A text message

At 11.57am this morning I received the following text message from a fellow volunteer which typifies the kind of things which delay work in Ghana but also give it it's vibrant cultured and lead us to profess  'This is Ghana'

TEXT: So  Iv'e just been told our office is closing at 12 because the local community are doing some ritual sacrifice outside our office and no one is allowed to watch especially women.  If a woman sees the animal then she is cursed never to have children! Only in Ghana hey?'

It raises a number of questions for me ... I wonder how many it raised with you and if indeed they were the same;

1. Why was my friend told only 5 minutes before the minute she was supposed to leave the office?
2. Why was the venue not chosen somewhere away from work places (of women)?
3. What animal?
4. Why a sacrificial ritual at midday on Feb 25th (which just happens to be my brothers birthday - is there a link?!)?'.
5.  Does the animal curse the woman?

Many questions raised in Ghana by us volunteers start with 'Why?' and more often than not a fellow volunteer will interrupt the sentence with a simple 'This is Ghana.' Sometimes these questions are best left unanswered.

An update on how your money is being spent; The big girls at Mama Laadis

We have a French friend  in her 20’s, Marie, who was helping out at a clinic in Bolga to make use of her nurses training while her boyfriend was working for a company linked to agriculture.  The work was frustrating for her so she left but in order to keep her hand in some volunteering work she asked if she could do some work at the orphanage.  So we took her to Mama Laadi who of course was very accepting of this help.  As Marie is an independent volunteer she comes with no funding at all.  She asked what I thought she should do.  With limited time and resources I suggested she focussed on the older girls who didn’t appear to be going to school, as they were a small group (3 at the time) and what she did with them could be manageable in the day without the small girls and boys getting in the way.  I suggested she did some informal education with them;  took them to see hats being made, weaving etc, talk about the hopes and aspirations, encourage them to write, and do some maths… generally make them realise an education is important to get them what they want.  Since she started with us back in November she’s done a fantastic job with these girls (now 4). The intensive work has clearly worked on a number of levels, a talent has been found (one is a fabulous Artist) , 3 are being tutored part time with the aim of going back into full time education and the sexual abuse of one girl has been reported to the police and she has been medically checked and counselled about it.  Also, importantly, Mama has seen the fight, spirit and ability that these girls have that was once hidden behind zero confidence, not helped by many thinking they were 'slow learners' which further encouraged them to hide with in a very thick shell they built around themselves.

Sandy (not her real name) is 14 years old, and has been at the orphanage since December.  She has spent 4 years on the street and has been raped several times.  Marie has taken her for STD tests and an HIV test; everything is negative, only that she has vaginal mycosis. We don't expect any punishment for the man but we want to show her that this situation is not acceptable and normal. However, we had to be careful about the version she gave to the police so they didn’t interpret it as prostitution as the man gave her money after he raped her.  She was begging for money at a total filling station and the watchman asked her to come, pushed her and raped her and then gave her money.  It happened a total of 6 times.  She was hungry.  Luckily, Marie said that the policewoman who dealt with the case was very kind and understanding.  Marie suspects that she is now selling her body, but if she questions her the answer is not clear and Marie doesn’t know how to let her understand that she has to stop. 

So, on the back of that Marie sent all 4 big girls including Sandy (14+ years) to the family planning clinic to get contraception.  All have been given the implant whether sexually active or not, which will protect them from pregnancy for 5 years.  They were also given a condom demonstration by the nurse, condoms were brought and it was explained to them why they were so important even if they had the implant.  With teenage pregnancies (many school masters are the cause of this) and HIV rife in this area we really felt this action would help the girls positively to stay as safe as they can given the circumstances they are in/could be in.

Marie has also arranged for 3 of these girls to be tutored by a teacher at the local teacher training college, they will receive a lesson of English and a lesson of Maths each week in the early evening, she went with the children so the teacher could assess their level, Marie came back saying [in a French accent] ‘Oh, they have found the teacher funny, nice and awesome!’. So they have agreed to continue, a positive step given their negative and limited experiences at school. Mama prefers to pay for the school at the end of the month, but the school really want to be paid before the lessons to be able to pay the teacher. So we have agreed that part of the money raised over the summer by family and friends will be used to pay for this tuition and books for these 4 girls… It’s likely to get them back into full time education, and in turn could turn their lives around…. Thank you once again for all you gave last summer.