Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre has offically closed for 2 months and therefore Dorota and my work in Ghana has come to an end. We had a closing presentation on Friday with the materials purchased through the Student Support Fund we established. 4 of the shoemaking students each received a hi-speed finishing machine and accompanying stand, punching and lasting pliers, scissors and knife, folding and ball hammer, pincers and nail remover, stamp and full set of sole numbers. These items will be sufficient for them to not only carry out repairs during recess but also to produce sandals and slippers. They will just need to get the leather stitched and then they can begin selling their goods and start practising their business skills.
In addition to the shoemakers, one dressmaking graduate received an iron and Butterfly sewing machine. A tailoring student who has a disability with one hand received an electric pedal sewing machine and iron. 3 dressmaking students received frames, thread, needles and other basic materials to learn needlework, while 2 of the haridressing students received financial support to star their own business when they return home.
All in all the staff and volunteers worked together well to ensure the students were aware the materials were granted to them as a result of their hard work at school.
We hope the next volunteers will be able to continue the programme.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Bags not packed, not ready to go
I hope John Denver isn't angry that I changed the lyrics of his classic song, but it pretty much sums up what stage I'm at here. 3 days of school left, well, actually there are only 2 full days remaining as we'll be having a party on Friday. It will be a nice send off for the students and ourselves, with rice, chicken, beverages and biscuits playing their role in boosting the students energy to dance to the surprise DJ visit after dinner.
In between these events we will be having the presentation of resources purchased from our Student Support Fund. 10 students are to benefit, receiving sets of tools and entrepeneurial support to aid them become more independent during vacation and beyond.
Today I received my long-awaited visa. So now I can head to Accra next Monday and get La Visa Touristique Entente (please forgive the accent omission Francophiles). I found out last week that the Togolese Embassy can process the application within a few hours for 30,000 CFA (about 45 Euro) though it remains to be seen whether 'officials' Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast recognise it on their respective borders.
Out of the 5 volunteers at Edwenase who started in October, 2008 there are only 2 left, Dorota and myself. There are also 2 Dutch volunteers at the centre who came in the 2nd semester. Time has flown, lots has been achieved, and hopefully the next stock of volunteers will continue and emulate the work we have started.
Thanks to all of you have supported us over the past 8 months.
Ye de mo'asee.
In between these events we will be having the presentation of resources purchased from our Student Support Fund. 10 students are to benefit, receiving sets of tools and entrepeneurial support to aid them become more independent during vacation and beyond.
Today I received my long-awaited visa. So now I can head to Accra next Monday and get La Visa Touristique Entente (please forgive the accent omission Francophiles). I found out last week that the Togolese Embassy can process the application within a few hours for 30,000 CFA (about 45 Euro) though it remains to be seen whether 'officials' Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast recognise it on their respective borders.
Out of the 5 volunteers at Edwenase who started in October, 2008 there are only 2 left, Dorota and myself. There are also 2 Dutch volunteers at the centre who came in the 2nd semester. Time has flown, lots has been achieved, and hopefully the next stock of volunteers will continue and emulate the work we have started.
Thanks to all of you have supported us over the past 8 months.
Ye de mo'asee.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Students who inspire
Since I started working in Ghana, the greatest obstruction I have come across as a teacher of Literacy and Numeracy to trainees with 'disabilities' at Edwenase has been their inability to assimilate new material. Teaching people who have had little or no formal education, and what little formal education they have had has been in overcrowded classrooms with few learning facilities, has been the greatest impediment for my students progress. Despite the fact that many of the students have intellectual learning disabilities, the fact that the Education system and society at large has all but given up on them has been a far greater obstacle for the development in Literacy and Numeracy.
Many of them have the capacity to learn a lot, and they have, I am happy to say, learned well the material they have been exposed to. When someone has not been able to write their name or numbers properly in October and they can make a great effort by June, I'd call that something they should be very proud of.
Their enthusiasm would put many of us to shame. As someone who was got in their fair share of trouble at primary and secondary school, sometimes having to be dragged out of bed to face Irish language lesson on Tuesday morning, at Edwenase Rehabilitation Cente, motivation to learn is not an issue. In fact, I almost have to drag them away from the table so they can continue their vocational skills training.
Whether I'm going to or coming back from the toilet; heading for a bite to eat or returning from lunch; at 6am or 6pm, I have countless encounters with students whose first gesture is to show me they want to write, look at a book or use some of the other educational resources we have built up since starting last Autumn. They want to bring their copybooks and take up where we left off. If you show them for a split second that you are not up to your eyeballs in muck and dirt from farming, or ink from writing reports, or chalk from conducting lessons, they will try to nab you and await a nod of the head - the all pleasing reply from a teacher signalling, "Yes, I can check your homework now, even though I only gave it to you 3 hours ago and its 3 days early".
But there remain many obstacles to some students ability to progress, to becoming a good tailor, dressmaker, shoemaker, trader. Ghana wiped four 0's of it's currency, the cedi, 2 years ago. Almost every body still says 2000 ( old cedi) for three oranges rather than 20 (pesewas), one hundred of which make a new 1 Ghana cedi. So teaching students to convert from old to new, and add/subtract mentally and in written form in both has been a difficult task. The fact that few of them have their own money to spend or opportunities to leave the school and buy something hinders their chance to assimilate the knowledge they are attaining in class.
However, all in all, the students I have had over the past 8 months have been really inspiring. Maybe I'll pick up my Polish books again and apply myself with similar discipline. Maybe I won't always have to be medicore on the guitar. Witnessing others make great steps despite all the odds is a great way for one to kick their own education into action.
Many of them have the capacity to learn a lot, and they have, I am happy to say, learned well the material they have been exposed to. When someone has not been able to write their name or numbers properly in October and they can make a great effort by June, I'd call that something they should be very proud of.
Their enthusiasm would put many of us to shame. As someone who was got in their fair share of trouble at primary and secondary school, sometimes having to be dragged out of bed to face Irish language lesson on Tuesday morning, at Edwenase Rehabilitation Cente, motivation to learn is not an issue. In fact, I almost have to drag them away from the table so they can continue their vocational skills training.
Whether I'm going to or coming back from the toilet; heading for a bite to eat or returning from lunch; at 6am or 6pm, I have countless encounters with students whose first gesture is to show me they want to write, look at a book or use some of the other educational resources we have built up since starting last Autumn. They want to bring their copybooks and take up where we left off. If you show them for a split second that you are not up to your eyeballs in muck and dirt from farming, or ink from writing reports, or chalk from conducting lessons, they will try to nab you and await a nod of the head - the all pleasing reply from a teacher signalling, "Yes, I can check your homework now, even though I only gave it to you 3 hours ago and its 3 days early".
But there remain many obstacles to some students ability to progress, to becoming a good tailor, dressmaker, shoemaker, trader. Ghana wiped four 0's of it's currency, the cedi, 2 years ago. Almost every body still says 2000 ( old cedi) for three oranges rather than 20 (pesewas), one hundred of which make a new 1 Ghana cedi. So teaching students to convert from old to new, and add/subtract mentally and in written form in both has been a difficult task. The fact that few of them have their own money to spend or opportunities to leave the school and buy something hinders their chance to assimilate the knowledge they are attaining in class.
However, all in all, the students I have had over the past 8 months have been really inspiring. Maybe I'll pick up my Polish books again and apply myself with similar discipline. Maybe I won't always have to be medicore on the guitar. Witnessing others make great steps despite all the odds is a great way for one to kick their own education into action.
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