August 31, 2005

Well my time in Ghana has come to an end (at least temporarily). I have learned a lot and hopefully helped out a bit. I will definitely never forget all the people I have met and the realities of their lives. I hope that I have been able to express some of the striking things that I have learned and that you have enjoyed following me along this journey.

The question that inevitably arises is what did I actually do and contribute while in Ghana? What impact did you make? This is a tough question to answer quickly without getting into all the background of the organizations, development approach, and people whom I worked with but I will give it a try. For a quick review of what I was doing up to in early June check out the post on June 19 titled “what i've been up to...”

I was working with the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) on the Northern Region Water and Sanitation Project (NORWASP) out of Tamale in Northern Ghana. I was working with Wardrop who is the Canadian Executing Agency and is in charge of running the project. The NORWASP project is funded by CIDA and is a rural water project aimed at villages of 2000 people or less. I worked on several different areas within NORWASP including:

a) Visits to all the 7 NORWASP districts to learn and evaluate activities of all key stakeholder (District Water & Sanitation Teams, Partner Organisations, latrine artisans, area mechanics, community members, Water and Sanitation Committee within communities, and District Assemblies);
b) Engineering analyses of hydro-fracture data to determine success rate and boreholes that should be completed or abandoned;
c) A small investigation on fluoride effects in communities where previous test results have shown levels above Ghana Standard Board’s guidelines;
d) Verification of hand pump functioning and proper installation in one district; and
e) Facilitated a workshop for DWSTs to improve capacity and share findings and ideas between districts.

The major contribution was our workshop with the District Water and Sanitation Teams. I worked with all 7 of the District Water and Sanitation Teams to develop their capacity to monitor and develop POs and report to CWSA. As I previously mentioned the DWSTs are the long-term partner at the district level that are responsible for water and sanitation issues any improvement in their skills/capacity could have multiplying beneficial effects in the future. Specifically, during the workshop we ran sessions to address:

1. Community Mobilizing;
2. Partner Organisation Monitoring;
3. Latrines construction;
4. Fluoride issues;
5. Team building;
6. Planning; and
7. Community Monitoring.

We also had some fun energizers and activities mixed in including the EWB Water for the World activity! The workshop was facilitated to encourage open discussion between DWST members on areas we identified critical to program implementation. Overall discussions were lively and participation was high. Strong points were made and debated between districts and new insights were shared specifically in the areas of contributions, latrine completion and project planning. The workshop largely was a success because it served as a form of motivation, allowed districts to compare themselves to each other, discuss common problems and possible solutions.

Going back to impact again, overall the biggest impact was the one on me. This has been a life altering experience and a definite shift of viewpoints. I have learned so much and hope to share as much as possible back home.

I hope that I was able to convey at least some of the realities, challenges and beautiful things that are actually happening in the small portion of the developing world I was living in. I also hope that I have been able to demonstrate and portray some of the lessons that I have learned or reaffirmed and would like to share explicitly two of the majour lessons that will stay with me forever.

One person can make a difference and one voice does matter. We live in a smaller and smaller world and the interconnectedness between nations and people are growing stronger all the time. I believe that everyone has a role to play in poverty and that we are all responsible for the realities that are occurring in our world. Some of these realities are positives like our governments canceling the debt of highly indebted countries. Some of these realities are not so good, like the 15,000 people that die each day as a result of preventable diseases (AIDS, malaria, TB, etc), Canada (and the Canadian people) not holding true to our promise (made over 30 years ago and echoed again this summer) to increase foreign aid to 0.7% of our GDP, the “West” forcing countries to play in an unfair “free trade” market, or turning a blind eye to atrocities occurring in other parts of the globe. I believe that we are responsible for the good and bad both collectively and individually. When I heard about Canada and then the G8 relieving the debt of Ghana as well as other highly indebted countries I immediately thought of everyone back home and all their hard work campaigning and making people aware and then care about the issues. We should be celebrating the good things that are happening and feel that we played a part in them (anyone who signed the MPH campaign or talked to someone about the issues or got informed yourself should feel a victory in that Canada agreed to relieve the debt at the G8 summit). We should also feel responsible for the “not-so-good” and find ways to challenge these realities in our own ways and daily lives. Your voice and your energy can make a difference in small and large ways especially when we use our voices together. “Beila beila wabgu” Dagbani for “small small makes an elephant” or in my interpretation small contributions can build to big things. Let us all make great things together. Let us be the generation that makes poverty history.

Development is about actual people (or at least it should be). A lot of times a bunch of numbers are thrown up about what we need to do and how we need to “develop” the world. You have the development metrics used to measure progress, amount of development dollars donated by various countries and actual facts/numbers of people on the ground (ex. HDI, GDI, MDGs, etc.). These numbers and facts are good and they serve a purpose and are at least some means of measurement. But at least, I will never forget that there are actual faces behind these numbers. We should never lose focus of the actual people we are trying to work with and ask the tough questions in order to make sure our efforts are as effective as possible. I say “work with” because this is what I found in my experiences. People don’t want handouts but may need a bit of a hand up and people to work with them in order to get them out of the poverty trap. No one can tell me that a woman in Northern Ghana that works 16+ hours a day is waiting for a handout and not willing to work.

If you haven’t done so already please visit http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/ and sign the online petition. We have a great privilege in the west and to not use it for good is a crime. Everyone has a part to play and every contribution can add up to a great sum. We only need the will to act. I can only hope that we all have this will and the courage to follow it.

I imagine that this will be my final post on this blog so I need to send some recognition to the people who made this possible.

First of all to my wife Erin, I am eternally grateful and appreciative of all your love and support (all the time) and especially during this experience in our lives. Without your encouragement and trust none of this would have been possible. Although we may have been several thousand kilometers away I always felt you with me and it helped me get through some of the more difficult challenges.

I want to thank EWB Western Chapter for your dedication and trust in me and I look forward to working with all of you again. I can’t say enough about everyone at EWB head office what you guys do everyday is really amazing and inspirational thanks so much for everything. I also want to thank Krista Palen who was my EWB partner on this project. You were always easy to get along with and great to work with. You helped make the experience that more valuable.

I also want to thank everyone for all your hard work and generosity in fundraising. I especially want to thank our sponsors for being so generous in their donations, particularly our leading sponsors Western’s Faculty of Engineering and J-AAR excavating. Please visit our EWB Western sponsorship page at www.uwo.ewb.ca/sponsors.htm to view a complete list of all our donors.

Finally I want to thank everyone who actually read my blog, especially those of you who made posts. Once again I apologize for not being able to really respond to your replies very well but I read everyone of them (usually more than once) and they really helped to make a connection back home and to encourage me while overseas. It was something that I looked forward to everytime I checked my email.

To Rene and Trish my host family in Tamale who made the experience that much better and who I hope will visit Canada soon. And to everyone I met while in Ghana at CWSA, in Tamale, in the Northern Region, the market and everywhere else. Before I left for Ghana, I heard about Ghanaian hospitality and friendliness and for once was not disappointed. The helpfulness, friendliness and caring was really overwhelming and hopefully will spread to the rest of the world.

Take care and God bless,

Jason

“I will not forget … I will take action!”