The Project

So the project is moving right along. It is the most confusing but rewarding projects I have been on to date. The confusing part comes from it being a community development project. What I mean by community development is that the community decides what the project is and how to accomplish it. The community in this case is two-fold; one community is the project team that is made up of students and faculty from three universities (two in Ghana and one in Canada, Malaspina), the other community is actually four communities that are neighbouring villages around Sunyani. At this point in the project we are mainly working with the project team, and in March and April we will start more actively engaging the neighbouring communities.

The roles that Amanda and I are playing are quite undefined, and that is where the confusion comes for me. We are currently acting as facilitators, leaders, and participants of the team, and in any one meeting we may play all three roles! The Ghanaian team members seem happy to let us lead, as last year the Canadian team took a more leadership role with ideas and plans for their time here. Yet in order for this project to be sustainable the Ghanaians need to take the leadership so that when there are no Canadians here, the project will continue. So even while Amanda and I take leadership roles we are also constantly putting ideas and decisions back to the group to make as a team. Having to constantly make decisions as a group can be very time consuming and very frustrating for some, yet it is imperative so that the team feels completely responsible for the direction and objectives that are being determined. This buy-in from the team will ensure that they have ownership of what is happening.

Despite the time consuming nature of community development, the team is moving ahead very quickly. The team has split into three groups that are each responsible for one of the topic areas – HIV/AIDS education, Plastic Waste Management, and Bush Fires (for now we have put eco-tourism on hold). We have been busy researching the topics, looking at the findings from surveys done in the neighbouring villages last year of perceptions on these topics, and visiting various local authorities of these topics. The information is being compiled and put into a radio show interview format. Radio is an important media medium here and so we will be taking the education to various radio stations to reach the target markets each topic has identified. We will also be distributing informational posters from various authorities on these topics to the neighbouring villages and the campus’s. Then in April when the rest of the Canadian team arrives, we will be formatting the information we have gathered into educational programs to take to the schools in the various villages. We will pilot the programs this year with the idea that they will be improved upon and revisited over the next few years.

It’s all very exciting! Amanda and I are constantly discussing the project, the team, the progress, the culture, the people, etc etc. It is keeping us busy…mentally, as much or even more so than physically.