Supporting thriving cocoa communities in Ghana

Click here to see a short video about the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership work that I am supporting with VSO in the Eastern Region of Ghana. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ojRtrnAwA.

The angels in our life

Pictures that paint a thousand words of my first year in Ghana

Joseph and his family in Kumasi

.George, Kele Wele and who is that in the background?

Cath giving it a go ..as you do!

The Jay-Nii Weding of the Year

How cool do these bridemsmaids look?

A typical dish of fried Tilapia, Banku and Pepaye

Our first attempt at making Yam Balls ...delicious

My other twin, Jemima!

Home Sweet Home in Accra

Massa leading us toward Kokrobite Beach

Some of the beautiful children in Jamestown, Accra

I'm off to see the Wizard ...

Where else would you put a bowl of fish?

Oh what fun we had teaching this lot the Okey Cokey!

One of the better roads in the rural areas but still very red and very dusty

Village Chiefs overseeing distribution of bikes for schoolchildren

S

Spot the odd one out.. my friends from University of Cape Coast

Classic photo taken at Ko-Sa Beach resort, Cape Coast

Just chillin'

Cape Coast Castle

Pictures

Azonto Azonto!

Have you heard of Azonto; everyone in Ghana is Azonto crazy. You can  learn some moves from this video.  You have to wash your clothes, hang them on the line, and then do a funny little walk back to your house - this was how I was taught here in Ghana tee hee. Check out the You tube video on the side bar.

New Year ..... 1st Anniversary in Ghana

Holy Moley, is it really a year since I left snow bound Britain and joined the ranks and file of sweat, dirt, and putting 'O' on every other word ....sorry -O!  So much has happened for us all over this last year. I have been settling in to my new role as Volunteer Management Adviser with the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. I am enjoying this new role, I see so much potential to make a difference at a point in time when many economists and development experts are looking to Ghana as an example of success of the global action to alleviate extreme poverty. Ghana is on track to achieve most of its Millenium Development Targets by 2015 and with the recent extraction of oil and gas there is a real sense of urgency to put in place the infrastructure that will help sustain future development activities.  Roads are being built to create access to markets and enable job creation beyond Accra and its other main sities (Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale).  Whilst the government are still striving for universal primary education ,especially in the poorer northern half of the country, they have recently said they want to achieve universal secondary education too. But there are still real challenges for Ghana.  Over the last few weeks I have been visiting some of the Cocoa growing communities in the Eastern Region where the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership is investing some £10 million over 10 years to help sustain the cocoa supplies for the future and support thriving local communities.  Wells and boreholes are being provided to supply fresh drinking water, roads, schools, health clinics are being built to provide basic community amenities. A Canadian advertising company raised money to buy bikes for school children in the Cadbury-Kraft communities to help improve school attendance and subsequently performance.  The project has also supplied solar lamps which enable the children to do their homework in the evenings. It gets dark here shortly after 6pm so previously all they could study by was the kerosene lamp.  And these CCP communties are some of the lucky ones, there are many others that are not getting this investment ...yet.  Local people complain that they are seeing very little improvement in their quality of life despite the governments accelerated growth plans. There are power cuts almost every other day here in Accra and these last many hours; our water has been off for three days and it is getting to the hottest time of the year.  So there is very clearly much work still to be done.  But there is a growing pool of human talent pouring out of Ghana's universities and higher education institutions every year.  I hope to capture some of that talent as volunteers who are willing to share their knowledge and skills with some of the less advantaged communities who possess many talents too but sadly lack many of the opportunities to realise their ambitions. I feel so privileged to have this opportunity to work alongside people here; every day I really do count my blessings. So I am sweating it out here for another while but will be coming back to the UK to check up on everyone in April :-) P.S Anyone notice my new 'chocolate' coloured background???

Did you know...???

http://www.kuapakokoo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=80

I am sat in a stakeholder meeting with 40 cocoa farming community representatives from the District of Suhum in the Eastern Region of Ghana. In the meeting there are Chiefs, local Assembly Members, community members and District ASsembly Officers. The group represent 15 new communities who will work with Cadbury's Cocoa Partnership to help improve the livelihoods of Cocoa Farmers in this part of Ghana, who are amongst some of the poorest people here.

We have just listened to a presentation about the Partnership and I was astonished to hear that Cadbury's UK buy all of its cocoa from Ghana and that equates to 15% of all of Ghana's cocoa export.  The price that the farmers get for the raw product is disgracefully low compared to the final cost of the product in the shops. Much work is now being done to encourage Fair Trade, a fair price and a fair living for all partners in the process.  

Some of you will have heard of Divine chocolate.  The link above will take you to their site where you can find out how this Fair Trade organisation supports cocoa farmers here in Ghana.  You too can help make a difference to the lives of people at the bottom of  the cocoa supply chain by buying Fair Trade chocolate products such as Divine or Green and Blacks (I know many of you already do so).

Check out the website for  to learn more about some of the initiatives going on to make this world fairer and more just place for ALL not just the few.  You know.........

8 months in Ghana .....

October 2011.
http://thekexperience.okeiweb.com/past/ghana/cocoa-revealed-the-pod.html Ever wondered where your favourtie chocolate bar comes from? Click on this link to find out more

 For those of you tenacious enough to keep checking out my  blog I apologies for the large tracts of time in between posts.  I have been persuaded by my many friends here on the merits of using Facebook as a global means of sharing life experiences. To be fair to them it has been a bit of an eye opener for me. In the true spirit of 'sharing skills and changing lives' I  am able to now 'watch and be watched' by family and friends the globe over. Oh the pleasure and the pain, ha ha.

Some of you will know that I have transferred placement here in Accra. As of November 1st I am working as Volunteer Management Adviser with the Cadbury's Cocoa Partnership (CCP).  The partnership was established to improve the lives and livelihoods of cocoa farmers in Ghana. Trade in cholcolate earns the west billions of dollars/pounds every year however, Cocoa farmers remain amongs the poorest people here.  If you are interested to find out more about the lives of cocoa farmers in Ghana check out the NI articles from 1998 http://www.nhs.vic.edu.au/library/ni/issue304/contents.html

I will be working with the team and other international and national service providers to identify and establish corporate, international and local volunteering opportunities with cocoa farmers.  Previous research with farming communities in the cocoa producing areas has highlighted areas a range of support needs e.g. adult literacy, teaching, public health including sanitation and safe drinking water, environmental management, business development and women's empowerment.  I will be interested in any information that anyone has about volunteer management and/or development systems, training, etc. You can e-mail to iglynn2710@gmail.com.

I will try and keep you posted on my placement experiences. I get my first taste of cocoa farming life next week when I visit some communities in the Eastern Region.

October has been another good month for socialising (kakra kakra)  I met the Vice-President of Ghana at Osu Castle and went on to meet some MPs from the northern regions at Parliament as part of a fact finding tour by the VSO International CEO.  Last week (on our Birthday no less) Princess Anne paid a visit to Ghana. As patron of VSO she was very interested to hear the motivations of volunteers to do VSO and the variety of placements undertaken.  There are a couple of amusing photos on my facebook page.

I celebrated my birthday over 4 consecutive nights here and enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately as most activities occurred outdoors at nighttime the photos were rubbish but I will try and post a couple here just to brighten up this load of woffle!

I love my life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d93w_tuorrE&feature=player_embedded

It is now mid September and I have been here 7 months!!! Oh my, oh my.  I am really enjoying being here - it's the people that make me 'love my life' here. Check out this You tube video of the song which I hear playing everyday and will forever remind me of this experience. I hope you are loving your life too ..

A snip of the hi life in Ghana