Things have been wonderfully busy here in Ghana! The work at Sankofa is going well. Each day, we take the slower children from each English class to work on catching them up with their peers. Each volunteer takes 2 to 4 children, so they can get more specialized attention. The hope is that they will be able to grasp concepts like phonics while we're here, so that their English reading skills will be closer to where the rest of the class is when we leave. So far, the children have shown amazing progress. Some just needed a little bit more understanding of basic concepts and have really taken off. Others are still a little slower, but hopefully after we leave other volunteers will be able to do the same with the things we're leaving behind.
The teachers at Sankofa are truly wonderful. They give up so much of their own time for very little pay to help these children who would otherwise have no education at all. Though they learn under a bamboo roof with a dirt floor, the key is that they are learning.
New Life has grown in leaps and bounds since my last trip three years ago! The new building is nearly complete, and a new classroom is being built for the nursery children. At the moment, nursery, KG (kindergarten) 1, and KG 2, and class 1 are all in the same classroom-- this is obviously chaotic. There is not enough room for the children to properly learn, and there is far too much noise. The new classroom is going up quickly, however! It's a joy to watch the children play on the playground and to see the progression of those who are now three years ahead of when I last taught them.
We will be coming home in a week, and what a trip it has been! Pictures and video will be up when I get some time after coming home, and I'll post snippets and stories about the children and volunteers as well!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
We're in Ghana!
Our second group is here in Ghana! We arrived in Cape Coast on Monday night, and things have gone well so far.
Yesterday, we went out to Eguafo to meet David, Sankofa's director. We waited for him for a while, and played with some of the children. Today was the start of our project. We were able to observe the teachers for classes 1, 2, and 3 and spoke with another volunteer named Sara who has been arranging for assessments to be given to the children. Our volunteers will take the slower learners and help them get up to speed as much as possible while we're here. Tomorrow we will help paint the orphanage while the assessments are given. The children are adorable, as all Ghanaian children are. As we get to know them we will post more about them.
We have not made it to New Life yet, but hope to do that tomorrow! I will update when I can, though internet is very slow here in Ghana. Even so, it's great to be here!
Yesterday, we went out to Eguafo to meet David, Sankofa's director. We waited for him for a while, and played with some of the children. Today was the start of our project. We were able to observe the teachers for classes 1, 2, and 3 and spoke with another volunteer named Sara who has been arranging for assessments to be given to the children. Our volunteers will take the slower learners and help them get up to speed as much as possible while we're here. Tomorrow we will help paint the orphanage while the assessments are given. The children are adorable, as all Ghanaian children are. As we get to know them we will post more about them.
We have not made it to New Life yet, but hope to do that tomorrow! I will update when I can, though internet is very slow here in Ghana. Even so, it's great to be here!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Good things Happening at Sankofa
Our volunteers in Ghana have had a great time! This is their last week, so here are some updates that have come through:
Most of the girls are at Sankofa. They have been helping build an addition to the bamboo school house, as well as helping teach the children. There have done rotations with the 80 children in the nursery class, as well as doing arts and crafts and some PE games with the older children. Classes 1, 2, and 3 had no books, and so were difficult to teach. After the volunteers provided them with books, they were able to do a great deal more teaching with the older kids!
Most of the girls are at Sankofa. They have been helping build an addition to the bamboo school house, as well as helping teach the children. There have done rotations with the 80 children in the nursery class, as well as doing arts and crafts and some PE games with the older children. Classes 1, 2, and 3 had no books, and so were difficult to teach. After the volunteers provided them with books, they were able to do a great deal more teaching with the older kids!
Some of the children at Sankofa
Not much news from New Life yet, though word is they have gotten two new children in the last week.
We are so grateful for these volunteers and all they are doing! We wish them a safe journey home, and wish our June group a safe and successful trip as they prepare to leave!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
News from the Continent #3
Story 1: Child Prostitutes are Children First-- A look into child prostitution and the controversial proposal to legalize prostitution to protect girls young and old.
Story 2: Reports of Widespread Violence in Zimbabwe-- As Mugabe desperately attempts to maintain his rule, intimidation violence spreads.
Story 3: Southern Africa Urges Small-Scale Farming-- To help combat rising food costs around the globe, small-scale farming has been recommended. (Anyone but me thinking Square Foot Gardening?)
Story 4: A Fresh Approach to Street Children-- A look into what Burkina Faso is doing for her children on the streets
Story 2: Reports of Widespread Violence in Zimbabwe-- As Mugabe desperately attempts to maintain his rule, intimidation violence spreads.
Story 3: Southern Africa Urges Small-Scale Farming-- To help combat rising food costs around the globe, small-scale farming has been recommended. (Anyone but me thinking Square Foot Gardening?)
Story 4: A Fresh Approach to Street Children-- A look into what Burkina Faso is doing for her children on the streets
They Have Arrived!
Our first group of volunteers has begun their three-and-a-half-week journey in Ghana! The group of eight volunteers arrived earlier this week, and have been getting oriented to Ghana, visiting a few sites, and dropping off several suitcases worth of donations to Lucky Hill Orphanage on their way out of Accra! Jessica, our group coordinator, has been in the country for an extra week preparing for their arrival.
The girls will be at Sankofa on Monday to begin teaching. Jessica will be at New Life, teaching and giving the square foot gardening a boost! More information will be coming soon as the girls begin their volunteering. We wish them all the best of luck!
The girls will be at Sankofa on Monday to begin teaching. Jessica will be at New Life, teaching and giving the square foot gardening a boost! More information will be coming soon as the girls begin their volunteering. We wish them all the best of luck!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Cape Coast-- A Small Sampling
Our first group to Ghana leaves a week from tomorrow! We are excited to hear how their trip will go. In the meantime, I'll post an exerpt from the book I'm writing. Perhaps our volunteers will become a part of this very scene.
I became a common fixture there as well, a part of the pulsing mobs. After taking a taxi from my house to town, I “dropped” at Kotokuraba and found whoever was proclaiming “Jukwa!” that day. I always took a moment to buy “pure water” from one of the ladies or girls. Though it came in a plastic sachet like “ice water,” pure water was purified, its bag carefully sealed in a bloated square, and stamped with blue ink. I stuffed a few in my dirtier-by-the-day backpack and climbed aboard the tro tro. Somewhere between two and thirty minutes later, the tro pulled out—they only left when they were full. The ride took me through Cape Coast and into the suburb of Adisadel, then past Pedu Junction and to Abura, the suburb where my host’s sister, Mama Joyce, lived. After Abura came scattered jungle, a secluded hotel on a small crocodile pond called Hans Cottage, past the barren earth where women crushed rocks under small thatched shelters, and on to the tiny hamlet of Ansapatu—just short of the larger village of Efutu.
I called to the mate, the young boy who took passenger’s money, and the tro tro stopped. People in the aisle seats stood to fold their seats up and step out so I could crouch past, then piled back in again and headed on up to the town of Jukwa. I turned to Ansapatu, which consisted of a few small houses, a tiny shop, a school, and New Life International Orphanage. Smiling and waving at the women who sat among the enormous pile of greenish-yellow oranges they were selling, I headed down the red dirt hill, anxious to get to my children.
The orphanage was across the little lane from the orange and brown government junior secondary school (JSS), set nearly at the edge of the rainforest. It was painted a bland white with blue trim, and an unfinished three-room schoolhouse hunched next to it. A small orange tree stood near the front gate to the left, a palm tree further down. The refuse pile and laundry lines sat away from the school, near the large, overgrown area referred to as the garden. The cement basins where the children bathed were farther away, near the bushes where the “bathroom” was—a large pit crossed with wooden beams. A rickety wooden fence made a pitiful attempt to keep the goats out of the garden, and a painted sign declared it to be “New Life International Orphanage Home/School for orphaned, abandoned, and needy children.”"
"I close my eyes, sometimes, when I’m alone, and call up pictures in my mind of my favorite places in Ghana. Kotokuraba market. I see a flurry of color and motion, of heat and noise. Set in the center triangle created by three crossing streets, it is a place of commerce, confusion, and commotion. Taxis, tro tros, and a few private cars crowd the streets around it. Both taxis and tro tros, or small vans, function as mini buses, with people crammed in with their goods and the occasional goat. Across from the market is the “station,” where I would take a tro tro every day to the orphanage. Dozens of little VW vans crowded the area, all painted to proclaim the driver’s belief in Jesus. “The Lord will provide,” or “Gye Nyame”—except for God. Apparently, this proclaimed belief precluded a need for seatbelts. The drivers stood near their tros, calling out their destination. “Takoradi, Takoradi,” and “Jukwa Jukwa Jukwa Jukwa Jukwa!” Women and children wandered around, adding their own voices, like that of so many birds, proclaiming the wares atop their heads—water, bread, cookies. “Aeeees water,” “paaaanoo,” and “beeescuits!” One man marched through the area daily, holding an umbrella over his head that dangled with handkerchiefs of numerous colors and designs. Set in a large circle, surrounded by shops and flocking with hawkers, and only one way in or out, the station became a joyful place for me.
I became a common fixture there as well, a part of the pulsing mobs. After taking a taxi from my house to town, I “dropped” at Kotokuraba and found whoever was proclaiming “Jukwa!” that day. I always took a moment to buy “pure water” from one of the ladies or girls. Though it came in a plastic sachet like “ice water,” pure water was purified, its bag carefully sealed in a bloated square, and stamped with blue ink. I stuffed a few in my dirtier-by-the-day backpack and climbed aboard the tro tro. Somewhere between two and thirty minutes later, the tro pulled out—they only left when they were full. The ride took me through Cape Coast and into the suburb of Adisadel, then past Pedu Junction and to Abura, the suburb where my host’s sister, Mama Joyce, lived. After Abura came scattered jungle, a secluded hotel on a small crocodile pond called Hans Cottage, past the barren earth where women crushed rocks under small thatched shelters, and on to the tiny hamlet of Ansapatu—just short of the larger village of Efutu.
I called to the mate, the young boy who took passenger’s money, and the tro tro stopped. People in the aisle seats stood to fold their seats up and step out so I could crouch past, then piled back in again and headed on up to the town of Jukwa. I turned to Ansapatu, which consisted of a few small houses, a tiny shop, a school, and New Life International Orphanage. Smiling and waving at the women who sat among the enormous pile of greenish-yellow oranges they were selling, I headed down the red dirt hill, anxious to get to my children.
The orphanage was across the little lane from the orange and brown government junior secondary school (JSS), set nearly at the edge of the rainforest. It was painted a bland white with blue trim, and an unfinished three-room schoolhouse hunched next to it. A small orange tree stood near the front gate to the left, a palm tree further down. The refuse pile and laundry lines sat away from the school, near the large, overgrown area referred to as the garden. The cement basins where the children bathed were farther away, near the bushes where the “bathroom” was—a large pit crossed with wooden beams. A rickety wooden fence made a pitiful attempt to keep the goats out of the garden, and a painted sign declared it to be “New Life International Orphanage Home/School for orphaned, abandoned, and needy children.”"
Copyright Shallee M. 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
News from the Continent #2
Here's a few stories from the African continent!
The first story is a rather uplifting one about Child's Rights International setting up schools that encourage not only learning, but establish a platform for children to express their own views.
The next story discusses the progress (really, it is some progress!) in the Kenyan government.
This one is also from Kenya, discussing an outreach program for street children.
The last story focuses on children in Zimbabwe who are receiving free surgery to correct cleft lips and palates.
What with Zimbabwe's and Cameroon's failing democratic situations, Joseph Kony's failure to sign the peace deal in Uganda, and the general disheartening stories often found in African news, I decided to focus on some more positive stories today. If you want the rest, check out www.allafrica.com.
The first story is a rather uplifting one about Child's Rights International setting up schools that encourage not only learning, but establish a platform for children to express their own views.
The next story discusses the progress (really, it is some progress!) in the Kenyan government.
This one is also from Kenya, discussing an outreach program for street children.
The last story focuses on children in Zimbabwe who are receiving free surgery to correct cleft lips and palates.
What with Zimbabwe's and Cameroon's failing democratic situations, Joseph Kony's failure to sign the peace deal in Uganda, and the general disheartening stories often found in African news, I decided to focus on some more positive stories today. If you want the rest, check out www.allafrica.com.
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