My Rights My Future Event

On October 27^th, 2014, Cheerful Hearts Foundation (CHF) celebrated the completion their “My Rights, My Future” project. This five month project based in Nyanyano was aimed at promoting the importance of child education as well as informing the community about the dangers of child labour and trafficking.

The “My Rights, My Future” project trained 20 community volunteers living in the fishing village of Nyanyano. These volunteers pledged to commit at least 9 hours a week going through their community talking about the benefits of education and how it can affect their children’s futures. They share their experiences as well as their training to help create a positive view and appreciation for childhood education. They also let families know what happens when child are working instead of attending school. Many families do not see the danger that the children face when working at the shore or in Yeji and the community volunteers were always available to answer questions that parents had as well as let them know why it is harming their child’s future success.

The gathering was a huge success with over 500 people in attendance. Along with over 300 local school children all supporting their schools with pride the guest list also included many important local community leaders. The event began with a African drum and dance crew. After the dancing there were several speeches from Mr. Justice Nii Kpakpo Abrahams and Mr. George Arthur as well as the Chief Fisherman, a former Assembly Man, and a Social Welfare representative. Each speaker discussed the power of education and the impact that it can make in the community and a child’s life. It was nice to see such a great turn out from the community leaders. The community volunteers, all wearing their white project hats, were lauded and praised, creating a positive emotion associated with volunteerism. Half of the volunteers were school children themselves and took pride in the event. 

After speeches, there was a student play about the importance of education. In the play the protagonist, did not receive her school fee and was not able to attend school. She ended up pregnant (with a very unhappy mother) and her brother ended up stealing (only to be arrested by the police). Obviously very dire consequences for a lack of education. Several girls also gave very heartfelt speeches, one of which was addressed to the parents who were not sending their children to school, but most were centered on how thankful they were to be in school and how important an education is to their future.

  

It was a wonderful event and it was great to see the support that the community gives to the Cheerful Heart’s project and to their children’s education. The success of the outreach program is currently being evaluated (I am working to compile data from our school and community interviews which we have done over 300 so far), but the impact on the individuals in attendance was visible and powerful.

I have been lacking on the blog posts, partly being busy and partly due to a full week without internet (or power for that matter). More post are coming.  

The Immigration Officer

 The Immigration Officer

After successful week including trafficking interviews, teaching, and community outreach, we found out that there would be another long weekend. Even with the short notice, (it seems that national holidays are only announced the day before they occur) we still quickly made some plans for another weekend excursion. This time, we decided to head west past Cape Coast to see Busua and Nzulezo.

After a wonderful night on the beach in Cape Coast, we woke up early to head further west to Busua. When arriving at the tro-tro station, I was approached by an Immigration Officer asking to see my passport. This was not a problem and I allowed him to inspect both my passport and visa. The problems began when he asked to see the passports of the other two volunteers. Of the four of us, only two of us had our actual passports and the other two only had a photocopy. Even though this should be perfectly fine according to the Ghanaian laws, the officer was “doubtful” of the two other volunteers. After explaining our situation, (we are volunteers, we all have the same visa, a photocopy is fine, ect) he invited me to sit in the front seat of the tro-tro next to him since we were both traveling to Takoradi.

What followed was the longest tro-tro ride of my life. During the hour or more that it took for the tro-tro-tro to fill up (a tro-tro does not leave the station until all the seats are filled, which can make for a long wait if you are at a vacant station) my new friend Joseph, the immigration officer, talked with me about everything imaginable. I learned about his family, (he was traveling to visit his mother and daughter) his job, his life, everything, it seemed that we were “friends”. I believed that we had the passport situation under control, but in between the small talk, he would keep coming back to this “feeling of doubt” about the validity of my friends’ documentation. I would try to assure him that in the future we would all carry our passports and it was so good that he helped inform me about the “rules” in Ghana, still Joseph wanted to detain my friends until we could produce the actual passports.

Somehow, I had become the “leader” of the group (according to Joseph). I felt bad leaving my friends in the dark as I was the only one sitting up front, somehow attempting to determine the fate of the entire group all by myself. He decided that he needed to detain the two other volunteers until Tuesday when the offices officially opened and we could bring their actual passports for him to see. Of course, when I told him that four days in the detention center was not acceptable, he would tell me know to worry and that the more I worried the more he was doubtful of the validity of their passports. Several times during his moments of doubt, he asked me to “appease” him in some way to make him feel better. Each time I would call him out and ask him if he was requesting a bribe, which he would deny (never a bribe, only a “gift”).

 Finally, I decided to call Eric, the director of our program, to let him talk to Joseph in order to make him feel better. This is where I made my first mistake of the day. He happened to be examining my passport (for the 20^th time) when I handed him the phone. Sadly, when Eric told him that it was illegal to detain my friends and that a photocopy was an acceptable means of identification in Ghana, Joseph started his power trip. He decided to take my passport and became determined to detain my friends. He became obstinate and would not tell Eric his full name, which Eric requested in attempts to call his supervisors. Much like a middle school student, he handed me back the telephone and refused to talk any more.

To say the least, the next hour and a half ride was painful. I was able to get him talking again, but struggled to change his mind. Eric told me that I needed to get my passport back and that we should not allow him to arrest/detain us. When I demanded my passport (which was completely valid), he said that I could choose to regain my passport in exchange for handcuffing my friends. At one point, I asked the driver to stop so that I could talk with a policeman at one of the numerous traffic stops. The policeman seemed to agree that the situation was strange, but he was not “involved with immigration issues” so he could not help us. After an hour of talking with Joseph, I even resorted to “buying” back my passport for 20 cedi which he no longer wanted to accept.

Once the tro-tro finally arrived in Takoradi, it became even stranger. He still had my passport and told me that he would hold on to it until Tuesday when my friends would be released. We left the tro-tro just outside of town and he proceeded to escort us to the detention center. We entered a taxi where Joseph was going to sit on my lap, because there were only four seats. Joseph then proceeded to tell us he needed money for the cab fare. We actually laughed out loud at this idea as there was no way we were going to pay the taxi to take us to jail. Joseph was quite disappointed and told us that we would have to walk .

At this point, we destined to go to the detention center, hoping that there would be someone actually sane to listen to our story (the idea of grabbing my passport and running was also not out of the question). Conor, one of the other volunteers, decided to call the US embassy in Accra to request some assistance. Of course, as stubborn as Joseph was, he did not believe that he was speaking to the US embassy on the telephone and would not give his name and badge number (he showed me his name at badge number at the beginning of the tro-tro ride, but at that point I had no idea of the situation that was about to ensue) (Joseph Awantu or something I believe). During our walk, Joseph received several calls from his sergeant, from the embassy, and from the immigration offices. Eric had contacted the immigration department and Joseph was becoming more flustered as he talked to numerous individuals on the phone. At this point, we were stopped waiting in the middle of a random dirt road on the way to the detention center and Joseph did not know what to do. We decided to give Joseph options 1) we go and talk with his sergeant in person or 2) he return my passport. As a last ditch effort, he again asked to be appeased, obviously we were not having it and told him that he was going to give me my passport back and that we were going to leave.

You could tell that Joseph was struggling about what to do. I told him I wanted my passport and I would give him my phone number if he needed to reach me. Finally Joseph accepted the exchange. I took my passport and we quickly turned around, walking back towards the tro-tro station. Shockingly, Joseph walked back with me (Chiara and Conor were smart and decided to walk double time, but sadly Claudia and I were stuck at a slower pace). During the walk, Joseph decided to try again to make small talk (asking about how he could marry an American girl, at this point my patients was lacking). He also asked if I was still interested in giving him the 20 cedi that I had offered earlier in the trip. With my passport back in my possession, I told him that there was no way I would ever give him 20 cedi. He told Claudia who was walking with me that she needed to “talk to her husband” because I had become “hard” and unreasonable and had been so much “softer” back in the tro-tro.

We quickly found a tro-tro that was taking us anywhere so that we could leave Joseph behind and decided to continue or Saturday. Exhausted, I let Conor and Chiara do the talking to find out where we were going next as my patience and small talk was finished for the afternoon. I can’t think of a stranger tro-tro ride, but luckily everything turned out fine, only wasting our time and my patience. My first “attempted” arrest and encounter with an incompetent/corrupt officer (I think he was more of an idiot than evil) was now complete, simply adding to my international travel experiences. I have to say that the day only improved from there and we made it to Busua enjoying a relaxing day on the beach. 

Household Interviews

Household Interviews

Every Tuesday I travel to Senya to conduct child trafficking interviews and today was no different. I arrived at the school around 10:00 to meet our community volunteer. After checking on the school attendance and our sponsored children, I grabbed my notebook and headed into town. It was not long before we came across a group of men playing Oware (a game similar to mancala).

No one is allowed to fish on Tuesdays which makes it a perfect time to talk to people in the village. Trying not to interrupt the game, we started talking to one of the men who was sitting on the sidelines. His name was Kwame (which means he was born on a Saturday; my name is Kwese). He was a fisherman who had lived in Senya his entire life. He had seven children of which three are still under 18 years old. Even though he had only ever completed third grade, he understood the importance of education and worked hard to pay for all of his children to go to school. He told us that he knew lots of children that were trafficked to Lake Volta and was even approached by traffickers looking to prey on his children, but was determined to keep his children in school. When asked why he did not send his children away with the trafficker, he said that he wanted them to have a better life than he had and that education was answer. He guessed that over 200 children in the village were being trafficked and he knew that poverty was the key issue.

As we were talking several of the other men began to join the conversation. Each individual had something to add. One man said that the problem was that most parents do not know what happens to the children who are trafficked to Lake Volta. Others said that it was fine for children to work, but they would not want to send their own children (although a couple of the men had children who were working).  When we asked the group of men what could be done to stop children from being trafficked, there were many good answers including scholarships, police involvement, government support, but one man was convinced it was adult education. He wanted education class on Tuesday and Sunday for the parents of the children. If the parents can learn to read and write, (which many of them cannot) they will understand the importance of education. He said that many adults cannot even read warning signs on the roads and everyone should be required to read and write. As adults become educated, they will be held in higher esteem by their peers and the entire community will begin to value education. When parents see what education can do, they will keep their children in school and out of the hands of traffickers. I was very impressed by his idea, especially because he could barely read and write. It was incredibly positive to see so many adults in the community passionate about our cause and interested in talking with us.

Unlike other weeks, (sometimes being asked to leave because parents  believe we are here to arrest them, or talking to parents who gave up their children for years only to receive less than $100) we had a second very positive interview with a mother. She had just moved to Senya from Yeji with the hope of better jobs and more work (which if you have seen the employment options in Senya, you may question her logic).  This woman had four children all of which were working in Yeji with their father before moving to Senya. They would wake up early each morning and work with their father pulling nets from 5:00-10:00. When they finished with work, they went to school from 10:00 to 2:00. Now that they are in Senya, their mother wants them to focus on their education fulltime and will try to enroll them in the local government school. It is still expensive for parents (1 cedi or $0.30), but this mother was determined to make her children finish school. When I asked what advice she would give to parents after having lived in Yeji and seen the trafficked children all around town, she said that they need to know about the conditions on the lake. She would never sell her children to the fishermen on Lake Volta. Many of the children would work on an empty stomach, not eating all day, others were bullied and beaten. She said that most of the children working came from all over Ghana, leaving their families to work from sunrise to sunset with the abusive fishermen. It was interesting listening to a parent who actually liked in Yeji and could talk about the treatment of the children first hand.

Slowly interviews are getting easier and I am better at asking the right questions to make the parents or children open up about their experiences or opinions. It is still very difficult having to work with a translator and I am sure that I only get a small amount of the full story, but slowly and surly we are building more and more information to help our report on the trafficking problem in Ghana. 

Weekend Trip to Cape Coast

Weekend Trip to Cape Coast

This weekend was my first real trip away from Kasoa. With Monday off for a national holiday, our small group of volunteers caught a tro-tro to the city of Cape Coast. Cape Coast is a tourist beach town which has relaxing beaches, historic slave trade castles, and a major national park. We arrived on Saturday afternoon after a 2.5 hour tro-tro ride. I “slept” or at least tried to sleep even with the blaring dance music you would expect at a nightclub, pot holes that could drown a full grown adult, and enough leg room that even gumby would have struggled to be comfortable, nevertheless we arrived ready and excited to explore the town.   

After we found a hotel (a four person room for 40 cedi or $10.75), we went to explore the castle. The slave castle at Cape Coast was a very busy place several hundred years ago. Many slaves from all over West Africa were brought to the castle to be loaded onto ships headed for the United States, the Caribbean, and parts of South America. Even though we studied the slave trade in school, it was a very different experience to see the first leg of the triangle trade. We arrived at the castle late and before we knew it, the crowds were gone and we were enjoying the castle all by ourselves. From the walls, we watched the sun fade away and listened to the waves break on the rocks below.

That night, we met up with several Ghanaian volunteers near the University of Cape Coast. School is just beginning, so they had one last weekend to come hang out before getting back to their studies. For dinner and drinks, we went to a “gas station” just outside of town. This was not your typical gas station even though there were pumps and you could fill up your vehicle. On the side of the station there was a stage with a live band as well as two outdoor bars for drinks and food. Behind the station there was a DJ playing the top Ghanaian dance hits which is where we hung out for while outside enjoying the beach air.

The next day was our beach day so we decided to check into a new hotel that was right on the water (a little quieter that the previous night where a combination of roosters, street venders, horn happy taxi drivers made sleeping slightly difficult). The waves were very similar to the west coast which was a shock for the two Italian volunteers who were use to the Mediterranean. A combination of swimming, reading, and talking filled most of our day as we relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful African coast.  

We decided to use Monday to explore the National Park of Kakum. Monday is a national holiday in Ghana to celebrate the birthday of the nation’s first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. After visiting his memorial in Accra, I have an appreciation for the man as a leader and servant to his community. Our celebration of this man’s birthday started quite early as we caught a 45 min taxi ride to arrive at the park before it officially opened. The national park is huge (around 400 square km) and looks like how I would have pictured an African Jungle. We had unique view of the jungle as we explored the park from the canopy on a series of hanging bridges overlooking the vast forest. After paying a guide an extra 5 cedi ($1.50), we were able to enter the park early and walked the bridges free from any crowd or screaming child. After viewing it from above, we then traveled along the forest floor on a one hour hike learning about the uses of all of the trees and plants which many Ghanaians still use in the local villages. After our hike we visited a crocodile park to eat lunch before returning for one last afternoon on the beach.

It was a wonderful weekend trip and allowed me to recharge before returning to the normal schedule of teaching and community outreach. Each week becomes easier and more comfortable and now that I am beginning to explore the country more Ghana feels more and more like home.

Parent problems

Parent problems

Every teacher talks about problem with parents in some form or another and in Ghana, it is no different. My first interaction with parents was at our scheduled parent meeting with the sponsored children’s families. Our first meeting was in Nyanano on the Friday before school was set to begin. We wanted to make sure that the parents were going to support their children’s education and try to open lines of communication early so that we can work more closely with the parents during the upcoming year. We made a plan for the meeting and arrived early to prepare. After an hour and a half, not a single parent showed up. When we walked around the town to find the parents, we learned that there had been a good catch at the shore and the parents were too busy/did not remember the meeting. We decided that maybe Senya would have a better turnout on Sunday for their scheduled meeting, but similarly not a single parent showed.

It was frustrating that the children were being provided such a great opportunity to attend school for free (including clothing to wear and meals at school every day), but their parents could not take the time to attend the meeting. We rescheduled our meetings to the following weekend and this time we had more success (but not much). On Friday in Nyanyano 3/15 parents showed up, on Sunday in Fetteh 3/15 again and finally in Senya 1/30. I have to say, I was frustrated. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the parents that did show up were so positive and excited that their children will be attending school.  

Similarly to absent parents, the school attendance has also been off to a very slow start. Finally in the second week of official school we are beginning to have children in the classrooms. It is a struggle getting the children to come to school and hopefully we will have most of the kids consistently in the classroom by week three. When I am not teaching, I am often walking around the town to check on the sponsored children that are not in school. One mother we encountered was adamantly against her child going to school.  She began to make up excuses about uniforms and shoes and then about her child being beaten by teachers. Eventually, I was in the middle of a shouting match (all in Twi of course) as the school director, the mother, and about five female family members (aunt, grandma, ect) were all yelling at each other. When you do not speak the language, you get better and better at reading body language (which is also slightly different in a different culture). I learned later that the family members wanted the child to go to school and were upset at the mother (the child and family members denied any physical abuse at school and disagreed with the other excuses the mother was making to keep the kid at home). Eventually, the child followed us to school, but the mother is not very happy. Many parents do not understand the importance of education and would rather the child sit at home instead of attend an institution that they either do not understand, believe in, or trust. Many of the parents have never been to school and need help understanding the importance of education for their child.

There have been other stubborn parents, but slowly the children start to show up back at the school. We currently have about 70 children in school and are eventually expecting about twice that number. This week’s major parent issue however occurred when we were doing child trafficking interviews. Each Tuesday, the school director and I go around the town conducting interviews about the problem of child labour and trafficking. This week we interviewed a boy who was 16 years old and had just returned to Senya after working in Yeji for 8 years. That same day, we attempted to interview several parents which we have done in the past, but the parent who we wanted to talk with was convinced that we were there to arrest her for selling her children. The door was quite literally slammed in our face and all of the families on the street wanted us to leave. It is obviously very important to be delicate when using the words labour or even trafficking when trying to starting a family interview.

Even if there can be push back from the parents, the children have been simply wonderful. They are very happy to be back in school and their smiling faces and excitement in the classroom makes the difficult parents much easier to manage.

Food Blog

Food Blog

I have had a lot of questions about Ghanaian food, so I decided that I needed to do a food blog post. My food situation is pretty ideal. I will start in the morning. Normally, I wake up and eat some bread with peanut butter along with my malaria pill. The peanut butter here is very similar to what we have in the states and spreads fairly easy on bread. Some morning, I wake up to the director’s wife cooking eggs and take an egg sandwich for breakfast. I am generally not a big breakfast person, and I have been scolded for not eating enough on several occasions. Days when I skip breakfast, I generally buy a “fried dough ball” which is similar to a hushpuppy or non-sweet donut which I eat on the walk to work.

For lunch, I am either at the office or in one of the fishing communities. For a quick bite to eat, there are lots of snack possibilities that are sold by vendors carrying the foods on their heads. I am always impressed by the balance of the sellers as I have yet to see anything fall off, even when they are running after a tro-tro or taxi trying to make change (whenever your vehicle stops, you have the opportunity to buy almost any snack imaginable). There are also many streetside venders that fry plantains, sweet potatoes, or other various items. Because I am not much of a snack person, I generally go to a “Chop Bar” which is like a street stall with a couple benches off the main road. Freeman, my coworker, showed me two chop bars that are generally clean and safe to eat at. I am normally very wary of cold dishes and don’t often go to random places without a recommendation from a Ghanaian first. Also long as the food is hot, it is generally safe to eat, but some places are better than others.

 

Eating out, my first choice is Waakye. Waakye is blackeyed peas and rice. I normally order it with plantain and one egg. Most of the dishes in Ghana also have some spice with a red sauce (when eating yam, I prefer the green sauce). It is similar to the spiciness of many Central American dishes, but I don’t necessarily considerate very hot. When eating, I always ask for a spoon, but many Ghanaians prefer to eat with their hands. There are tubs of water along with soap to wash your right hand before eating and to clean it off after you are done. Normally, I see about 50% of Ghanaians eating with a spoon and the other half using their hands. I will use my hand for fish but I am not officially Ghanaian yet (Hand is singular, it is important to use the right hand for eating or for greetings).

Another common dish is Jollof rice, which is normally cooked with spices and fish. Different places will have more or less fish in the rice. Especially near the coast, fish is pretty common in most all dishes. Even when buying sweet potatoes or yams (a good lunch replacement if you don’t leave the office), a fish head or tail is often included to add some protein to your snack. Talapia is very common, but there are other fish as well that are caught at the shore.  Most of the time when I eat lunch it cost around 3 cedi which is about $0.75 USD.

When I return home from work, the director’s wife has dinner prepared. Each night it is a different traditional Ghanaian food. Along with Waakye and Jollof, it is very common to make a stew often with fish or lamb that is eaten with a rice ball. The rice has been pounded the consistency of mashed potatoes (only stickier) and you will eat it with the soup. Fufu and banku are also eaten with soup and are very similar to the rice balls. If you ask for it, banku is often added to the meal (kind of like bread in the states) to soak up any extra sauce and fill up your stomach. You can also see that some nights, there is also a noodle dish that has some chopped vegetables and some spice which is always exciting as well.

To drink there are several options. For non-alcoholic beverages, my favorite choice is Alvaro. It is somewhat similar to Sprite but with pear or passion fruit flavor. For beer, there are several options (I generally go with whichever one is cold). The top two choices are Star or Club. There is much debate about which is better, but both taste like a light wheat beer. My coworkers will often mix their beer with Sprite and I have realized that in general, Ghanaians are not very heavy drinkers. Most drinking is reserved for social events and ordering a beer at dinner seems uncommon. When they have it, I enjoy Castle and Stone which are two other types that are available and are slightly darker. Guinness is also very popular and they even have a non-alcoholic Guinness “energy drink” which is heavily advertised. Most beers come in 0.5 L glass bottles which you must return to where you bought it, but most water is drank in small bags (you actually buy whiskey or vodka in bags as well).

For dessert, there is ice cream, but dessert in general seems uncommon. I don’t think I have tried any dessert other than one “ice cream bar” in the entire month that I have been here (although, that is not exactly uncommon for me).

Overall, I have enjoyed Ghanaian cuisine so far, lots of rice, a little bit of spice, and always the option of fish (or egg). It is nice however to find exotic specialties in Accra like a turkey sandwich or pasta just to mix it up a bit.

Child Labour Talks

Child Labour Talks

Now that school has officially started, each Thursday I will be doing Child Labour education talks in local schools. This week Freeman, who is the child trafficking project director, and I went to Ebenezer Memorial School in Nyanyano to give the presentation. The class takes about one hour and we presented to the 5^th and 6^th graders first and the 3^rd and 4^th graders second.

We start with introductions and asking what people wanted to be when they grow up. It is interesting hearing their answers. Almost all of the girls said they wanted to be nurses. For the boys, answers varied between, doctor, bank manager, soldier, and footballer. We stressed the importance of education in their quest to achieve their future jobs, but most of the children already seemed very motivated to finish their education. Some talked about even wanting a Master’s degree after university. The fact that there are many things that can stand in the way of a child’s education, lead us into the topic of child labour. We started with an activity where we passed each child a card that had a picture of a child working. The students were told to look at their picture and decide if this was “good work” or “bad work”. These talks reminded me a lot of the child sexual abuse talks that I gave in Costa Rica, but instead of good touching and bad touching it was good work and bad work. We talked about how “light work” such as cleaning the house, fetching water, helping your father untangle his nets after school was fine for a child to do as long as it did not stop them from going to school. “Heavy work” or dangerous work such as quarry work, selling water on the roadside, agricultural work, was very different from the “light work” that children are meant to do. If work is considered dangerous or if it would stop a child from going to school, we said that this was not ok and is not acceptable for a child to do.

The kids were very responsive and were good at choosing if the work was appropriate or not for a child. Afterwards we split the children into groups to analyze short scenarios and determine if the work was appropriate. I was very proud of the kids and they did a great job absorbing and analyzing the material. During the talk we also discuss some of the rights that every child has such as food, medical attention, education and so on. We made sure to tell the children that there were people that wanted to help them or their friends if they felt that their rights were being violated. Luckily, our head community volunteer in Nyanyano is a teacher at the school and is a wonderful person for children to go to with problems. It is exciting to know that there are so many good people in the community that understand the value of education and want to protect their children from exploitation.

Even though school has officially begun, not every school is running as smoothly as the one we visited in Nyanyano. The school that I will be teaching at also officially began on Monday, but only about nine students showed up. By Wednesday there were around 25 and hopefully next week we can start following the actually class schedule. While one of us was teaching all the various grades, the other teachers and director walked around the town reminding parents about school and asking why their children are not attending. It was a much different start than the past four years at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.

First Month Summary

First Month Summary for the Newsletter

The past month has been very busy for the Cheerful Hearts staff. As summer school finishes and official school begins, there is a lot to do in order to prepare for the upcoming year. Teaching classes, reviewing students’ progress, and updating sponsored children’s profiles have kept the office busy along with the numerous community outreach projects occurring in all three of the local fishing communities.

First, Cheerful Hearts would like to thank all of summer volunteers for their hard work and passion. Now that the summer is officially over, the office has become much quieter, but it was nice to work with such a dedicated team. All of their hard work is appreciated and will be continued as we begin the new year.

The children seem excited for school and many took advantage of the free vacation school classes that were run and staffed by Cheerful Hearts volunteers. Over the summer we had classes both in Nyanyano at Franklin Int as well as in Senya at Day Star International, both schools who teach our sponsored children. This year, we are sponsoring 57 children who are placed in various schools throughout the three fishing communities of Senya, Nyanyano, and Fetteh. All of these children were trafficked or were working in child labour and now have the opportunity to attend school free of charge. Cheerful Hearts also has a volunteer and former teacher working in Senya two days a week, both to educate the children as well as to monitor the work and progress of our sponsored students.

The Cheerful Hearts team is very excited about their new fundraising campaign that started at the beginning of September. The poultry farm project, which is directed at combating the poverty of Senya, has been over a year in the making. Finally, Cheerful Hearts is ready to start the fundraising and has launched the campaign online at Indiegogo.com. The campaign will last until the end of October and several people have already started donating. Please continue to support this project and share it with your friends.

Child labour talks have also resumed in the local schools. The first talk of the school year occurred in Nyanyano where over 80 children listened to and participated in the interactive discussion about child labour. With an updated curriculum, the talks focus on the difference between good work and bad work as well as the importance of education. Cheerful Hearts will continue to promote community education and outreach and will continue the talks with various schools in the fishing communities.

Along with the talks in local schools, the community volunteer project has also been continuing in Nyanyano. With two months left in the project, Cheerful Hearts staff sat down with our volunteers to see how their outreach was going. Even though local community outreach can be difficult, the volunteers were very excited about the impacts that they have made so far in their community. It is wonderful to see local Ghanaians take such pride in their community and being so dedicated to educating their neighbors on the issue of child labour.

Finally, Cheerful Hearts was extremely proud of the community movie event in Senya on August 27^th. There was a wonderful turnout for the presentation and discussion of a film created by the IOM and Challenging Heights about the problem of Child Trafficking in Ghana. The large audience of around 400 individuals was very interested in the information. While watching their faces during the film, it was apparent that the presentation made an impact on their views of Yeji and child labour. The discussion afterwards was also very powerful, especially due to several child speeches from our local sponsored children which were incredibly heartfelt and moving. Cheerful Hearts is so proud of the children who spoke and their testimonies to the importance of education had a deep effect on everyone in the audience. 

Community Volunteer Meeting

Community Volunteer Meeting

Along with sponsoring children and conducting research, Cheerful Hearts Foundation is also focused on community outreach. We are currently conducting a project in which about 20 community members in were trained on the importance of child education and the dangers of child labour. After their training, they agreed to spend two hours, 2-3 days a week, sharing this information with the people in their community. Each month we sit down with the volunteers and see how their outreach work is going. The project will run for five months and will be evaluated when it finishing in October. We are currently running this program in Nyanyano, but we hope to extend it to the other community as well.

It was interesting listening to the volunteers talk about their successes and struggles while working on the project. One of the biggest concerns for the volunteers was gathering getting personal information such as names and ages from the individuals that they talk with. In order to evaluate the community impact of the project, it is important to keep data on who the volunteers educating, but many parents will refuse to give their names to the volunteers. We talked about various ways to fix this problem. First, we discussed how it is important to not be robotic when talking to families. Volunteers must be personable and establish a connection instead of simply trying to fill out a questionnaire or disseminate information. In order to work in the community, volunteers must create a connection with their neighbors so that their message will actually be heard and the project’s mission will be effective. It is also import to try to get the community to support the cause. This is one reason why community volunteers involved in the outreach. Along with the education and information volunteers must explain our mission, in order to form a partnership with our organization and the community.

Volunteers also realized that many parents misunderstood the purpose of the project. When parents see people with clipboards walking around the village, they automatically expect the individual to be signing up children for sponsorships. Even though Cheerful Hearts does sponsor children to go to school, families need to know that we cannot simply walk around the town writing down names of children to sponsor. There is a very specific interview process that Cheerful Hearts needs to conduct before sponsoring a child. They need to make sure that the child fits our mission statement working with child labour and trafficking, and we must evaluate whether the child will attend school and use the opportunity given to them. Even though we would love to sponsor all children to attend school, limited resources force us to priorities when distributing sponsorship. It is especially when I am walking around town as a foreigner, that the initial belief is that I am there to give them money and sponsor their child. The Ghanaian volunteers have these same problems so we discussed the importance of being clear that the current project is working on advocacy and not sponsorships.

There were two stories that stand out from the meeting. One was about a mother who told a community volunteer that she was not going to send her daughter to school because her older child, who was in high school, had become obstinate and was poorly behaving due to his time in the schools. Internally, I laughed at this notion that it was school that made teenagers obstinate and rebellious, as it seems to be a universal state for the teenage mind; however, we talked about how it is important that we encourage parents to control their children and be active in their lives. School is not the enemy, but instead we need to give parents new tools to discipline children. We discussed methods for developing a child’s respect and punishments for misbehavior, trying not to focus on caning which is the only option that most parents consider. One of the younger volunteers (there are several high school students that have been trained to try to talk with their peers about the importance of education) described a household that she came to where she found a daughter not allowed to go to school and was being abuse by her aunt. Even as a high school student, she knew that the physical abuse was not alright, but did not know how best to help the younger girl. We made sure to discuss the issue of child abuse at our meeting. She will be going back to the house this week with adult (and a respected member of the community) in order to address the physical violence that is going on behind the closed doors. With the training that these volunteers have received, they must act as the first line of attack against the abuse and exploitation of the children of the community. Children should not be beaten in their homes or working on the shore, but instead should be in school, having a childhood and creating a future for themselves.

I believe the community outreach and education that is done by Cheerful Hearts is just as important as sponsoring students or conducting research. Many individuals in Nyanyano (and even more so in Senya and Fetteh) have not completed primary school. It is not always that they beat their children or sell them to traffickers, because they are bad people, but instead it is due to a lack of knowledge. The more that the community can work together and educate each other about the child abuse and exploitation occurring in their village, the safer the children will be.

Fundraising project created

Fundraising project created

During the past several of days along with teaching and trafficking research, I have been working on our new fundraising project. In order to address the poverty problem, which is often the root cause of child trafficking, Cheerful Hearts has been planning a Poultry Farm project to add a new industry to the fishing community of Senya. Senya is one of the main trafficking sources in central Ghana due to a large population, high poverty, and a small fishing fleet/coastline. With new jobs and something not dependent on fish, the families of the sponsored children can start to make money to support their children instead of selling them to traffickers. Please take a look at the campaign:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/combating-child-labour-through-job-creation/x/3806483

There are definitely other ways to get involved as well. There is a serious lack of reading materials in the local schools and any elementary school books to help with reading are always appreciated. The last option is to help sponsor a child. This school year we are starting with 57 sponsored children. I am currently working on all of their backgrounds and stories as well as documenting their academic performance last year. All of this information gets passed along to the sponsors.

Along with working on fundraising, I did get a chance to watch some football on Sunday. A large crowd showed up for the Tottenham vs Liverpool game, but sadly Tottenham did not (3-0 loss; painful to watch).

More excitement, first laundry day! We will see if everything is dry when I get home (Due to the super hot sun, I would be shocked if there was any water left, not only on the clothing but in the entire country).

 


Again, if you would like to be involved, it is greatly appreciated, but either way please keep enjoying the blog and learning more about child trafficking and my experiences in Ghana. 

End of the second week and weekend activities

End of the second week and weekend activities

After two weeks, life is beginning find a routine. Navigating my way around town (slightly difficult without street names or signs), types of food and eating schedules, public transit, it all seems easy. Even cold showers are beginning to feel normal. As time progresses, the general week plan is beginning to take shape: teaching Monday and Wednesday (along with monitoring the sponsored children and recording their progress), child interviews on Tuesday (then compiling the data for the quarterly report), community awareness on Thursday (as well as meeting with parents), and finally meetings and paperwork on Fridays.

Most of my work currently is going into reporting on and monitoring all of the sponsored children. The official school year starts next week and I need to update all of their profiles and examining their marks from last term. It is important, especially when sponsoring children, to keep all of their reports up to date, both for their educational progress as well as to inform the individuals who sponsor them financially. Because I am in the classroom two days a week, it makes it much easier to monitor the children, but there is a still lot of work to make sure everything is prepared for the new school year. There are a total of 56 sponsored children in three different communities, but around 20 attend the Day Star International School in Senya (which is where I am teaching). My goal is to know each of them by name soon.  

As well as completing the reports and paper work, we are also busy talking to all of the parents. Even though Cheerful Hearts is sponsoring their child, which allows them to go to school when they otherwise could not, (option #2 for many of them is to return to child labour), still many parents struggle seeing the importance of education. Home visits are necessary to make sure that the parents understand the opportunity that their child is being given as well as to confirm that they will support their child’s quest for an education. There are many inspirational stories of children who single handedly changing their future through education, but most children (American, Costa Rican, Dutch, or Ghanaian) still need someone to help push them along and help them stay focused on their goals.

Weekends are slower with plenty of free time. After Friday, which involved a long day of meetings with various community volunteers as well as the planning of our major fundraising effort (which should start on Wednesday), I decided on Saturday to go and explore Accra (the capital of Ghana). Accra is about a 45-60 minutes tro-tro ride east of Kasoa. After a hot and cramped tro-tro ride, I arrived around noon to start my walking tour. I started in Jamestown, the oldest part of the city. The Jamestown fishing community was very similar to Senya or Nyanyano with many boat and plenty of poverty (but I did see my first University of North Carolina basketball jersey). There is also a small fort for as well as a lighthouse which are some of the oldest buildings in city. From Jamestown, I walked to Independence Square which is a large “fair grounds” where the president will give speeches and host other large national events. The football stadium is also across the street, but the season in Ghana has not yet began; a Ghanaian football game is definitely on my to-do list in the future. Along the way, I discovered the Nkrumah Mausoleum (a garden and memorial to the first Ghanaian president) as well as the Art Market, before turning back into the heart of the city to find the National Museum. I was not particularly impressed with the capital city. It was hot and busy, feeling very much like a large African city (which it is). I did however, find a restaurant where I could sit down at a table and order a sandwich (a slight difference from the normal rice and fish diet from roadside vendors).

After eating and getting a cold drink, I was reenergized and continued on my quest to explore the city. After walking into several shops, I found my way back to Nkrumah Circle, a major stop for tro-tros and taxis. With some time to spare, I decided to stop in an internet café to answer some emails where I asked the owner for a recommendation for dinner. I ended up finding a sports bar where I could grab some food and watch the football matches for the day (no, not the opening day of college football, but English Premier League football). EPL football is everywhere in Ghana. Everyone has a team and even in Kasoa there are small buildings that are lined with benches all focused on two or three tvs showing the biggest matches of the day (English and Spanish football is common, but Dutch leagues games are pretty tough to find).

After a long hot day, I was ready to head home, but decided to meet up with several of my coworkers at a local bar in Accra to hear music and have a drink. It was a fun night as the bar had numerous tables outside (finally cool after the sun went down) along with Ghanaian party music. It turned out to be a successful day in Accra, even though Accra may not be the easiest city to explore as a tourist.

Community Event Movie Presentation

Community Event Movie Presentation

Here is my community write up for last night's movie showing:

As Senya’s Akumese Festival was drawing to a close, Cheerful Hearts Foundation had a special event planned for the community. Sadly, many children and parents do not understand the importance of a child’s education as well as the dangers of the fishing industry. In order to raise awareness, Cheerful Hearts Foundations prepared a movie showing for the entire community to shed light on what is really happening to their children.

After an epic rainstorm completely destroyed any hope for an outdoor movie on Tuesday night, Cheerful Hearts decided try again the following day. Even though we had originally planned to have our showing on the final day of the festival, we still hoped for a good turnout. A group of volunteers arrived around 2:00 pm to start building excitement for the film. Along with the loud dance music and amusing verbal banter, Cheerful Hearts hired a car with speakers to drive around Senya inviting all residents in ear shot to come to learn about the issue of child labour and trafficking in Ghana.

As the sun began to go down, a crowd started to gather. With seating space limited, both children and parents began finding a space outside the church to better see the screen. By the time it was completely dark and the crowd was loosened up with some clips of Boys Kasa, Eric started the presentation with some information about the power of a child’s education and the purpose of Cheerful Hearts. With nearly 500 people eagerly waiting, Eric turned the microphone over to Hayford and the movie began.

Hayford, the director of the local school Day Star, helped translate the movie into the local Senya language, keeping the crowd both excited and curious throughout the entire presentation. Many parents and children did not have any idea what happens to the children when they would leave to work in Yeji or other fishing villages. The truth about the poor living conditions, acts or threats of violence and beatings, as well as the life ending or debilitating injuries accompanied with the fishing industry were shocking to many in the crowd. Watching the audience, it was easy to see how seriously they were taking this new information, as many were shaking their heads or looking away, finally beginning to understand the horrors associated with child labour.

After the movie finished, the discussion turned to the importance of child education. Several community members stepped up to the microphone to express the importance of school. Each speaker expressed how education is the key which opens all the doors for a child’s future. Child trafficking has robbed many children of the opportunity to obtain an education, but the community needed to know that these children still had the opportunity to change their futures. One of the most powerful moments of the evening occurred when several of Cheerful Hearts’ sponsored children came to address the community. Their excitement and drive to change their future was empowering to every child in the audience and their appreciation for Cheerful Hearts and their sponsorships was emotionally touching for everyone involved. Hearing such meaningful message from the very boys that had been working on Lake Volta and were now back at home and in school brought the crowd to their feet with a standing ovation.

The movie night was a huge success and helped raise awareness about the dangers of child trafficking. Keeping children in school and away from the exploitative and abuse work on Lake Volta is the key for both the children of Senya as well as the future of all of Ghana. Cheerful Hearts wants to thank both the IOM and Challenging Heights for their film as well as so many other individuals in the Senya community for helping to put together such an impactful event. Awareness and education is the first step in stopping child trafficking and Cheerful Hearts Foundation is proud to have had such a successful event last night in Senya. 

First Day of Child Interviews

First Day of Child Interviews

This morning was the first day of child interviews, so I took a tro tro to Senya to gather data for the child trafficking research (This was my first time attempting the journey solo, but made it without problem). This data then gets entered into a spreadsheet, from which we create a report each quarter about the trafficking problem in Ghana. Today is an important day because it is the final day of the festival in Senya, and many families (and trafficked children) return home for the week to celebrate.

I met Hayford, who is the director of one of the local schools where we have many of our sponsored children in Senya. He is a well known figure in the community and works with a lot of the children throughout the town. Walking the streets with him is similar to walking with a celebrity as he must stop and say hello to everyone. Together we walked towards the shore to find some children that he knew were trafficked.

  

During the interviews, I try my best to fill out a questionnaire and use Hayford as my interpreter. He is able to explain what we are doing and speak to the children and families in the local language (which I cannot). Our first interview was with a boy that Hayford knew. He was 14 years old, and had been trafficked to Yeji by his uncle for almost 6 years. In Yeji, he would fish, mend nets, and help on the boats. He was often beaten by either his uncle or by his boss if he did not do as he was told. The boss would prepare two meals a day, but did not provide other supplies such as shoes, clothing, or personal hygiene products. He had to work 6 days a week and could then work on Sunday on his own in order to make some money for himself. Conditions were quite bad and he attempted to run away once, but was caught and beaten. After that experience he never again attempted to escape. One of the questions on the questionnaire asks, what he disliked and liked during time working on Lake Volta. Sadly, he could not think of anything he liked and could only describe the situation and the work conditions as bad. Most of his answers were short; it was obvious that his time fishing was not a memory that he wished to hold on to. He said that he was never seriously injured, but he did know of several children that died while in the water, normally getting caught trying to untangle the nets from the underwater hazards. These stories were not unlike others that I had heard and read, but having them told by such a small child made them much more real.  

While walking through the crowded neighborhoods, Hayford asked a local child if he knew where to find other kids that had been working on Lake Volta. Quickly, he led us to a neighbor’s house. The home belonged to a porridge seller and a large extended family all congregated throughout the living room. She told us that her sister and husband had moved with their family of 9 children to Yeji to work as fishermen. All 9 of the children were forced to work long hours with their father on the boats. Two children were now in Senya living with her, so that they could attend school. The girls had a similar story about their fishing jobs; lots of work and no free time, accompanied by beating when they did not work hard enough. They were very shy especially in such a crowded house to tell us any details, but they were happy that their parents allowed them to travel to Senya, in order to go to school instead of work on the boats. 

Our interviews were cut short today as it started to downpour as we were leaving the girls house. Luckily we made it to the school where we sat stranded for several hours until catching a tro tro back to Kasoa.

Festival

Festival

The weekend is free time and after a week of cultural adjustments and working, I was excited to have some time to explore the town. Three volunteers were leaving on Sunday after two months in Ghana, which meant that we needed to celebrate their final weekend. Luckily, it was the perfect weekend for a celebration, as Senya (the fishing village that I am working in) was having their yearly festival. The festival celebrates the first harvest which eliminated hunger and allowed the village to prosper back several hundred years ago. Each year, many families travel back to Senya to see family, dance, and party.

We decided as a group to go to the festival on Saturday night. We arrived around 8:00 (which seeing as I have been going to sleep around 9:00 was quite late). Even if I was tired (partly because of a 45 minute tro tro ride in the dark), my energy levels were recharged quickly as we walked down the crowded street. Everyone seemed to be outside and spontaneous dance parties were found on every block. After a walk up and down the main street, we (3 international volunteers and 4 Ghanaians) went to the main bar located at the front of the town which was hosting a live band. The group continued drinking and dancing the night away, first to the live music outside, and then to the “night club” inside. A mixture of some American and some Ghanaian hits kept the crowd entertained well into the night. It is always interesting being the only white guy on the dance floor, and I tried my best to overcome the painful dancing stereotypes that have plagued the obruni for years. Sadly, the final night of festivities where we were going to show our a movie about child trafficking was rained out, but hopefully we will reschedule for this week.