Wednesday, 9th August 2017
was our first community entry after weeks of planning. The whole team was
buzzing with excitement. It was a cloudy morning, Latifa our trusted team leader
was praying it didn’t rain, “the people will not come if it rains; she tells
me”. According to Latifa, people don’t come out or do anything when it rains in
Ghana.
Despite it being cloudy, our team
spirits remained high; we jumped into the bright yellow van feeling like a bunch
of school kids going on a field trip. Madam
Safia Alhassan the ever supportive president of Pagsung came along
for the ride. So off we went, the driver started the engine as we headed for
Kukphehi, the first of the three communities we planned to visit.
As we left the
city like buzz of Sagnarigu, the green landscape reminded us that we weren’t in
the office anymore. It looked beautiful and peaceful; the air fresh from the
absence of petrol fumes reminded me how beautiful Ghana is.
We arrived at Kukpehi at about half
past nine. The atmosphere was serene; the melodious voices of birds and
greenery interspersed with locally styled houses presented an admirable sight.
The group of women were gathered under an umbrella styled tree eagerly awaiting
our arrival. It wasn’t only a gathering of women, many children were present,
some sitting on their mother’s laps whilst others played on the open space. They
(women) were pretty welcoming like most people in Ghana. They made us feel at
home within minutes of our arrival into the community. Amaraaba (welcome)
‘Ngonya’; we responded in unison. After all the greetings were out of the way,
Madam Safia introduced the team and we proceeded to identify from the women
what aspect of Shea butter processing they needed training on. Madam Safia made the process easy, as she
translated the information we provided to the women.
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Volunteers
interacting with PAGSUNG members in Kukpehi
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The women wanted to increase the
quality of the shea products through improved training on the processing of Shea,
something which the team had discussed with the project partner. Another thing
that our project partner wanted us to do was to create a database of the women
in each of the different communities we visited. So we proceeded to do just
that.
As our successful interaction with
the women of Kukpehi came to a close, we set forth to the next community, Sanga.
Similar events transpired in Sanga as in Kukpehi. In fact, all the women
dressed in similar apparel with hijabs over their heads. We had a great time with
the people of Sanga community. It was interactive with lots of questions and
answers from both sides. The team’s
arrival at Kpaliga was quite inopportune. The women were yet to gather as we
arrived earlier than agreed.
The visit was a success; we were able to
identify the community training needs, some of which were outside the scope of
the team’s project plan. All thanks to international service, to Team Pagsung and Pagsung (our project partner). The “Keepers” feel the plight of the
communities and will work to lay a solid foundation for International Service
to change lives and make positive impact in these communities.
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Energizer
time: Volunteers and Women spelling COCONUT
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Blog written by;
Abass Patricia & Itayi
Mushambodope
ICS Volunteers-Team PAGSUNG
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