff, volunteer teachers and community health workers. The Humjibre Chief and Queen Mother, and Soroano Chief even joined us. Clement began by thanking everyone for the sacrifices they had made for the organization, and their support over the years. 

One of our largest supporters, Humjibre Chief Nana Kwadwo Twum II, spoke next. He stated that prior to GHEI’s existence, people in Humjibre were not interested in education in the way that they are now. English was not spoken as much, and students did not aspire to go to university. He acknowledged the amount of opportunity that GHEI has brought to the community, and closed by explaining that “when you wake up and hear the morning announcements, the cockerels and the early sounds of the village, it will be the whole community thanking GHEI for its’ efforts.”  

Others in the community have echoed the Chief’s statements about behavioral change. They have observed a heightened interest in development and more people voluntarily taking steps to increase their own levels of health and education. Since GHEI’s establishment in Humjibre, long-term benefits are apparent; and they are not only coming directly from our programs, but also a community-led change in culture. This is the definition of sustainable development.

When I asked Clement about the meaning of this anniversary, he told me “They say that there is a certain river in Africa, that no matter how full it is, it can always grow.” GHEI has made great progress over the years, but for now, there is still much more for us to do. 

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Early Childhood Literacy at GHEI

Visiting an ECL classroom is an exciting and inspiring experience. The students have boundless energy, and three days a week, their teachers, Saga and Felicity, match them. On these days, Early Childhood Literacy classes can be clearly heard throughout the GHEI compound.

Students often arrive one or two hours early to run in circles, play well-strategized games of Connect Four, and build with play dough and blocks while they wait for class to begin. Lessons start with Daily Routines. Our two ECL teachers enthusiastically lead their classes through a recitation stating the day of the week, the date, current weather, and each student’s emotion. The students use rhythm and repetition to learn patterns and anticipate their teachers’ questions; shouting their answers in unison. The teachers are animated: acting everything out as they express it and in turn, the students are engaged. They are focused, but smiling and laughing the whole time. When one of their teachers steps back, the students take turns happily leading the class and clapping for each other when they get the right answer.

They speak loudly and build confidence working in English. The walls are covered with a mix of printed and hand-drawn posters that illustrate a large portion of the ECL curriculum. Students reference the posters throughout class as they work to increase their vocabularies and fluency.

The typical Early Childhood Literacy student is a younger sibling who either has not shown much promise in school, has some learning disability or is simply hyperactive. Most ECL students are seven, eight, or nine years old and at a critical stage where children develop at vastly different rates and all need to be nurtured and given the opportunity to grow. The students chosen for ECL have often already been labeled as poor investments; beginning a pattern of neglect from parents and teachers that compounds and becomes increasingly detrimental over time.

When GHEI tried to hold a meeting for parents of new students at the beginning of the year, only one parent bothered to show up.

ECL classes give students individualized attention, positive encouragement and allow them to actively participate in class while building their creativity and critical thinking skills. As part of GHEI’s female education and empowerment initiative, 60% girls and 40% boys are recruited for the program.

Using a culturally-adapted version of the Wilson Fundations phonics-based curriculum, classes focus on building literacy skills and incorporate purposeful play, songs, poems and time for individual reading and writing. The students thrive in a small classroom setting with ample books and school supplies.

To help monitor the program, GHEI measures students’ performance by organizing end of term exams and conducts baseline, midterm and final Early Grade Reading Assessments. Students’ exam scores improve and in the course of a year, many go from learning the alphabet to reading narrative passages and answering basic comprehension questions.

The program has been commended by local school teachers. They have written GHEI to report that students who were once falling behind are now shining as leaders in the classroom. With the help of ECL, initially poorly performing students have the opportunity to catch up with their peers and gain the attention and encouragement they deserve.

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Volunteer Reflections: Michael J. Kacka

The following is a guest post written by one of our 2013 Malaria Prevention Summer Serve and Learn volunteers, Michael J. Kacka. Michael will be returning to Humjibre in 2014 to lead two of our volunteer programs as a Volunteer Coordinator.

Mankind walked on the moon in 1969. It must have seemed like it would be impossible to someone in the 1960’s. Being in 2013 looking back, it seems impossible that it happened because we do not see that kind of thing anymore. Something has happened to our ability to use big ideas and technology to do big things. [Check out the TED Talk below for more on that.] That is why Bill Gates has become such a big hero to me. He is an optimist about solving the big problems of today, not by blindly hoping it will happen, but by putting the best minds on the case and figuring out solutions. We can collect data, mobilize affected communities, evaluate processes, and little by little solve problems like global poverty, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria completely and in our lifetimes. 



Volunteering with GHEI was my first opportunity to work on a global problem like malaria. The experience was incredibly fun, but it certainly was not glamorous. Two years ago, GHEI distributed the bednets in the community [known as long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs)]. Our role was to facilitate as local community health workers conducted surveys on the care and condition of those nets. We then coded the data on the surveys for entry into an excel program. That is when the real fun began! Double entering all that data in excel was a tedious task that encompassed most of our evenings. I was fortunate to be out there with such an incredible group of people that the work, which should have been horrifically boring, was actually entertaining.

My experiences in Ghana were a moving, emotional experience for me. I have told many people about one particularly transcendent moment running around with the local kids on their soccer field at night while it poured rain on us. That was certainly incredible, but I am fortunate that I can find the Zen in a stack of data. The heart of any good public health program is evaluation. It is that kind of data that saves lives and ends suffering. It may sound like I am overstating it, but it is not just the data itself. It is how it came to be. It is how a community was mobilized to address a deadly problem. Our role was very small in comparison. We just help keep the momentum going until malaria is a distant memory in Humjibre. 

2013 Malaria Prevention Summer Serve and Learn volunteers and some neighborhood children

The process of getting to the moon wasn’t always exciting, as anyone who has sat through all 17 hours (approximately) of The Right Stuff can attest, and the answers to these problems will not be an eureka moment in a laboratory. They will entail getting these communities organized so they realize what resources they have to work toward a solution, and of course doing the work - collecting the data, combing through stacks of surveys, and drawing conclusions about what works and does not. It would be nice to always have the perfect solution, but even when using best practices (something that GHEI clearly makes a priority) the methods must be adjusted to fit the population and situation. Eliminating these big problems like global poverty and malaria will be a long process, but because there are people and organizations out there doing this type of work, it is actually reasonable to believe these issues will be solved in our lifetimes.

Check out Jason Pontin's TED Talk – Can technology solve our big problems?

Visit our website to learn more about our 2014 volunteer programs or apply.

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World AIDS Day Two Ways

GHEI’s three regularly held health outreach programs are each well attended. However, people don’t get excited about World Malaria Day or Global Handwashing Day in the way that they do about World AIDS Day. HIV/AIDS prevention is an important subject that people want to learn about, but many are not comfortable seeking the information on their own. When we make it openly available, we get a very positive response.

According to the 2007 UN AIDS report, the prevalence of HIV in Ghana is around 1.9%. However, due to the influx of laborers working in nearby mines, it is known to be significantly higher in our area. GHEI’s Sexual and Reproductive Health program works to address this need, and the centerpiece of the program is our annual World AIDS Day celebration. On all other days of the year, we rely on GHEI-trained pharmacists, bar owners, and other individuals throughout the community who have volunteered to confidentially sell GHEI-subsidized condoms.

World AIDS Day Humjibre

After introductions, the evening began with Bethel Health Builders organisation in partnership with HEARD and RATN's educational video “Understanding HIV Testing” (see below). After each scene, we paused the video and allowed Aggie to translate and offer an explanation in Sefwi. Next, the health team played a short, but engaging film relating to common social situations, and how they can potentially lead to risky behavior. 



Afterwards, the real fun began. Francis and Mensah walked onto the stage and carefully demonstrated how to properly put a condom onto a carved wooden penis. Regardless of anybody’s maturity, watching Francis and Mensah work together on this task was hilarious. The whole crowd was laughing and cheering throughout the process. When they finished, Aggie and Abby stepped up to introduce the more foreign and apparently quite surprising, female condom. 

Finally, the health team closed with the part everyone had really been waiting for. To keep people from feeling shy, staff members dispersed to dark areas in town to distribute free condoms to anybody who approached them. GHEI’s once-a-year free condom distribution is an extremely popular event in Humjibre, and people rushed to the distributors, eager to collect.

World AIDS Day Soroano

We planned to do the same program the next evening. However, it rained for two days, and we found ourselves standing in a storeroom in Soroano, plotting our next move. At that point, the total attendance at World AIDS Day Soroano was going to be eleven: GHEI staff and program support personnel. 

Hiding from the rain in Soroano

I accompanied Abby, Aggie and Mensah to the public announcement broadcast station. If you’ve never been in a village in our area of Ghana, many have Big Brother-esque speaker and announcement systems, where anybody can pay to speak into a microphone and their voice is essentially inescapable within the village. Aggie began the program. For somebody who had had zero preparation for presenting in this setting, her performance was astounding. She was confident and self-assured as she introduced GHEI, World AIDS Day and the importance of HIV/AIDS awareness.

Meanwhile, Abby pulled her computer out and started playing the educational video from the previous night. As Aggie watched, she translated and explained the video to Soroano’s captive audience. Afterwards, emcee Mensah took the microphone and began the next segment of Soroano’s impromptu educational outreach program. 

He invited audience members to come ask questions on the air and announced that GHEI would be simultaneously distributing free condoms from a few separate locations in Soroano. The rain had subsided and as Mensah encouraged people to step out of their homes, Aggie and Abby hustled back to the storeroom to send staff members and boxes of condoms to the stated locations.

They made it just in time. Groups of people began arriving ready with questions and to collect from the distribution. 

***

While these ended up being two distinct programs, both were popular with their audiences and effective in getting our point across. In Soroano, we likely reached a different, but potentially larger group than we planned to. This occasion was an inspiring example of GHEI’s flexibility, ingenuity, dedication to our cause and ability to accommodate unforeseen events. To the health team that pulled it off, Bravo!

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