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Africa » Ghana » Western » Humjibre
April 7th 2013
Published: April 7th 2013
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Time. I’ve heard it said that “time is a valuable thing”. We have too much time or too little time; time goes by too fast or too slow; people are too busy or too lazy. Well, these past few months – maybe the past year even - I feel like I just haven’t had enough TIME. I can’t believe how I have managed to compile everything into the last month. First there’s the things that actually needed to be DONE: finishing my courses, writing exams, moving out of my apartment, planning (and the cancelling due to weather) a fundraising event, visiting Ottawa, going to my family’s cottage, and trying to gather everything that I need for this trip. Then, there are the mental challenges: keeping my brain charged while studying for exams, battling anxiety, and trying to find time to mentally prepare for Ghana. It’s no wonder that I am exhausted.



It feels like no time has passed since I had my first interview for this program with the Ghana Health and Education Initiative (GHEI). I remember setting a time for the interview, sitting anxiously as I waited for the call from the interviewer and, in the end, feeling that it went well overall. I remember learning that I got the volunteer position and having to reach out to friends and family to help support me financially. I remember being blown away by the incredible generosity and love that I felt from so many people. It’s hard to ask people for money but I feel so blessed and thankful for the wonderful friends in my life that helped make this volunteer trip happen. In the five months since learning that I would be going to Africa, I have been able to raise the necessary funds, get my Visa for entry into Ghana, get necessary vaccinations (Yellow fever, meningitis, Hepatitis A, Polio, Dukoral), and book a flight to actually get me there.



And so, I depart. It’s been a year and a half since I have left the borders of Canada (Excluding a short adventure to New York for New Years 2013). I feel like a modge-podge of nervousness, excitement and anxiety. Never have I been to Africa and never have I ever travelled alone. This time, it is just me. What a gloriously horrendous thing that is. The idea of doing this all on my own both satisfies me immensely, as I feel accomplished and worldly, and scares the crap out of me, as I realize that I have no one to depend on but myself. But, I am doing this for me, because I love travel and having the chance to help people outside of our borders, because I feel the call of living and working internationally, and simply, because it’s something that I want to do. I revel at the opportunity that I have to work with and learn from people in the health care system in Ghana. I can’t wait to taste the food, and play with the children, and visit the cocoa farms and hospitals.



Let me tell you a little bit of what I am going to be doing in Ghana. I am volunteering for a program dedicated to malaria prevention. In its efforts to thwart the destructiveness of this disease, the government of Ghana has been providing most households (especially pregnant women and children under the age of 5) with bed nets. Hungry mosquitoes mostly come out at night so it has been an effective technique to simply block their access to the human body by sleeping underneath an Insecticide Treated Net (ITN). However, the governments have little ability to see and understand if and how these techniques are working. That is where GHEI comes in. With this program and with the help of the community of Humjibre, we will be surveying households of their use of these bed nets. We will be determining if the nets are being used/set up properly (and fix them if they aren’t), who is sleeping under them, if the house needs more nets, etc. Then, we will be compiling all the data and comparing it to data collected in previous years. We can then help the government determine the effectiveness of their efforts to help the people fight malaria and see if there is anything further that should be done. One of the amazing things (I think) that this program does, is that it really uses the people in the community – you know, teaching them to fish rather then just providing them with something to eat. Most of the data retrieving and contact with the public will be done by community health workers in Humjibre. I’m just there to help out, translate the information to English, and enter the data into our fancy computers. I think that it is so important to help empower the individuals in the community by having them work a long side us. In addition to this, I will also have the opportunity to visit a local cocoa farm, help with baby weighing at the local hospital, and visit a hospital in the capital city of Accra!





There’s a lot to do in the next 17 days. Hopefully, there will be enough time to fit it all in 😉

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