Communal Bridges, Beyond Borders: My International Partnership with the NGO Glefe Youth Ghana
True community development comes from those that live, survive, and thrive in that community. No one has a greater desire to ensure the success of a community than those from the community, and those who live and desire to remain in the community. Community organizations that are created to make change, are organized by and with those that know what changes must occur. As an educator, one of my primary objectives is to always check my positionality and assess what is appropriate or not appropriate for me to do. What is not appropriate for me is to assume I know what a community, one that I did not grow up in or reside in for many years, needs. Nor should I assume that just because I am present I am making a difference. The only way to know what is appropriate for me is to ask those in the community. So as an avid traveler to Ghana, a country I have grown to love and feel at home in, at times more so than in the United States, I was thrilled to be asked to assist a non-profit in Ghana with international promotion and visibility. I was asked to be a partner, and I decided to check out the organization on my last trip to Ghana.
Ishmael Hammond is the founder of a small yet continually developing non-profit organization in his home village of Glefe, located in the greater Accra area of Ghana. I have known Ishmael since 2009 when I first visited Ghana with a study abroad summer course. The Social Work course provided us with internships with government based service providers, and I was stationed in the social welfare office in Accra where Ishmael was doing his national service. National Service is a program in Ghana that requires all individuals to provide at least a year of service prior to embarking on their career. National Service, “as currently constituted provides newly qualified graduates the opportunity to have practical exposure on the job, both in the public and private sectors, as part of their civic responsibility to the State.” Since 2009, Ishmael and I have stayed in touch, and more recently I have noticed the great recognition his organization has received—it was exciting to see how much he had accomplished and his goals to accomplish more.
I have begun preparing for a course in which I will do a short term study abroad with a group of students to Ghana, and Ishmael wanted to see if perhaps my class, which would be meeting and learning about Ghana through novels, historical, and contemporary content for a semester prior to traveling, would desire collaborating with his organization—Glefe Youth Ghana. I was able to travel to Ghana to prepare for my course and I visited Ishmael in Glefe one late afternoon where he showed me his humble facility and I met with the volunteer teachers. I will never forget the circle of chairs we sat in right there on the beach. Nor will I forget those neighbors that walked by us and our pause to greet them—this is Ghana.
“We started in 2012 as a youth group promoting clean community for Glefe, creating lots of awareness on our bad sanitation situation. We were using our influence as young people to call on community leaders and its inhabitants to promote our sanitation agenda.”
Glefe Youth Ghana (GYG) is located right on the coast, the same coast that due to global temperature warming, has been a cause of major concern for community members, as high tides have already taken away many homes in this fishermen’s village. Yet, Ishmael built on a beach plot that was once abandoned. He built there to create a space for the children he consistently saw walking on the overly littered beaches during the time they should have been in school. Glefe does not have a public school, there are several private schools, but in a community where many have left due to natural disasters promoted by poor infrastructures, the income is very low, and school may not be the essential priority. Traveling to a government school could take up to 10 to 15 minutes by car which would mean school is not free. Ishmael built a small one room school, to teach the basics of English to the local kids. And a space that would be safe for kids during the day. He also began providing lunch to kids, unfortunately he has to request that parents give small amounts of money to provide this food, which is about $0.50 USD a day per student. But he is providing a healthy meal that the kids may not have access to at home during the middle of the day. He additionally utilizes the small enclosed rooms of the facility structure to create income to help sustain the non-profit by renting them out. Glefe Youth Ghana does not have consistent financial support.
Aspects of Glefe that consistently hinder its ability to push forward in development is poor sanitation, poor infrastructure, and the rains during the rainy season. Ishmael’s organization has goals for creating an educational narrative for very young children to begin recycling and understanding the long term effects of litter in their community. But also in a small community with no running water, sanitation can be a difficult issue in homes and throughout the public spaces of the community. GYG is a facility that has only just recently been given the permit to build a toilet for the community. Ishmael shared the following about this important endeavor, “The Government, through our Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency, Hon Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has awarded us a 10 seater toilet facility. We provided part of our land for this. The facility will be used by children in our program free of charge. It will also be opened to the community as an income generation activity for the Organization. It will truly serve a community need as 8 in 10 homes have no toilet facility. Land is cleared, but project is yet to be constructed.” If you have visited Ghana you recall that most public toilets require payment to use them. The payment is for the maintenance of the facility, which is a source of income for those managing the facility and those who have issued the land. He does fear that the project may take too long, as the government is in charge of building the facility, and at times it can be delayed. Until then he does desire to at least create one toilet in the facility for staff and children, which will be at the organization’s cost.
Teaching young people about how to create a safe environment for themselves is at the foundation of improving their community. GYG was recognized as the most creative in their method for fighting poor sanitation by Ghana media. The organization began with a group of young people sharing information about the sanitation issues in their community and by cleaning it up. Ishmael shared this brief history with me, “We started in 2012 as a youth group promoting clean community for Glefe, creating lots of awareness on our bad sanitation situation. We were using our influence as young people to call on community leaders and its inhabitants to promote our sanitation agenda.” And from there they have grown and even built an actual space.
Roof Top View at Glefe Youth Ghana
Ishmael and I went to the roof of the facility in Glefe where we closed out my tour. This is where a drink spot would be instituted once funds allow for its development.
There was another aspect to their space that Ishmael showed me. There is an upstairs space above the classroom, it was flat with no walls but the view was breathtaking, the ocean was powerful and the wind cooled you down, and as the sun set you were able to see the quiet of Glefe. For Glefe Youth Ghana, Ishmael envisions the upstairs as a space to invest and receive income, by creating a drink spot. He told me that they have piloted such an idea and it indeed created a meet up for the locals. If you’ve ever been to Ghana you’ve seen small drink spots in communities, where you can get a drink of your choice and spend time with friends. This spot would be prime real estate with such a view and breeze. He hopes to begin this process, but only after gaining support for the essentials, including replacing the roof.
I share my connection and journey with this organization because for me this is the type of organization that best works for communities. Organizations that are built by community members, for communities. Our world has seen an increase in what is now known as volunteer tourism, or voluntourism. This is what I want to make sure I do not do, nor do I promote. Too many times folks donate their time, and skills (often unskilled labor) for a short period of time and see they have done something productive, but do they ask if what they did was what the community truly needed? Not what you think they needed but what they knew they needed. Glefe Youth Ghana asked me to help them with international visibility, and honestly I’m still a small fish in a big pond, but I do have skills to assess what could make their visibility better and more accessible in various ways. And even though I have a small platform, I am happy to use it. Ishmael and I have worked together on making their website more visible, and we have also begun a funding campaign that is basically impossible to do online in Ghana without having a U.S. connection to host the campaign and send the funds. This is something I’m proud to support and I’m confident about the benefits of monetary support at this time of their organization.
Consider donating to this growing organization. Begun in 2012 under its original name of Youth Network for Sustainable Development, Glefe Youth Ghana has come very far with little outside help. This accomplishment alone is proof that the community desires the organization and that the community is sustaining it. Join me in donating financially to give it a stronger foundation. I also encourage you to consider other ways you may support by perhaps connecting with the founder and asking what perhaps you could do to assist with their growth. Perhaps become a reader for their grant applications to non-Ghanaian entities for example. For myself, I plan to take my study abroad group to the organization when we visit Ghana, but I plan to work with Ishmael to create a proposal of sorts that might assist in their ability to sustain environmental health within their youth and their community. My students will work on the proposal through a project based learning (PBL) approach and deliver it to the organization and we will also help in any way that GYG would appreciate when we visit the facility for a day. We may not be a part of their community but we desire to be guided in a communal way, creating bridges across our borders, and providing support for continual growth.
Glefe Youth Ghana, is an organization that is community built and community led, and it will not disappear without international support, but rather such support will launch it to a new level of service. Be a part of the launch.