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Published: April 18th 2005
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Sight at Cape Coast Castle
A young Ghanaian can now relax on the site on this sadly historical landmark. Hello my friends! I hope this finds you well. I hope you got the chance to glance at my special McGill update! Because it was pretty technical, and because the idea I specifically wanted to share with you in this issue is not very exciting, I will first try and entertain you with some fun thoughts about my life here. If you want more fun stories or details about my work, which has not changed very much since last time, refer to the French section!
First, on Easter weekend, I had the opportunity of visiting the castle of Cape Coast. It used to be one of the most important English fortresses during the slave trade with the Americas. Tens -if not hundreds- of thousands of Africans have gone through this fort, in the worst conditions possible. They say more than half died before they even got the new continent. Where does this entry get fun? Well, I wanted to entertain you with this picture taken inside the fort, which shows how much things can change with time, and to be hopeful that the new kind of injustices which is now happening outside the castle walls, will also disappear shortly.
Outside Cape Coast Castle
As a contrast, here is a view of the fishermen's village next to Cape Coast Catle. Second, many of you have asked me about some pictures of the drumming and dancing which I get to enjoy here quite regularly. Here are some of them! Those ones are particularly interesting because the lead drummer and main subject of my picture has been a “friend of EWB volunteers” since the time of one of EWB’s first volunteer in Ghana, Paul. His name is Kwame, and he is a “masta drummer”. His dad Daniel is the lead and founder of the band and they get to do shows all over Europe and America!
Finally, my partner NGO organized a week long training or measuring indoor air pollution levels in kitchens that use wood or coal for cooking. Following that training, my friend Seth and I took the speaker from UofC Berkeley out and around Accra… until we ran into the start of one of Ghana worst ecological event in many years. A fire erupted in an oil pipeline in the main port. It was rather a sad sight, although we got to see the entire progression of the fire which completely darkened the sky in about 30 minutes. You will find a picture of the event below.
Some Drummin'
A view of Kwame's band performing! And now for the bulk of this message!
From my experience in the Philippines, I have had the pleasure and great opportunity to work with the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Very different from any standard government agency, the DSWD is under the leadership of a woman, and almost exclusively staffed by women. The majority if not all of the staffs are social workers by profession. Both at the national office, and in the regional and local offices, you see many of these women who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of the condition of the poor. Some of them have even refused the family life, which is quite the decision, considering the Filipino culture. They say they are married to the cause, and have as many children as there are to help. In fact, in many of the DSWD offices, you would find a work schedule quite similar that of the EWB national office! Many would work on weekends, and would never leave in the evening unless the job was completed. They are always looking to do more, never letting their lack of resources be an obstacle to serve the needy. They call themselves the “superwomen”!
Some Dancin'
Some of the dancin' that accompanies the drummin'! They are champions of the heart and they make things happen. Wow, I was lucky! When I think back about it, we only had to worry about maximizing the impact of the project and making it more sustainable! At first, I thought this was quite the task, but now I realize that we had many tools to achieve this. I’m pretty happy Scala is getting good impact results because we really had no excuse. We were doing development 1st class!
Following this EWB/DSWD experience, I thought that everyone working in the development industry had similar motivations. Of course, I was wrong. My realization was that for many in this industry, the improvement of the poor’s life, unfortunately, does not come as their first priority. For the past 2 months in Ghana, I have had the sad opportunity to witness and experience many organizations for whom their salary, had to come before the poor’s wellbeing. I’ve seen many bad development projects - that clearly cause more harm than good - most of them implemented by NGOs and funded by government agencies or corporations. I would bet any of you could have realized when seeing the initial project proposal, that it
Fire at the port
How the beauty of nature sticks out in front of an ecological desaster. was a bad idea; that it was a project designed to improve diplomatic and trade relations or as part of a public relations campaign. Many of these projects don’t even fall under the NGO’s official mandate or mission. So why do people still take part in these projects?
Because if they don’t, they will have to close their organization and become not much better than those they were trying to help in the first place. The truth is that the development industry is so underfunded and competitive that anyone with a few development dollars can make NGOs do almost anything.
So is this a race to the bottom? Who can do “development” with the less money and the less time? Does this mean that EWB and the DSWD are bound to disappear? Luckily, I don’t think so. Unlike any other industry, the development industry is about people. There will always be people who won’t stay insensitive at the life of hardships the poor face every day. This is why this industry will keep attracting the DSWDs, the EWBs and my new Ghanaian friends, who have been sensitized and who, with their hearts, will not let the lack of resources in the industry affect their efforts to help the poor of this world.
I would like to finish this entry with a special favour. When you have a second, please visit www.makepovertyhistory.ca and add your name to the list. You can even get a white band. I would be very grateful if you did... you can let me know if you do! Thank you, and see you soon my friends… Gye Nyame!
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