Experiencing Ghana

October 14th, 2012

I’ve officially been in Ghana for one month.

I spent the last week traveling the Central Region and the Western Region of Ghana by pickup truck, visiting senior high schools and credit unions. Travelling the back roads of Ghana by pick-up is nothing like traveling back roads in Nova Scotia. The back roads in Ghana are more like the test track that they show 4x4 trucks running on advertisements for Ford. It’s something of a “Man vs. Nature” endurance test.

Ernest and I arrived in Takoradi (Western Region) with our driver Sammy after our vigorous drive through the breathtakingly beautiful countryside. We spent the night in a nice little motel outside of the town core.

The next morning we travelled into town to talk to the management at the local credit union about joining us for a Youth Savings Club recruitment session at one of the local high schools. Standing in front of thousands of students, in a speakers’ panel consisting of the credit union manager and the head mistress of the school was more than a little intimidating. I told the students about my own personal savings and how I worked through high school in order to pay for my university tuition. During university, I also worked in order to supplement the tuition as much as possible. I left the auditorium with a sense of pride that I could possibly impact a handful of students to think about the possibility of saving for post-secondary education or for possibly starting their own business.

During the afternoon, Ernest and I travelled from Takoradi to the neighboring town of Adiembra. In Adiembra, Ernest and I ran an intensive entrepreneurship training session. The session involved teaching the kids about the principles of marketing, explaining the differences between the business structures that companies use (Sole-Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation and Co-operative), and a few other things that I hope will inspire them to start thinking about owning their own business after they’ve finished school. After the session was over, the students demanded that there be a photo session. All the students gathered around and encouraged me to stand in the center of the group for the photo. After the group shot was taken about fifteen of the students lined up to each take an individual picture with me. During this process I was proposed to by approximately three teenage girls. The girls would come up to me, pose for a picture and then say, “White man, I will marry you,” and then laugh and walk away joking with their friends.

After a solid week of traveling from town to town (Bompeh, Komenda, Etc.) over roads that were designed for adventurous off-roaders, we finally arrived back in Accra. After four days of going to schools, telling the kids about the value of owning their own business and the pride you can find in entrepreneurship, I arrived back at my apartment.

-Joel

Landing in Ghana

September 20th, 2012

"For the last ten days I have been acclimatizing myself to Ghanaian weather, Ghanaian culture and Ghanaian food. The last week has been pretty crazy with starting a new job in a new city, in a new country, on a new continent.

There were four of us travelling together out of Ottawa, through Toronto and Amsterdam to Ghana. We arrived at the Accra airport at about 8pm and waited in line at the security gate for about an hour. After picking up our luggage and jumping through all the hoops, we went to the exit and were greeted by representatives of the two organizations that we’re working with, CUA and SEND. The two interns that are going to be working in the northern part of Ghana left us to stay in a hotel for the week. My colleague and I were picked up by two employees of CUA (Ernest and Clara) and a driver (George).

They took us to our apartment and talked to the landlord for a bit on our behalf making sure we had the proper accommodations. The rooms are modest, but they have air conditioning and an electrical outlet and somewhere to rest my head.

Joel's Apartment in Accra, Ghana

The next day we were picked up by one of the drivers from the Credit Union Association of Ghana. Ernest, the project officer for Youth Savings who I will be working with, gave us a tour of the office and we had the chance to meet everybody. For lunch, Ernest took us to a local restaurant where I had chicken and rice which was fairly similar to food back home. During the afternoon Ernest took us out to get cell phones.

On Tuesday I met with Ernest for a while and talked about what the Youth Savings Program is and what we’re going to be doing. The Youth Savings Program at CUA is a very interesting program that has been running for over a decade now. The program helps and promotes existing and new Youth Savings Clubs that operate in schools and credit unions all over Ghana. Youth Savings Clubs are groups of young people who band together to pool their modest resources and develop savings which they put towards their post-secondary education, starting their own business or opening an account with a credit union. The youth savings program is teaching the next generation leadership skills, financial literacy skills and self-management skills.

Credit unions’ membership in Ghana is aging and young people don’t currently know about credit unions. So the Youth Savings program is a way to both teach them about proper savings as well as introducing them to the credit union. We’re going to be travelling to schools, churches and credit unions all over Ghana working with youth and credit unions.

View from Joel's Office, Accra

On Thursday my colleague and I had the privilege of meeting with all of the department heads and managers to discuss their part of the organization. At CUA, there are many different moving parts that benefit the Ghanaian credit unions and the Ghanaian people in many different ways.

Ernest, the project officer for Youth Savings, and I are currently working on a one-day workshop for high school students who are interested in entrepreneurship. We will be speaking with a group of ambitious young Ghanaians who have an interest in business. We will be teaching them about how to start a business, financial responsibility, and how to draft a business plan.

I’m very anxious to start working in the field and travelling the country. The adventure has just begun."

-Joel