Kurze Anmerkung: Ein zweiter Bericht auf Deutsch wird in den nächsten Tagen hochgeleden. Außerdem werde ich den deutschen Bericht mit Fotos aus der Schule per Mail an alle Mitglieder des Förderkreises schicken. Es ist mir (wie schon das ganze letzte Jahr über) nicht erlaubt Fotos der Schüler ins öffentliche Netz hoch zuladen.
Final Report
About my Voluntary
Service
at
Garden City Special
School for the Intellectually Disabled
in Kumasi, Ghana
under the
welt-wärts Programm,
Behinderung und
Entwicklungszusammenarbeit e.V. (Bezev e.v.)
and the
Education of the Mentally
Challenged (EMC) – Ghana Project
August 2012 – August
2013
written by
Isabel Unger
Table
of Content
1. Preface
2. Arrival and first days
in Ghana
3. Garden City Special
School
3.1. Description of the
school
3.2. My work
3.3. The EMC-Project –
GCSS 2012/13
3.4. Integration to staff
and system
3.5. Reflection of my
work
4. Host family
5. Working together with
another Volunteer
6. Organisation
6.1. Seminars
6.2. Coordination in
Ghana
7. Leisure time
8.
General reflection
1.
Preface
I
have decided to take a gap year after my graduation in June in order
to do voluntary work in an African country in the social sector where
I hope to get the opportunity of working in a useful project. Looking
for a suitable place I came across the EMC – Ghana Project and was
at once fascinated and interested. To me it seemed to be a great,
very meaningful and necessary project to which I would love to
contribute. I consider it to be very important to include handicapped
children and adolescents as well as to arouse tolerance for disabled
fellow people in society.
I
chose Africa as the continent where I want to spend a year because I
have always been fascinated by the different African cultures. Since
I was a child and watched documentaries with my grandfather I have
been interested in Africa. All the different people, tribes and
religions were fascinating to me, but I did not want to get to know
them as a tourist, I would rather like to get the opportunity to
integrate into the culture. I already had experiences with different
cultures, for example I have been to China for a month where I lived
and worked in a host family in a small village.
Additionally
to my experience in a different culture I was able to gain a lot of
experience in several places concerning the work with disabled
children, which was an advantage for my work in Ghana.
In
2008 I did work experience at a school for intellectually disabled
children. During two weeks at this school I learned how satisfying it
is to support the children to make progress (even if it is just a
little success in their learning process) or to give the children the
attention they deserve. Moreover, during these two weeks I learned a
lot about myself.
This
work was so important and interesting for me that I went on visiting
the children and in 2011 I wrote my term paper about autism in early
childhood, methods for therapy and the scientific findings of the
American psychiatrist and educationalist Kanner.
Since
I did this practical training I have
been absolutely sure about what I want to study and reach in my life.
I want to be a teacher for intellectually disabled children.
2011
I started to work for an organisation that supports families with
disabled children and grown- up handicapped people in their every day
life. There I was in charge of group activities and the
individual care for a nine- year-old mentally challenged girl.
Working
with disabled people is always interesting because you have to deal
with every child individually.
Next
to becoming a part of the school society I wanted to be integrated in
the Ghanaian culture and every day life during the year. I wanted to
get to know more about the different peoples, tribes and religions
and to learn the local language. But my major concern was that I will
be able to contribute to the work of the team. I wanted to give the
children the affection and respect they deserve and I wanted to
support them on their ways to inclusion into society.
I
can say reached all these aim.
2.
Arrival and first days in Ghana
At
the meeting in January in Kumasi there was a question: „What do you
remember of the first minutes in Ghana and how did you feel?“. I
could not answer this question. We arrived at the airport in Accra
in the evening. We got picked up by Diana, the niece of our
coordinator. We that means Tina, Magda and Merle the EMC Volunteers
2012/13. Diana brought us to the guest house and we went to sleep. I
know all that but I could not describe anything in detail, I even had
no idea how the airport looked like or what we had to do at the
passport control.
What
I remember is that I went outside the guest house directly when I
woke up the next day. I looked up and down the street and thought
„Ok, I will live in Ghana the next 12 month!“.
The
next two days we went to meet our coordinator Mrs. Kwadade, she
prepared a wonderful Ghanaian meal for us, and we visited some places
in Accra with Diana.
On
the third day we got introduced to the head of the special education
office and after that Tina and me had to say goodbye to Magda and
Merle, because we took the buses to the destinations where we would
live for the next 12 month.
Tina
and me we were both working at the Garden City Special School in
Kumasi. After a six hour journey we reached Kumasi and Mr. Otu the
second headmaster picked us up and brought us to the school where we
should meet our host families.
Alberta
came with all my siblings to pick me up. In the house Mabena and
Charles expected me very friendly! I directly felt welcomed! They
showed my room to me and I had dinner. After that I spreaded my
presents for their hospitality and we sat together and talked a
little. During this conversation Charles asked my how long I will
stay. I said that I will stay for one year. They said „ You mean
one month.“ I said „No I mean one year“ And Charles asked: „
One year in this house?“ „Yes.“ and suddenly it was all quiet.
Luckily Alberta jumped up and everyone followed her. They were
shaking my hands and danced around the table. I was really releaved!
Somehow there must have been a misunderstanding.
The
next day I followed and helped Alberta all day long. We went to the
market in Kumasi, the biggest permanent market in Westafrica. After
some hours she said I am too slow and she brought me to a nice
shoemaker where I should wait with all our belongings. That was
pretty fun because this man was very nice. Since this day I visited
him every time I went to the market.
The
following day I spend the afternoon with Tina and her host brother,
who showed us the town. It was Tina´s birthday.
The
next days we went to school where Mr. Gyan gave us three lessons of
the local language Twi.
I
had some exciting first days in Ghana. At first I was just looking at
everything thinking „Ah ok ah“ untill after several days the
famous culture shock came over me. But I think this is pretty normal.
3.
Garden City Special School
3.1. Description of
the school
The
Graden City Special School is one of the oldest schools in Ghana
where people with an intellectual impairment are getting an
education. It was founded in 1977. Today it is a boarding school with
beds for 120 students from all over the Ashanti Region. Additionally
there are day students. The total number of students in the beginning
of 2013 was 186.
The
school is separated into two areas:
The
primary section, where the students get basic education in language,
maths and daily living skills.
The
other part is the vocational section where the students learn a
profession in the wood work class, leather work class, weaving class,
tie and die class and life skills class.
The
school consists of several classrooms, dormitories, a kitchen, a
dinning hall, a room for the nurse, a gym, a meeting room and it has
its own standpipe with a manual pump.
3.2. My work
In
class:
All
12 month I spend in group 4 as a second class assistant. The class
teacher was called Mr. Gyan and the other assistant was Madam Gifty.
We were a good team. My duties in class were to assist the students
with exercises and also to teach with translation in Twi of Gifty. We
both had to follow the guide lines Mr. Gyan wrote down in his teacher
book where he planned the lessons. When we finished one planned
lesson I was allowed to get creative and think about a way to fix the
topic. During the break time I invented exercises or games for that
purpose. I asked Mr. Gyan for allowance and I could continue the
lesson with the invented game or exercise.
After
two month I established an art / general knowledge lesson per week.
There I combined a common art lesson, where our students trained
their fine motor skills, originality and creativity, with a topic
concerning the everyday life. My students had to colour a big map of
he world all together, so they learned that there are different
countries in the world in spite of Ghana and they learned social
behaviour in working in a team. In another lesson they got to know
different animals, that just live in specific areas of the world. We
talked about the sea, made little ships out of water sachets and put
them on water. The students learned how to cross water, that ships
can swim and they could experience different material that can or can
not swim. We talked about animals living in the sea and about shells.
Everyone coloured his own shell necklace. We made Ghana flags and
talked about the elections in December. We tinkered Christmas and
valentines day cards to make friends and the family happy and we
learned about some events and how to celebrate them in my home
country. For example we made colourful carnival masks and had a
little party. Sometimes we talked about how to prepare meals, my
students collected the right ingredients coloured them without
stencil, cut and glue them on a sheet with a drawn silver. These are
just some examples from the art / general knowledge lessons.
In
group 4 I made two little projects. In art / general knowledge we
talked about how to plant a flower or vegetable. Every students
designed his own pot with tinkered items that show how a plant grows
and after that everyone could plant some seeds into the soil. During
the next weeks the students could see how their flowers grow and they
had to take care of them, check if the soil is wet, water them and
put them into the sun every morning after the assembly.
The
second project was to built up a pen pal friendship to a class of the
Januzs-Korczak Schule for intellectually disabled students in Bochum.
We send the first letter to introduce the class and Ghana and we made
a colourful elephant festoon for their classroom in Germany.
Unfortunately I could not be there when the first letter from the
students in Germany reached group 4 because I was already back in
Germany.
Special
attention:
Next
to my work in class I had some special attention or therapy lessons
on Wednesdays and Fridays. Wednesday is sports day at the Garden City
Special School. In the first block all the teachers were doing sport
activities with the students out side. After that the students went
to the dining hall to listen to music or watch movies. These last two
blocks Tina and me used to do the special attention or therapy
lessons. Every Friday during the fist block there is a worship in the
dining hall where everyone is singing, dancing, drumming and praying.
On Fridays Tina and me could also use the last two blocks.
In
these blocks several students could come with me to the gym where we
did massages, exercises and games together.
Mr.
Otu taught me how to to special massages in physio therapy. So I went
to gym regularly with 4 students to do physio therapy with them.
Gifty
has a spasticity and her hands are most of the time formed to an
inflexible crampy fist. In the beginning I went to the gym with Gifty
every day, in the end her hands got that flexible that we reduced her
therapy to two times a week. This is caused by the fact, that I gave
Gifty a book before the Christmas vacation. In this book the massage
is explained in details and shown with pictures, so that her sister,
where Gifty lives, could massage her over the vacation. Her sister
did it every day so that Gifty´s hands were still very soft when the
school started again. She never stopped massaging her at home so that
we could see a great improvement in the second and third term, so
that it was not necessary to take Gifty to the gym daily any more
because her sister was massaging her anyway.
Every
therapy lesson started with a massage of her hands. After that she
got several exercises to train the muscular and the precision of her
hands. I made games and exercises for her where she has to grab,
pull, push with a finger, press, lift up, switch in hands, pil or
sort things. During the year we could see great efforts in the
flexibility of Gifty´s hands for example with the exercise „animal
box“ where Gifty has to grab little plastic animals, lift them and
put them into a box. In the beginning she could just lift the big
animals and to do so she needed a lot of support. I had to help her
to open her fist and I had to fix the animals while she tried to grab
them. After awhile she was able to open her palm on her own, I just
had to fix the animals at their tails. Some month later she could
grab the animals all alone. We increased the level and took smaller
animals. After some weeks Gifty was able to grab them as good as the
bigger ones. From then on we just worked on the time factor. This is
just one out of several exercises where Gifty improved her skills.
After massaging her hands and doing the exercises Gifty had to draw.
This was another good exercise to train her fine motor skills but it
was also a reward because she really likes drawing.
With
Ivette I also did physio therapy in the gym as Mr. Out taught me. She
has difficulties to walk so I massaged her legs weekly and after that
she had to walk in the gym. Sometimes I took her out for a walk
during the break or on Wednesdays during PE.
Since
January I went to the gym with Ataa weekly to do physio therapy with
her. She has a problem with her right hand and she can not lift her
right arm well. I massaged her hand and we did several grab- and
ball-exercises. Furthermore Ataa has a problem to write the letters
in the right direction. I used a method I learned at a special school
in Germany to train with her to write the right way.
Since
March I went to the Gym with Emmanuel. He has the same problem like
Ataa. Also with him I did a massage followed by grab- and
ball-exercises.
Tina
who is a professional speech therapist taught me a lot about speech
therapy. So after her diagnosis I was allowed to do the speech
therapy as she told me with Yaw.
We
went to the gym three times a week to do a speech therapy. We were
training his oral motor skills and single sounds. I also prepared the
alphabet with the help of picture cards with him over and over again,
because he was not very confident with it. Unfortunately we could
just do the therapy in the first and second term because during the
whole third term Yaw was absent because of sickness.
Nana
Ntiamoah really likes writing. I wanted to help him to be able to
write all alone one day, so I prepared a copy book for him with the
aim that one day he is able to know which letter is connected to
which sound. It is also a training to write in lines where Mr. Gyan
put a focus on.
I
also prepared some copy cards for him because he finishes his
exercises in class fast. Then he likes to go out or disturb because
he is bored. To keep him busy he got his copy cards and a slaid to
write on. By this he also trains writing freely.
Furthermore
I went to the gym with Nana weekly. There we were doing puzzles,
copying, a memory game (I prepared for him with his favourite words)
or playing ball or balloon to train his concentration and endurance.
Isaac
really liked to learn how to write his name and he liked picture
cards so I went to the gym weekly with Isaac to teach him how to
write his name. I also taught him basic English vocabularies from the
topics: eating, hygiene and shopping with the help of picture cards
and a prepared memory games.
For
these students I prepared books in which I explained massages,
exercises, improvements and suggestions how to continue. These books
are for their class teachers and also for the next volunteers.
Projects:
Before
Christmas Tina and me were tinkering Christmas stars with some
students in the afternoon. In the end of the term every student got
his/her star and the others who could not attend the afternoon
program got one from us. Additionally they got candy as a Christmas
present.
We
also created Christmas cards with the students.
To
include everyone (every student and teacher) we did a music
instrument project. Therefore we went through all the classes to make
music instruments out of rubbish. These instruments we used in the
last worship of the term to play all together.
Sarah
Koch gave a donation of pencils, brushes and watercolours to Tina and
me to take care of. We prepared an art box and every teacher or class
assistance can come to get some material. They just have to sign in a
list, take it for their lesson and bring it back. Additionally I
prepared a folder full of ideas and about my art / general knowledge
lessons what to do with the material. I also explained it step by
step on an added paper sheet. The teachers can also borough these
ideas and stencils and they are invited to add more.
Weekly
afternoon program:
In
the end of the second term we stared to create greeting cards with
the students which developed to an afternoon program in the third
term. These greeting cards are also sold in the shop.
According
to the EMC-Project we also had a weekly bead workshop in the
afternoon where we took two to three students to make necklaces.
3.3. EMC-Project – GCSS 2012/13
With
the money of the EMC-Fund we built a school store. The store is
placed in the vocational tract. It is divided into two parts.
Part
1- the selling shop:
The
students sell articles that they produce in the vocational
department: shoes, tie and die fabrics, table cloths, door mats,
bracelets, necklaces, earrings, purses, pharmacy envelopes, woodwork
and greeting cards. The purse-, greeting card- and jewellery
production are new areas we built up where the students can improve
their skills.
The
articles can be sold after the PTA-meetings, at special occasions
like Christmas parties or if interested visitors are coming. They
will also be sold in Germany by Tina and me to raise more money for
the vocational department.
The
money that we earn should be used to buy new material for the
vocational classes, so that a circuit establishes.
In
selling their own products the students will learn how to sell and on
the other hand they learn that they are able to do great work that
the people buy so they will be proud of themselves.
Part
2- practising shop:
The
students get the possibility to practice how to sell and buy things
with old grocery packages. In this part they can not just learn
buying and selling, it is a chance for their language development,
social skills and also mathematic skills.
Workshop:
To
include every teacher and class assistant Tina and I did a workshop
that informed about the practising and selling shop and taught how to
make all the new products.
Status
when we left Ghana:
The
shop is finished. All classes are introduced to the process of the
practising shop and Madam Mary and Mr. Otu are informed about the
following procedure of the selling shop.
The
vocational heads are included and they are producing. Everyone got
informed of this at the workshop.
The
prices are fixed and a selection what to sell in Ghana and what to
sell in Germany was made. We bought new beads and
zippers so that the vocational teachers do not need to wait in the
next term until some money comes in to buy material. They can
directly start.
After
three month in Germany:
The
first term 2013/14 at the GCSS has begun and the vocational classes
are working and learning with the material we left. Tina and me had
our first opportunities to sell products from the project and inform
about it. During the next month we will try to buildt up a contact to
a one world store and we will find more opportunities to sell and
inform about the project i.e. at school festivals, bazars and church
festivals.
3.4.
Integration to staff and system
The
first month at school was a little challenging. It is always
challenging to come to a close group who has its experiences with and
also prejudices of Volunteers. The staff members tried to challenge
us a little in asking for money, speaking just Twi to us even though
they can speak English and always calling us „white person“ and
not by our names. But after this first month we got accepted very
well. They knew our names, we talked, made jokes together and we
found very good friends at the school compound! We were invited to
many staff activities like the „Best Teacher Award“, to weddings
and funerals.
The
organisation and system of the school was a little different from
Germany but we just followed these rules and got used to it quickly.
3.5.
Reflection of my work
Looking
back to the work of a whole year at the GCSS I can say that I am
proud. I think my work in Kumasi was worthwhile. I brought many
little projects and ideas into the school society and with the
EMC-project Tina and me helped the school to create a sustainable
circuit that might save the continuously vocational training for the
older students. But my main aim was to give the student a supportive
and loving hand, to treat them with respect and to give them the
attention they deserve. I can say I reached that aim!
4.
Hostfamily
My
host family actually consists of two families. Alberta and her son
Nana (9 month when I came) on the one hand and on the other hand
Mabena and Charles and their children Joshua (12 years) and Junior (4
years) and the adoptive daughter of Mabenas sister Abby (5 years).
Alberta (27 years) was like a sister and best friend to me and Mabena
and Charles are my Ghanaian Mum and Dad. We lived in the house of
Mabenas sister who moved to the USA. In the house we had a kitchen, a
living room, a room for the bucket shower, a toilet and 4 more
bedrooms. Sometimes my cousins Harrison and Anas also
lived
with us.
In
the beginning it was a little hard to participate in the family life
because the family had Volunteers for some weeks before. They were
used to serve these Volunteers, wash their cloths and cook their
food. But I had the intention to join them in all their activities.
So I had to fight for some weeks before they let me wash the dishes
and my cloths, help cooking and cleaning. They were also not used to
let the Volunteers eat with them. The other Volunteers were always
eating inside with fork and knife at the table and they got special
food. But I wanted to join them eating their food on the floor
outside with the hands.
It
took awhile until they excepted that, they were confused but amused
by my behaviour and in the end they appreciated it. Due to these
facts it became easy for me to integrate into the family. Mabena told
me to call her Ma, which is an honour, I was allowed to help her with
the household like a normal daughter and she taught me Twi, because
she could not speak English. That is why our conversations were never
deeply but we a had a great connection!
I
also had a lot of fun cooking, chatting and watching TV with Alberta.
She is a very extroverted person so we laughed and screamed a lot and
danced in the kitchen.
Alberta
is the best sister I could just imagine!
My
siblings where amazing too! We had a lot of fun together! Especially
for Abby I was an important attachment figure. She got adopted when
she was two years old. Mabenas sister left her behind and went to the
USA, Mabena left her behind and went back to her village and Alberta
did not really treat her well. I was there for her all year and it
was very very hard for my to leave this little girl behind, too.
During
the first month I got part of the family which was really nice but
then the two families started to fight more and more. Both families
did not have enough money, not for enough food neither for an
appointment at the hospital. That caused a lot of stress within the
big family. This stress was always wreaked on Abby and also verbal at
me. These month were not very comfortable but I learned a lot about
myself during that time. In January two French Volunteers came to the
house for two month. I became close friends to them. With these
project abroad Volunteers the money came and we became a happy family
again.
But
as soon as the two left the fighting started again and ended in a
hughe fight where Mabena, Charles, Joshua and Junior moved out. As I
said they left Abby with us.
The
last four month I lived alone with Alberta, Nana and Abby and we were
such a great team! We were doing everything together. Sometimes short
time Volunteers came to the
house,
but then it was most of the time the family (including myself) on the
one side and the emrofoo („white people“) on the other side.
Saying
goodbye to my family, to Mabena, Charles, Joshua and Junior in the
village, and especially to Alberta, Nana and Abby was the most
heartbreaking thing I have ever done.
5.
Working together with another volunteer
At
the school I worked together with Tina. We did not really worked
together because she did speech therapy and I did physiotherapy and I
was in class but we planed a lot of little or bigger projects
together.
It
was just great to work with Tina. We always talked about our plans or
sometimes difficulties at school but we could also talk about
everything else that bothered us. When one of us was down the other
one could cheer her up and somehow we made it that we were never down
at the same time. For me it was just great to work together with
another Volunteer, especially Tina. We were not just a good team in
Ghana, we became close friends.
6.
Organisation
6.1.
Seminars
To
get the right preparation we had two seminars with ten day in total
in Germany before we left. These seminars were organised by bezev and
all the 15 volunteers of bezev that got send all over the world had
to attend these preparation meetings. We have learned a lot about
development policy, globalisation and racism. We spoke about our
expectations and the expectations of our projects and I have learned
a lot about myself.
In
January 2013 we had a meeting in Ghana were volunteers from different
organisations came together. It was really helpful to reflect the
first month and talk about difficulties that came up. For me it was
great and interesting to get to know other volunteers and learn about
different projects in different areas apart from working with
intellectually disabled people.
In
January 2014 we will have the last seminar with all 15 bezev
volunteers in Heidelberg. I am relly looking forward to it because
even though we worked in different edges of the world we became a
close group and I am happy to meet all these lovely people again.
6.2.
Coordination in Ghana
Our
Coordinator in Ghana was Mrs. Kwadade a very nice lady who lives in
Accra.
We
had three meetings. The first meeting we had the day after our
arrival, Mrs. Kwadade prepared great Ghanaian dishes and we talked
about our contracts and expectations. The second meeting was in the
end of November. Mrs. Kwadade served the best groundnut soup I have
ever eaten and we talked about some experiences we made during our
first months in Ghana. She tried very hard to solve some problems
that came up and she was amazingly understanding. The next meeting
was in June at the GCSS. In the meantime we kept in touch via email.
In June Mrs. Kwadade came with an officer of SPED and we had the
final meeting together with the headmistress, Mr. Otu and our
mentors.
I
can just conclude that I appreciated to have Mrs. Kwadade as our
coordinator.
7.
Leissure time
After school I usually
went home. There I played with my siblings, helped Abby with her
homework and relaxed with Alberta and the kids on the floor. In the
evening we both cooked together and I washed the dishes. Sometimes we
all went to visit Alberta´s family after dinner.
Ones a week Tina and me
went to the city centre to go to the post office, buy something or
just sit in a nice spot.
On the weekends I was
usually washing my cloths, cleaning the house with Alberta and
relaxing together with the family. Sometimes I drove to Tina´s place
or we met at school to organise something. Every Sunday when I was in
Kumasi I went to church with my cousin and a friend.
Many weekends we spend
travelling. We visited the other bezev volunteers in Nkoranza and we
often went to Magda and her lovely family in Winneba at the coast. We
made new friends in Cape Coast that we often visited and several
times we went to Accra. When we needed some peace and quietness Tina
and me went to a monastery in Christo Buase.
In the vacations we
travelled for longer distances. We went up to the Northern and Upper
West Regions to see elephants and hippos, to the Western Region to
stay in calm villages at the coast and to the Volta Region to climb
waterfalls in the mountains. I also had the opportunity to visit
friends in Togo.
8.
General reflection
To
sum up I can say that my year in Ghana was a great experience I never
want to miss. I have learned a lot about myself and I realised that
tolerance and especially empathy are two character trades that are
very important and necessary in the world.
I
had unforgettable moments, fun and tears, I got to know interesting
and lovely but also mean and intolerant people. And I have found
people who touched my heart and with whom I always want to keep the
contact.
I
miss my family, friends and students in Ghana a lot! That shows to me
how deeply I am connected to Ghana right now. I will come back.
