Before I stuff the last mementos and do-hickey's into my pack, I want to have one last post from Canada. I am sitting here, after the weakening goodbyes and before the towering and uncertain journey and I am excited and I am scared. I can't wait to live this amazing adventure, learn about Ghana and its people, and try to better understand the world we live in. I am heading to Africa bursting with emotion, and as enthusiastic and open-hearted as I can be without actually exploding. I hope that throughout these four months I can learn and articulate my learnings through the posts on this blog. Get excited for pictures and videos, and stories of funny, challenging and enlightening moments. As always, I deeply appreciate your questions, comments and support and will do my best to act as a tool to your learning this summer.
With love and a nervous smile I am off!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Questions from Guelph Chapter Members
A while back Guelph Chapter members had the opportunity to write down a question that they had about our time (myself and Madavine) in Africa this summer. There are many questions, and I intend on getting to them all, but here are some basic ones to get it started.
What are you the most apprehensive about your placement?
The thing that I am most worried about for my placement is not being able to do a good job. I am going with the hope of being useful and helping the REP become better at helping the rural poor. I am also worried about big picture development issues. For example, am I actually doing good development work, or am I merely having good intentions with a terrible impact? I am worried about getting sick, and not being able to run to the doctor to check it out whenever I feel compelled. Finally, I am worried I am going to cry a lot. I am very emotional, and I feel like I am going to be confronted by a lot of things that will really frustrate me and there won’t be anything I can do about it, and in situations like that, I cry. Not because I am a big baby, but just because I am super emotional. Finally, I am worried about finding a family to live with, and the inevitable language barriers. HOWEVER, I am excited for all the same things I am worried about because of the challenges I will have to overcome and how much I will learn.
Will you be part of a variety of communities during your placement?
There is a chance that I will travel around with a field officer to different communities to evaluate and implement projects related to the REP. However, right now, I am still lacking enough details to know for sure. Even if my work doesn’t require it, I am going to make an effort to travel to different communities by visiting other volunteers on weekends. I want to be able to see as much of the country as I can. Also, we are encouraged to stay in a village for a couple weeks to better understand rural livelihoods and the people we are working for. (For details on my placement, check the previous post)
During, After, Before going: what impact did you have or expect to have in your placement?
There are many areas in which I have thought on my impact, my friends and family in Canada, my friends and family overseas, my workplace, the Guelph Chapter, myself and of course Dorothy. Dorothy is someone I have not formally introduced yet, and it is definitely important that I do. Dorothy is a concept based off of a real person. She is person for whom we are all working. She helps us at EWB have a focus on impact. For example:
What is the difference between digging a well, access to clean water and improved health?
What is the difference between building a school and ensuring that children get an education?
What is the difference between having a public display and making Canadians aware of the challenges faced by the world’s poor?
The difference is a shift from thinking about what we want to do, to thinking about what we want to achieve. More specifically, it’s thinking about what we want to help Dorothy achieve.
Dorothy is the mother pounding fufu in Cameroon. She is selling oranges on the street of Accra. She is tending to her kids in Tanzania. She is trying to sell some crops in Senegal. She is the bright school boy who dreams of being a doctor, who is working through high school as a subsistence farmer.
She is our boss. The one to whom we ultimately report. I want to better understand who Dorothy is, and find my own Dorothy. Every volunteer comes back with a story of their Dorothy. The person who inspires them to keep on trying to make the world a better place…to keep on caring when it is so easy to ignore the realities of the billions of people living in extreme poverty and to continue exploiting them with our casual and consumptive lifestyles. I want to have that person, or those many people whom I am working for. For whom I can inspire those yet to find their Dorothy’s to work for in the mean time.
So that is who Dorothy is. In my placement, I will be working to improve Dorothy’s life, therefore, my impact plan for my placement will be slanted towards her.
Before: Learn as much as I can and humble myself as much as possible with how little I really do know about the world. Care. It is so important to care about her even though we have never met. Be open-minded. Clear my head of what I expect from her and her situation.
During: I want to meet her. I want to learn her motivations and her aspirations. I want to understand what is suppressing her into poverty, and what I can do about it. I want all my actions to be guided by how it will impact her. I want her to understand that there are people who are trying to improve her world, that there are people who care about her, all the way in a small village in Africa.
After: I want to share with as many people as will listen, and even some who will not, who she is, and how anybody can have an impact on her life. People cannot relate to figures in the billions. Not even figures in the tens. But one person has the more power to move and motivate change in the masses in our world. I hope that I can share her story and cause more people to care about her and do something about her situation.
What are you the most apprehensive about your placement?
The thing that I am most worried about for my placement is not being able to do a good job. I am going with the hope of being useful and helping the REP become better at helping the rural poor. I am also worried about big picture development issues. For example, am I actually doing good development work, or am I merely having good intentions with a terrible impact? I am worried about getting sick, and not being able to run to the doctor to check it out whenever I feel compelled. Finally, I am worried I am going to cry a lot. I am very emotional, and I feel like I am going to be confronted by a lot of things that will really frustrate me and there won’t be anything I can do about it, and in situations like that, I cry. Not because I am a big baby, but just because I am super emotional. Finally, I am worried about finding a family to live with, and the inevitable language barriers. HOWEVER, I am excited for all the same things I am worried about because of the challenges I will have to overcome and how much I will learn.
Will you be part of a variety of communities during your placement?
There is a chance that I will travel around with a field officer to different communities to evaluate and implement projects related to the REP. However, right now, I am still lacking enough details to know for sure. Even if my work doesn’t require it, I am going to make an effort to travel to different communities by visiting other volunteers on weekends. I want to be able to see as much of the country as I can. Also, we are encouraged to stay in a village for a couple weeks to better understand rural livelihoods and the people we are working for. (For details on my placement, check the previous post)
During, After, Before going: what impact did you have or expect to have in your placement?
There are many areas in which I have thought on my impact, my friends and family in Canada, my friends and family overseas, my workplace, the Guelph Chapter, myself and of course Dorothy. Dorothy is someone I have not formally introduced yet, and it is definitely important that I do. Dorothy is a concept based off of a real person. She is person for whom we are all working. She helps us at EWB have a focus on impact. For example:
What is the difference between digging a well, access to clean water and improved health?
What is the difference between building a school and ensuring that children get an education?
What is the difference between having a public display and making Canadians aware of the challenges faced by the world’s poor?
The difference is a shift from thinking about what we want to do, to thinking about what we want to achieve. More specifically, it’s thinking about what we want to help Dorothy achieve.
Dorothy is the mother pounding fufu in Cameroon. She is selling oranges on the street of Accra. She is tending to her kids in Tanzania. She is trying to sell some crops in Senegal. She is the bright school boy who dreams of being a doctor, who is working through high school as a subsistence farmer.
She is our boss. The one to whom we ultimately report. I want to better understand who Dorothy is, and find my own Dorothy. Every volunteer comes back with a story of their Dorothy. The person who inspires them to keep on trying to make the world a better place…to keep on caring when it is so easy to ignore the realities of the billions of people living in extreme poverty and to continue exploiting them with our casual and consumptive lifestyles. I want to have that person, or those many people whom I am working for. For whom I can inspire those yet to find their Dorothy’s to work for in the mean time.
So that is who Dorothy is. In my placement, I will be working to improve Dorothy’s life, therefore, my impact plan for my placement will be slanted towards her.
Before: Learn as much as I can and humble myself as much as possible with how little I really do know about the world. Care. It is so important to care about her even though we have never met. Be open-minded. Clear my head of what I expect from her and her situation.
During: I want to meet her. I want to learn her motivations and her aspirations. I want to understand what is suppressing her into poverty, and what I can do about it. I want all my actions to be guided by how it will impact her. I want her to understand that there are people who are trying to improve her world, that there are people who care about her, all the way in a small village in Africa.
After: I want to share with as many people as will listen, and even some who will not, who she is, and how anybody can have an impact on her life. People cannot relate to figures in the billions. Not even figures in the tens. But one person has the more power to move and motivate change in the masses in our world. I hope that I can share her story and cause more people to care about her and do something about her situation.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Rural Enterprises Project!
Hi everyone!
the news is in...this summer I will be working on the Rural Enteprises Project (REP) in either the Northern Region or the Upper East Region. I was thrilled to learn that this was my placement, and another exciting aspect of it is that my coach for the summer (a longterm volunteer with EWB) is Gwen Henderson, an amazing women that I met briefly at the National Conference in Montreal this past January. She has been working in Ghana since the summer of 2006. She has learned a great deal about REP and has been immersing herself in Ghanian culture so I am sure I she will be a great example to follow and an amazing resource and support.
Here is a quick intro to the REP in Ghana:
The Rural Enterprises Project (REP) is a poverty alleviation organization in Ghana that supports the creation and growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the rural regions of Northern Ghana. I will likely be working in an office that is responsible for coordinating training services, credit services and business counseling for women and underemployed youth in the rural districts of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of Ghana.
What will my role be?
I will likely be working in a Business Advisory Centre, counselling micro enterprise owners in the local rural areas, and assisting in running training programs for micro and small scale enterprises owners in the local rural areas. This can be accomplished through participation and planning of workshops, working as a team with local staff, and contributing to the work of REP in a way that enhances their own work. EWB's involvement with REP has moved beyond the monitoring and evaluation stage and now the goal is to encourage our REP coworkers to put the learnings from the trainings they received, to get the clients to come up with their own ideas (possibilities of improvement), and to help them make them a reality.
Am I excited!?!
Of course! Its very exciting and relieving to learn what my placement is, it just makes it that much more real. I am still waiting on details of my exact location and will be arranging a conference call with Gwen in the next week.
The description of REPs gives me shivers. One of the reasons I felt so moved by rural poverty was because of the toll it takes on women. Born a fighter for women's rights, this struck a deep chord in me. I am passionately moved to be working on a project that will directly benefit women who are rural subsistence farmers and suffer the worst. From a link found below on the right discussing rural poverty, one of the funders of the REP, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development)
REP is a project that I feel I can contribute to. A lot of the projects EWB is involved with involve knowledge of agriculture, which I am limited in. I will have the opportunity to learn about rural livelihoods and agriculture, without pretending to know more about it than I actually do. I am eager to learn more about the project and similar ones to it around the world. Those findings will come shortly.
Just a month before I go! I took my first malaria medication today (because I am want to make sure I don't have negative side effects with Larium, and want to take it soon enough to switch to Doxycycline if I need to.)
Can't Wait!
the news is in...this summer I will be working on the Rural Enteprises Project (REP) in either the Northern Region or the Upper East Region. I was thrilled to learn that this was my placement, and another exciting aspect of it is that my coach for the summer (a longterm volunteer with EWB) is Gwen Henderson, an amazing women that I met briefly at the National Conference in Montreal this past January. She has been working in Ghana since the summer of 2006. She has learned a great deal about REP and has been immersing herself in Ghanian culture so I am sure I she will be a great example to follow and an amazing resource and support.
Here is a quick intro to the REP in Ghana:
The Rural Enterprises Project (REP) is a poverty alleviation organization in Ghana that supports the creation and growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the rural regions of Northern Ghana. I will likely be working in an office that is responsible for coordinating training services, credit services and business counseling for women and underemployed youth in the rural districts of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of Ghana.
What will my role be?
I will likely be working in a Business Advisory Centre, counselling micro enterprise owners in the local rural areas, and assisting in running training programs for micro and small scale enterprises owners in the local rural areas. This can be accomplished through participation and planning of workshops, working as a team with local staff, and contributing to the work of REP in a way that enhances their own work. EWB's involvement with REP has moved beyond the monitoring and evaluation stage and now the goal is to encourage our REP coworkers to put the learnings from the trainings they received, to get the clients to come up with their own ideas (possibilities of improvement), and to help them make them a reality.
Am I excited!?!
Of course! Its very exciting and relieving to learn what my placement is, it just makes it that much more real. I am still waiting on details of my exact location and will be arranging a conference call with Gwen in the next week.
The description of REPs gives me shivers. One of the reasons I felt so moved by rural poverty was because of the toll it takes on women. Born a fighter for women's rights, this struck a deep chord in me. I am passionately moved to be working on a project that will directly benefit women who are rural subsistence farmers and suffer the worst. From a link found below on the right discussing rural poverty, one of the funders of the REP, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development)
"Women are among the worst affected. More than half of women who are heads of households in rural areas are among the poorest 20 per cent of the population – the poorest of the poor. Women bear heavy workloads. They are responsible for 55 to 60 per cent of agricultural production. Women work at least twice as many hours as men, spend about three times as many hours transporting water and goods, and transport about four times as much in volume. Yet they are much less likely than men to receive education or health benefits or have a voice in decisions affecting their lives. For them, poverty means high numbers of infant deaths, undernourished families, lack of education for children and other deprivations."
REP is a project that I feel I can contribute to. A lot of the projects EWB is involved with involve knowledge of agriculture, which I am limited in. I will have the opportunity to learn about rural livelihoods and agriculture, without pretending to know more about it than I actually do. I am eager to learn more about the project and similar ones to it around the world. Those findings will come shortly.
Just a month before I go! I took my first malaria medication today (because I am want to make sure I don't have negative side effects with Larium, and want to take it soon enough to switch to Doxycycline if I need to.)
Can't Wait!
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