‘Hoe kijkt coördinator Stephen Abarika terug op het project?

De partner vertelt... van 11 oktober 2019 door Stephen Abarika

Elk jaar vragen we onze partner hoe het project is gegaan en welke lessen de partner heeft geleerd.

Context and summary


Describe the original plan/idea for the project. Has the project been executed as planned?
Gorugo community is located in the Upper East region of Ghana. The main economic activities in Gorugu is trading, farming and small scale mining. Households make thier  living from these economic activities. It is estimated that about 60 % of the population depend on agriculture for a living. The rocky nature of Gorugo community makes it a challenge to do meaninful large scale farming. This situation is the reason why most people in the areas engage in farming do it at subsistance level and income that acrew to households engage in farming is low. The ability of families and individuals to meet their needs including access to basic health becomes a challenge. In 2008, the dream of the Gorugo community to have a more appropriate health facility to serve the basic health needs of its people come to fruition when WS through AG Care funded the construction of a clinic in the community. As a result, Ministry of Health eventually upgraded the facility into a health center. The community’s attempt to attract, recruit and retain professional health workers to help provide sustainable health care delivery, submitted an application for nurses accommodation. The request was considered and approved with WSN providing funds and sending Dutch volunteers who participated in construction works together with community members. A 2 unit apartment was constructed according to plan with support from the community in August 2019.

There is a strong link between having accommodation for health professionals in rural communities such as Gorugo and good quality health care delivery for the people. This was the motivating factor that brought together key stakeholders who supported the project. The key stakeholders who partnered the project include Talensi Local Government, District Health Directorate and Chiefs.


Give a (short) general description of the implementation of the project.

Given the context of the local project community, project planning, organizing, implementation and scheduling to a large extent, was well managed, given the context of the local project community. The community was well mobilised and empowered with relevant information about the project. This led to effective project delivery. The WS team exhibited high level of flexibility during the project period which paved way for easy integration and good flow of work on site. Materials were in full supply on site. Coordination among key stakeholders was very good. The outcome was the sound team work during the project implementation that played a major role in delivering the desire project output (2-Unit apartment) within an agreed time frame. Rains delayed some activities such as plastering and painting.

How do you look back on the following topics? How was it arranged, what went well, what could be done better?


Construction

Buildings worked on
The type of building executed for this project is a nurses accommodation. Construction works on the nurses accommodation was carried out in line with approved building design/plan. Two apartments were constructed even though the drawings had three apartments. The project concentrated on two apartment due to inadequate funding. All necessary building materials were positioned in good time for the commencement and completion of the project. AG Care technical team and the Dutch technical leader planned, worked and monitored together and succeeded in leading other members of the Dutch team and local community members to execute the project. For effective community participation, a plan was drawn which had the entire community  put into groups. Each of the groups were to participate on the project on assigned date by community leaders. It became evident that youth participation on the project was not encouraging. This, as stated above earlier was as a result of misunderstanding between the leadership of the community and the youth. Some community leaders in the community were directly active on the project. By the time the Dutch team left the project community, roofing was done, plumbing, electrical works and plastering were on-going. Looking back, we at AG Care can say that the project was well managed. Most other aspect of the project went very well. 

Tasks to be done

As at the time the team was leaving Gorugo, works on the 2-unit apartment have gone far. Portions of works that was yet to done on the building included plumbing works, electrical works, ceiling, plastering, painting, and the construction of septic tank. Tackling the finishing works, AG Care mobilised professional local artisans to the site to undertake various tasks aimed at completing the project. In three weeks after the departure of the Dutch team from Gorugo community, work on the nurses accommodation was ready for use. At this point the objective to construct 2-unit semi-detached nurses accommodation in Gorugo was achieved.

Programs

Children program
The programme offered children the opportunity to partake in variety of activities that enhance their skills in singing, drawing and colouring, tracing, storytelling, playing etc. One could see the enthusiasm with which the children participated in these activities directed by World Servants Volunteers. Above all, the children’s programme created a lot of awareness among the children in the community who God is and how He loves them. Organizing children in groups for specific activities was one strategy adopted for the children’s programme. This approach helped in managing children during the programme and also promoted concentration among the children and promoted learning among the children.

Cultural and touristic outings
A mix of cultural exchange activities were carried out during the period participants stayed in the community. Participants visited local homes, local market, hospital, church, waterfalls and Mole Park.

Home visits:
The participants divided themselves into groups and with translators, visited homes in the Gorugo community. The visit was an opportunity for participants to interact and learn more about the way of life of the people in Gorugo. Participants in return, shared with their host the Dutch culture. It was best described as questions and answers session.
Visit to Market:
Participants visited a local market. The visit afforded participants the opportunity to witness how trading in goods and services are carried out in the village setting. The team visited Tongo local market. Tongo is the capital town of the Talensi district. Some members of the team bought chicken, soft drinks/minerals and other things of importance water melon. It was great fun.
Visit to hospital:
The participants had the privilege of visiting and interacting with staff of Tongo district hospital. The midwife of the hospital conducted participants around the facility and gave a talk on how the Ghanaian health systems worked.
Visit to church: 
Participants participated in church service during the project. For the two weeks that the team stayed in Gorugo, they fellowshipped with the Assemblies of God Church in Gorugo. Participants sang and dance with local members of the church. For most participants, it was a special encounter.
Traditional Dance (display):
The youth of Gorugo community organised a traditional dance in the evening to entertain the Dutch participants. Participants learnt the local dance of people of Gorugo. It was a great moment for both participants and people of Gorugo.


Touristic outings:

The team visited the Kintampo Water Falls on their journey to Gorugo. It was an exciting experience for members of the team. They had fun in the falls.

On their way to Accra from the project community, participants also visited the Mole National Park at Damango, went on a safari saw different types of animals. The tour was led by tour guides who explained and answered questions about the park, it was lovely!


Life Skills program and Football for Water

Life skills was also organised with the youth of Gorugo Assemblies of God Church. Interesting topics such as leadership, role models and many other youth related topics were discussed. The discussion was managed in such a way that every member of the group was free and had the opportunity to participate in the issues that were discussed.

The participants organized football for water programme. The programme targeted the children of the Assemblies of God Church since they at the time constituted an organised group in the community. This approach was adopted due to the fact that schools in area that could have been used for the programme were on holidays.  World Servants participants with the support of the nurse in-charge of Gorugo Health Centre gave a talk on water, sanitation and hygiene to let the children know the importance of personal hygiene, clean environment and the need to treat water properly before usage. The participants also emphasized on the importance on frequent hand washing through running water with soap before eating, after using the loo, before cooking, after cleaning/touching anything, clean nails, ensure that their environment where the community members live is clean all the time and washing of the utensils they use in cooking. The participants used picture and demonstrations on how to properly wash hands clean. The expected impact of that was for children to become more aware and adopt best personal hygiene practices.  As part of the activities children and World Servants participants played a football match. It was also a time for training the children on how best to play football.


Cooperation and involvement


Leadership team World Servants
The Dutch leadership team for Gorugo project was responsive. They executed their assigned roles and activities effectively during the project. They managed the team very well and serve the interest of the group throughout the project period. The leadership cooperated very well with the local leadership.

Local leaders / key persons
Local leaders had difficulty in mobilizing community members especially, the youth. The women leader of the Gorugo community did a very good job in rallying to support the building project with water and collecting of gravel. The community chief and his council however promised to do better in terms of community mobilisation next time should they have a project of the kind.

Community
Few people from Gorugo and people surrounding communities participated actively in the construction of the nurse’s accommodation. The few that participated were served with food by the queen mother of Gorugo. The construction process benefited from unskilled labour from the beneficiary community. Working in partnership with other stakeholders – Dutch participants and AG Care builders for the project, the objective to have active cooperation during the project was achieved.

Beneficiaries
The project enjoyed good cooperation and involvement from nurses who are in this case the direct beneficiaries of the project. Nurses of Gorugo health center were the first to collect water for start of the building project. In fact, they did this before community members came out to support. This high level of involvement in the project by nurses demonstrates how useful the nurse’s accommodation is to the health professional working in Gorugo. The project objective to improve good quality health care delivery through the construction of nurse’s accommodation was achieve 2 months ago.

(Local) authorities
The local government officials and the district education directorate gave their full support for the project. Their cooperation and involvement came to light when the local government approached AG Care with a request for nurses’ accommodation on behalf of the community. Secondly, staff of the local government and Ghana health service played a major role in mobilizing the community for the project. By this action, they demonstrated that as duty-bearers and whose responsibility it is to provided desired infrastructure for community health facilities appreciated the relationship and cooperation with AG Care and WS.

Facilitation of the team

Accommodation

Accommodation was well arranged under the prevailing condition in the project community. Participants were accommodated in a primary school block in Gorugo community. There was enough space for participants in the classrooms.

Food
Food served during the project was very good. The cooks did their best to provide some variety of foods. From where I sit, l can say that the Dutch volunteers enjoyed very much the foods that was served during the project.

Transportation

Transportation during the project period was good. With a fifty-seater bus, there was enough space/room for participants on the bus throughout the trip. The trip from the project community to Accra suffered a bit of vehicle breakdowns. This was at a point rectified. As a result, participants arrived late in Accra. AG Care is in a discussion with the transporter to try to avert this from happing during the next project year.

Safety

AG Care before the project carried pre-project security checks with officials from local government and community leaders. This was necessary to identify and map out strategies to handle associated risks before and during the project. For this particular project. For this project there were no any security threats.

Lessons learned
In the future, AG Care Staff will consider sitting in and to observe proceedings during an internal meeting between community leaders and the youth on need and how to actively participate during a project. At such meetings more detailed questions could be asked and answers provided. This move, we believe can go a long way to improve understanding and participation by community youth during a project.