Create Change - what's it all about?

So I guess I should write a little about the project that I’m working on here in Ghana…'Create Change’. ‘Create Change’ is a small NGO which was founded in Canada/Ghana in '07 (there are 3 of us here in Ghana at the moment..Shannen (boss), Kay (videographer and me (role as of yet undefined ;)) which aims to improve the quality of life of people in Northern Ghana by providing better access to basic needs of water and education. I guess the idea is that if you provide people with the most basic of their needs they are better equipped to escape the poverty cycle in which they find themselves. The novel idea behind the charity is that we will create a number of short video documentaries of each project which we carry out which will then be posted on our website and will be used to appeal for donations from the public. The videos will be broken down into ‘proposal’ -where we describe the idea behind the project we wish to carry out and appeal for donations to help create this change, ‘implementation’ – where we show the money raised being spent in order to implement the project idea and the change that has been created and finally ‘impact’ –where we show how the project has changed the life of the people concerned. In essence people that donate can actually see firsthand the change which they by virtue of their donation have helped create.

Interview setup

The primary focus of our efforts here over the last few months has been on our ‘Ghana Girls Education’ initiative , a project which is enabling almost 130 female students to attend secondary school by virtue of paying their school fees, providing necessary school supplies such as text books, uniforms, bicycles, mattresses and feeding supplies (for the boarders), calculators etc. Northern Ghana is considerable poorer than the south of the country and girls are often overlooked when it comes to education with preference going to the male children in the family.

This mans son had malaria when we visited his village

This gender imbalance results in many problems including the issue of ‘kayeyo’ where girls from the north that can’t get an education travel to the major cities of Kumasi and Accra in the south to work as porters of heavy goods. They often have to live on the street and become victims of various types of abuse. By helping to keep these girls in school here in Tamale we are not only helping the girls become a more productive member of their communities but are providing an alternative to destructive options like kayeyo.

Interview in the 'field'

A typical ‘distribution day’ begins at about 7am and over breakfast we set out the plan for the day ahead. After biking to our storage location (the back of an internet café of friends of Shannens) we load up the bikes and the pickup with supplies –books, bikes, mattresses, food supplies, calculators, school bags etc. and head to either a community or a school. If we’re going to a community we always bring a translator as none of us have command of the Dagbani language beyond the basics. There is usually great excitement when we arrive in the villages and after introducing ourselves we are normally taken to greet the village chief. The chief is pretty much always wearing a funny hat and chilling out under a tree. It’s not cool to look him straight in the eyes when talking to him so we generally squat for a few moments and look at the ground by his feet and mutter “Dasaiba, Naa, Naa,” which roughly translates as “Good morning, cool beans, cool beans”. We then head back to the village clearing and give out the supplies to the girls who have assembled. Shannen measures them for uniforms and Kay films the entire deal.

Me n Fatuw (one of the boys we helped attend SS) and my Haojiin

I spend lots of time sorting bundles of books and lifting bicycles off the pickup. The look on the girls faces when you hand them what are probably their first ever textbooks or a bicycle which means they won’t have to walk 2 hours to and from school every day is really special and is where the reward is in this for me. Most of the adults we meet in the rural villages are very poor subsistence farmers. They have big families (polygamy is widely practiced here) and generally have not received any formal education. Despite this they are very insistent on the importance of education and are grateful that their kids are being afforded an opportunity that was not an option for them.

Woman delivering water

Over the next few months we will be gathering enough footage to make over 20 short films which will be focused on the topics of 'water', 'education' and 'health' here in the north of Ghana. Ill write a bit more about each of these in due course!