So this is a little delayed but I just wanted to say a couple things about the Christian Children's Fund Canada program in Ghana. First of all, the staff here are absolutely amazing and totally dedicated to making the lives of these children a little bit better. They literally spend hours upon hours hunting hundreds of kids down in their communities to deliver letters and messages from donors abroad and send word back on how the kids are faring.
Secondly, the program is extremely well organized considering the lack of infrastructure in Ghana. They partner with community programs to service those families most in need with programs that are relevant to the culture and lifestyle of the area. In Abdul-Malik's community CCFC is partnered with Gumani Family and Child Care Program which not only looks out for the most needy kids in Gumani through the sponsorship program but also runs a number of community support projects. They organize educational workshops for the children in the community schools, fundraise and find grants from international bodies to support community facilities, and run a credit union that provides microloans to entrepeneurs and farming families. The women's cooperative is only one of the many businesses that has started as a result of the microloan program and now includes over 20 members. These ladies sat with me and spoke with such pride about the success of their business processing rice and producing shea butter. Currently they do everything by hand, but they were happy to tell me that they have been able to build a warehouse to work in along with a eletric motor and two grinding machines to expand business! They are now financially independent and able to support their families during seasons of poor harvest yields (which is happening more and more frequently due to the torrential rains and desertification of the north--the ground is deteriorating into sand and clay so when the rainy season arrives the water just sits on top of the land and drowns the crops). The women also mentionned how thrilled they were at being able to give their children things they always wanted but never had--like an education and a small treat from time to time. This sentiment really got to me because I hear parents in Canada say this all the time, it's one of the many universal feelings I have become more aware of during my time in Ghana.
Third, the organization IS talking about changing their name from Christian Children's Fund to just "Children's Fund" because having a religious affiliation has caused some major misconceptions about their organization. CCFC works for families from a variety of religious backgrounds. Their mission is not a prejudiced one, they simply want to help those who need it most. In Abdul-Malik's community 70% of the families in the program are Muslim, with the other 30% a combination of Christian and traditional tribal sects. I found this really reassuring and relieving.
Lastly, CCFC works in tandem with other international NGOs like UNICEF and World Vision to ensure that services do not overlap in any community. If World Vision is already serving one community in Ghana CCFC will look for a community that is not being supported to work in. This makes their programming a lot more efficient.
The thing that surprised me the most about my visit with Abdul-Malik was the incredulous looks on the faces of his peers as I pulled up to the school and the disbelief his family showed when shaking my hand. After our visit I asked the CCFC staff about whether or not my visit would make Abdul-Malik's friends jealous because very few sponsors ever visit (I was the first one here since spring of last year!). They just laughed and said no, absolutely not. My visit would do many things: it would raise the status of Abdul-Malik and his family in the community, it would raise the status of his school, but most importantly it would shatter the myth that sponsors don't really exist! HUH?! Apparently people in Ghana think the entire sponsorship program is a complicated hoax. They believe money is sent to the programs by faceless organizations and governments and then "sponsor families" are created to make them think somebody out there actually cares about their well being. This broke my heart, especially since many families refuse to participate fully in the program based on grounds of mistrust. It is often a struggle to get families to write response letters because they think they are just sitting in the staff office and being replied to by other Ghanaians. So my appearance in the community was a shock--they didn't believe I was really coming because they didn't believe I existed! I'm hoping my appearance will boost the trust in CCFC's programs and will send the message that people from North America DO care about their brothers and sisters in Africa.
All this being said, I would just like to note that I now fully endorse CCFC as a worthwhile organization to support. If you are interested in sponsoring a child and their community you should check out their website and consider choosing CCFC! (http://www.ccfcanada.ca/)
So currently I am in Accra, but I have had a crazy week! I made many new friends in Tamale which made my time much more enjoyable. My trip to Mole on Thursday was pretty interesting. I went to the Metro Mass Transit station for 6:00 AM to purchase a seat on the 9:00 AM bus to Damongo, which is a village about 5 km away from Mole. The bus arrived on Ghana time, which means 2 hours late, so we didn't arrive in Damongo until 2:30. (Side note: The road to Mole is not HALF as bad as the Bradt Guide makes it sound. The roads running through Hohoe were much worse!) At the Damongo station I bumped into two German volunteers who had the same plan as I did so we shared a cab to Mole. When we arrived at Mole it turned out I had been placed in a family suite alone, so there were two empty beds in the room. I offered these to the Germans (Dennis and Julia) for the same price as they would pay for a dorm bed and they leapt at the offer, saving me money and ensuring there would be someone to benefit from the included breakfast which I would miss! I was just in time for the 3:30 safari walk around the park. The walk was great and the reserve is absolutely stunning! I didn't see any elephants (although I did see evidence of their existance including tracks, tusk marks, and lots of dung!) but I saw many other creatures including antelope, bush bucks, wart hogs, three different types of monkey, parakeets, and wild hare. I was amazed how close the animals let us get before they would freak out and run away. Apparently the baboons and the wart hogs have become most accustomed to humans--they hang out around the staff community and have been known to seek into homes to steal food if the compound gates are not closed. The children living in the park are forbidden to eat food outside after some of them were attacked by the monkies for it! Most of the park seems untouched by humans though, which I liked. There was a beautiful silence about the whole place. All you could hear were wild animal calls and the grass rustling in the breeze. It was exactly the break from people I so badly needed. My guide was really knowledgeable about everything from animal tracking to national park laws so I learned a lot. Unfortunately he also took the opportunity to flirt incessantly, show off, and hand me his phone number in case I "needed him for anything". I just had to laugh!
My trip back from Mole was a bit of a nightmare. I was woken up at 3:30 AM the next morning to catch the 4:00 AM direct bus from Mole to Tamale, which is essentially a filthy, rusted, metal box on wheels. Myself and a handful of other tourists sleepily piled in and tried to get comfortable in order to catch a little more sleep before daybreak. WISHFUL THINKING! We also stopped to pick up a bunch of park staff and then stopped in Larabanga to fill the rest of the bus with villagers. As people piled in and filled every last square inch a number of fights broke out. Men outside the bus were pushing and shoving our female conductor around trying to get into the bus. Inside the bus a crazy old man was yelling at everybody in Hausa and banging his fists on the seat in front of him--it took half an hour to physically remove him. Then an argument started between the villagers and the park staff over why more buses didn't run through that area. All this at 4 in the morning! We didn't pull out of Larabanga until just before 7:00AM. We had been there for almost 3 hours and we still had to drop people off in Damongo and get through the 3 hour drive back to Tamale. It was brutal! I rested pretty much all day Friday and then went out that night to say goodbye to some local friends I had made. We had drinks at Crest on the rooftop patio under the stars while listening to a live band and doing some dancing. It was a great way to end my stay in Tamale.
I was up early again Saturday morning to catch a 6:30 AM bus to Accra. This time I traveled STC, which meant larger seats, cleaner interior, and A/C! I was in heaven ...at first. Our bus seemed a little dated as it chugged along and struggled to make it to the speed limit. In Kumasi we were stalled for two hours because one of the tires needed to be refilled and rotated. Our rest stops weren't great either offering filthy washrooms and canteens selling cookies and pop. My three meals consisted of digestive cookies and oranges that day. When we reached Accra we were stuck in traffic for over an hour and our driver managed to take the front ends off of three taxis. The main highway running through Accra is currently no more than a dirt runway because city planners thought it would be a good idea to expand and resurface the entire road in one fell swoop. Well, without any sort of lane markers or traffic control this road is now just like a large parking lot where hundreds of accidents occur everyday. Good one Ghana! On top of this we had passengers screaming out "BUS STOP!" (the command commonly used to get tro tros to drop you at the correct location) every 500 metres through town so then we would have to sit and idle while the driver dug through the luggage to find their belongings.
We were supposed to get to Accra at 5:30, but we actually arrived at 10:00. I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. I caught a cab to the Crystal Hostel where I am now staying. I was dropped in an alleyway in a dark neighborhood and told to walk down a pathway to a metal gate--the hostel apparently. I knocked and yelled "hello!" and was answered by angry guard dogs barking. Finally a lady came to open the gate and showed me into a house. My room was pretty shabby and not very clean. I went to check out the bathroom and two cockroaches scuttled under the wall. I was not in the mood to deal with pests all night. I went to lie down and realized the bed had no sheet on it. At this point I started crying and called my mom. Thank goodness for moms. She somehow managed to calm me down and I promised to get some sleep in hopes of seeing things a little brighter in the morning. And I did! It turns out the sketchy back alley is not the main entrance to this place and the house has a beautiful courtyard out front! The staff are super friendly and served me a lovely breakfast. Plus, the shower is one of the best I have been in while in Ghana. And the guard dogs are actually pretty docile. One of them curled up with me this morning!
Well I'm out of time! See you in Canada on Wednesday!
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