Emma Breger – Ghana 2006:
There were seven of us in the group and our placements included teaching in a school for street children, helping in a medical centre and a resource centre for people with disabilities. My placement was with Sam, another Tzedek volunteer, at a local NGO called GIGDEV (Girls Growth and Development). It is based in Jisonayili, a rural community in Tamale, Northern Ghana and has three other centres in neighbouring communities.
The Northern Region of Ghana has a harsh environment and it was very hot during our time there. The rainy season lasts five months from the end of May and is followed by the dry season from October with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The main form of livelihood is farming and petty trading with maize, guinea, yam and groundnuts being the four main crops. The Northern Region has the lowest rate of educational enrolment in the country and there are a huge number of girls without access to education. This has led to Kayaye Syndrome, which is where young girls migrate to the south to do ‘head porter’ businesses. GIGDEV reaches out to these girls aiming to transform their lives.
GIGDEV was founded in 1998 by Madame Stella Nitori a retired nurse/midwife and some community activists. The goal of the organization is to educate underprivileged rural girls in profit generating activities, which include dressmaking, batik, tie and dye, catering and hairdressing. Support is also given to girls in other areas such as counseling and HIV/AIDS awareness. The centre also has a nursery, which caters for some of the girls who have children of their own and for children who live in the area.
The Tung-Teija Sheabutter Extraction Women’s Association is also based at GIGDEV. This program was founded in 1995 and teaches how to extract sheabutter, which is then sold to The Body Shop twice a month. This directly supports local backyard gardening and small-scale farming. I was able to visit the project and see how Shea butter is extracted and take some samples away with me. Another of GIGDEV’s projects is the Good Governance and Human Rights program. The main aims of this are to reduce the incidence of child labour and to enhance women’s participation in decision making. As part of this they have developed different forums for children, women and committee leaders and have produced a radio show promoting these issues. However, GIGDEV faces many daily challenges. For example, it has limited means of transportation for effective monitoring and evaluating the girl’s progress.
Sam and I were very warmly welcomed into the organization and made many friends with the girls and people who work there. However, we weren’t given specific jobs as volunteers and it was quite challenging to shape out our own roles. Most of my time was spent at the nursery where I was assisting in the filing system, running activities for the children and creating resources such as games and a songbook. However, it wasn’t easy since the children didn’t speak English and there were very limited resources to run activities with. We also painted murals for the outdoor play area to create a more pleasant environment. One of the bigger projects that we were working on was writing funding proposals, which is vital for the continuation of GIGDEV’s work. During my time at GIGDEV I was able to gain a very good insight into how a local NGO is run.
As well as working we were able to embrace the local culture by enjoying drumming with ‘Jah Love’ our drumming teacher and lessons in the local dialect Dagbani. Moreover, we were able to explore different parts of the country. One of the most memorable trips was a visit to Mole National Park one weekend. We happened to bump into a group of young American Jews on a similar program. Together, we spent a wonderful but rather surreal Shabbat with a box of matzah and a jar of kosher gefilte fish that they found in a supermarket in Accra.
Keeping kosher was generally not a problem since fresh fruit and vegetables were always available as well as eggs, tuna, rice and pasta. One of the things that struck me most about Ghana was the friendliness of the people. This was apparent to me as soon as I stepped off the plane. We had random people inviting themselves over for supper with us almost every night and we made many friends. Moreover, people always wanted to talk to us wherever we went. It was impossible to walk down the road without attracting attention. People would often shout out to us ‘white person!’ but in Dagbani this is ‘silly minger’, which we all found very amusing.
It took some time to adapt to the relaxed Ghanaian way of life and become accustomed to all things African. It was a nonstop and extremely eventful couple of months. Although it certainly was not an easy trip, I think the whole group was thoroughly pleased that they went. We have all learnt an awful lot from our experiences and look forward to sharing them. I have had an incredible time, which I will never forget and strongly encourage others to embark on a Tzedek programme.
