Meet our team in Ghana

Today is Friday, June 3rd, and as we work our way back to Accra we leave many new friends behind to carry on with the activities of Project GROW. Most of the work is follow-up, however; the most intensive efforts are over and all of those who made this such a successful two weeks are breathing a big sigh of relief. Getting the money to Ghana, and then getting that money distributed to the various suppliers was particularly tight this year and the pressure was on to get everything in place for the two presentations.
It is fitting then, to use one of the final blogs to introduce the team to all of you who have been following our travels. They are all wonderful, dedicated people and I’ll do my best to introduce them and fill you in on their backgrounds.

Cynthia 
Cynthia is a Health Services Administrator and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Administration and is Vida's niece. It would take an entire, separate blog to really do justice to Cynthia's contributions, both to GROW and as our travelling companion. She met us at the airport, arranged all of our transportation, devised great places to see, showed us a side to Ghana that we would never have experienced on our own. She listened attentively to every single observation and often acted on something as a result of a comment or having overheard something Jan and I might have said. In the villages, Cynthia, like Vida, is an inspiration to the girls, and a fine example of why Girl Child Education is so important. She is also a fierce negotiator who either won the match, or in the rare moment when she didn't, gave a dismissive wave of the hand and found an alternative. Every single Ghanian man who dealt with us seemed to prefer to talk to her and Jan and I got very used to seeing this happen on a daily basis. Using her great charm and dignity, she could smooth the way and get us out of whatever predicament we found ourselves in. By the way, the Ghanian men were also dismissed, but in the nicest possible manner. As you can see by the photo, she has a great smile and that, I think, is a big part of her success. Many thanks to Cynthia; you have been a great friend and fellow traveller and we will miss you very much.

Josbert 

Josbert holds a diploma in Community Nursing and works northeast of Bolga as a Community Nurse, working primarily with family planning. Josbert took a leave from work and has spent much of that time doing the pre-organizational work to get the delivery items in place, the celebrations organized and overseeing just about any other task that needed doing. As our man on the ground, his work began long before we got there. Josbert is key to virtually every step of the process from start to finish: MC's each event, and divided the shopping list, following each purchase as it happened. His phone never, ever, stopped ringing the whole time he was with us. He also contributed to the adult education sessions because of his desire to see his people achieve their goal of literacy. He is passionate about the community centre and his presentation to the local Rotary inspired them to the point where they attended the second presentation of gifts at Sakote. Josbert also provided me with my first ever ride on a motorbike, just one of many memories I will cherish from this trip.

Jonas Jonas has a diploma in Accounting and works for the National Service as an accountant, although watching him working with our adult learners, he was equally comfortable with education. Jonas organized much of the entertainment for the two events, the children’s programming and performances, volunteered during our adult education sessions, and organized much of the financial activity (distributing money for the various items, keeping track of who was buying what, and providing receipts at the end of it all). Jonas also did much of the translating for the English versions of both my speech and Vida’s. He is wearing a UBC Okanagan T-shirt in this photo ~ a subtle welcome to us both perhaps.

Langumori 

Langumori, Vida's younger brother, is the local GROW coordinator for the villages and manages much of our work throughout the year. He lives in the village so his connection was crucial for having the village participation for the celebration. He also did much of the buying and stored most of the purchases until the big day. Langumori is married with 3 daughters.

Pogbil 

Vida’s sister is one of the women leaders, originally from the village and now lives in Bolgatanga. Pogbil, along with two of the other women leaders, organized the buying of the food for the school lunch program, and was also responsible for getting participants involved in both presentations. Over the coming months, she will be one of the mentors for the Sakote group as they learn the ropes of being part of this NGO. While all of the women of Nyobok-Nkunzesi will be there to support the group, it is women like Pogbil, involved from the beginning, who can contribute advice and guidance. The donations look like a simple thing that will benefit the women, but there are many challenges as they manage their livestock, drive the donkey carts or rent them out, use the ploughs, and hold regular meetings. Pogbil’s experience with the first group will be invaluable in mentoring the new one.

Kennedy 

Kennedy is currently studying for a degree in Community Development at the University of Developmental Studies (UDS). Kennedy’s role was getting the logistics such as canopies (which Jan and I would have melted without), chair rentals, sound systems, video recording He also organized the letters of invitation to the dignitaries . He also worked closely with Josbert to organize the transport of all of the goods and livestock to the village which was no small task as I mentioned in an earlier blog.





Clifford   Clifford has just graduated from high school and is now attending the University for Development Studies in Tamale. He picked up the slack on many of the small, tedious tasks such as printing off programs and other administrative tasks. And of course, once we were able to get going on the buying, Clifford, like everyone else, was involved in that process.

Samuel 

A close friend of Josbert’s, Samuel has been to every Project GROW delivery and has been involved in transport, distribution and just the general grunt work of the project(last time round, he worked with the protocol team) Samuel is also a teacher and very interested in the Laptop program.

Hannah 

Hannah is currently enrolled in a vocational program to become a seamstress and lives in the twin villages of Nyobok-Nkunzesi. She is the mother of 2 daughters, and serves as the secretary for Project GROW. Because Hannah has secondary education, she will also work as one of our two adult education facilitators to carry on the program. The adult education program was perhaps the most exciting moment for the first villages involved in the program, and having Hannah as a facilitator will ensure that the opportunity to learn continues. Hannah was everywhere during the two presentations to make sure all of the women got to the events and assisting in the details. Hannah’s husband also puts in a great deal of time with the project, especially this year when there were two major events and lots of livestock to manage.
Sampson  Sampson is the other adult educator for the program and has taught primary school so is comfortable in his role. He lives in Sakote but since the two locations are close together, facilitating the program not only be possible, but he is also ideally placed to encourage participants from the new village as well. During the presentations, and leading up to the big days Sampson made countless trips between the villages to set up the canopies, assist with transporting animals and keep the two main presentation events running smoothly. He was also involved with handing out the goats and other goods

Philomena YakongAlthough she was not here for the deliveries this year, Vida’s sister Philomena must be mentioned as well. She is currently in Canada with Vida, enjoying the arrival of her new niece, Claire, and will travel back with them both as soon as Claire’s paperwork (passport and visa) is all in order. Philomena is a Public Health Nurse , but currently is employed as a Health Care Administrator and lives in the western region of Ghana; she has a long way to travel home for Project GROW events. She is a signing officer for our NGO, and has, in the past, been involved in every GROW delivery which means taking a few buses (always a challenge here in Ghana) in order to get to the villages. Philomena has always delivered the speeches on our behalf as well as for Vida in her absence. I know both she and Vida have followed our travels every step of the way and were wishing that they could have been on location to celebrate with us. There are a lot of people waiting for their arrival, and I have no doubt that when all three get here, there will a second celebration in each village and the fun will begin again.

Naya 
Naya is one of Vida's brothers who lives in the village and was involved with organization from that end. Naya took care of the livestock as it arrived, caring, feeding and then on the big day, was part of the distribution. At the moment, I have no picture of Naya, but will post that as soon as possible.

And that, my friends, is an introduction to the people who make things happen and without them, all the donations in the world would not matter. Having the opportunity to see them in action made me aware that many of our team suspend their own income to make Vida’s dream a reality. In future years, we will need to consider this aspect because GROW is getting bigger and we will need to support and place some kind of value on the time they spend getting everything together.