"IT skills for all"

Last night we watched the edited video of the ICT club certificate presentations which took place on December 15th 2009. Walewale photgrapher Jacob has made quite a masterpiece of it with titles and music; thank you from us all. (Jacob, maybe we could put a clip from your video onto this blog?)
Let me just fill you in on how this all came about......

On our third day in Walewale, whilst out exploring, Mike and I stumbled upon the Community Information Centre and a charming young man named Mashood who worked there. During our chat he shared how the information centre had been equipped with 10 computers several months before, but after an initial flurry of interest, few students were using the facilities. There and then, a partnership was formed and we decided to try to involve some local schools and encourage the community to be more appreciative of this wonderful resource on their doorstep. Not being sure of the constraints of the timetable of the school day, we decided that an after school club might be the way forward.
I started building a relationship with the Head Teacher of the nearest school (LA Junior High School, literally a stone's throw away) and Mashood and I drafted a proposal for an after-school ICT club to present to her and the staff. Meanwhile, after a chat with Mike, Mashood had decided that Walewale needed its first website to promote the Community Information Centre and newly formed ICT Club. A tutorial (by candle light) ensued and Mashood learned how to create a blog. Walewale was now definitely on the map! Mike also suggested a logo, and in discussion the mission statement "IT Skills for All" was agreed for the freshly advertised club. Subsequently some members of the community expressed interest in the blog and two further new Walewale websites were born.
After some further consultation about what would work best, we agreed to avoid Market Days when the Junior High School students might be required to be selling items, and initial dates were agreed spanning the rest of the term. By this time, another equally charming young man called Mark had become involved. He was also working at the Community Information Centre. With three heads together things were beginning to come together and we realised we needed to involve the Chief Executive of the District Assembly and the Ghana Education Service, to make sure things were done properly.
Having had the initial proposal agreed by Head and Staff, we arranged to go and speak to the students at the local school to see if they were interested. We took with us a registration form for their parent/guardian to sign with a clearly marked return date! We were determined to get this thing off the ground and had already set a proposed start date for the following week.
The only stipulation for club membership was that we asked for an equal number of boys and girls from the JHS. Initially this was 10 of each to make a club of 20 members sharing the 10 computers (now dwindled down to 7 due to technical problems). This gender balance was important for my role with the TENI project (Tackling Educational Needs Inclusively, sponsored by Comic Relief). We were keen to see girls being given an equal opportunity and being actively encouraged to take part. We left the final selection of the students with completed forms to the school and we promised to run a waiting list where those who had missed out this time would get a chance. This was just as well as there was enormous interest and enthusiasm from the students.
Every student was given a baseline self assessment to complete so that we knew exactly where to pitch the teaching. The materials were then prepared by Mark and Mashood with reference to ICT books provided to the school by the Government. We agree that the club should train the students to be "ICT trainers" so that they could pass on their skills to others, consolidating their learning in the process. We decided that they should reach a certain standard by the end of the course and this would be assessed and celebrated with a certificate as evidence of the achievement.
October 27th arrived and three of the club turned up on time, despite earlier exhortations to be punctual! It then became part of my role to remind the students as they arrived and signed in, that coming half way through the Club meant a lot of catching up before next time. The first club had scarcely completed its first week when I was visited at 7am by a young man with his much younger sister. He explained how devastated she had been not to be picked for the club. I am a soft touch for young girls desperate to be given a chance to learn, so I knew I had to do something. After consulting Mark and Mashood and with some clever manipulation of dates, we were able to start a second club the following week with very nearly as many sessions as the first.

So, we now had 40 students, 20 girls and 20 boys being trained as ICT Trainers twice a week, between 3 and 4pm after school. We had agreed the Rules for the clubs together with the students so that they knew three consecutive "no shows" without good reason would result in them losing their place in the club. Mark and Mashood shared the teaching between them using PowerPoint and a projector (when available) or just "making do" when the internet was down and the computers were playing up. The students showed real ownership of their Clubs by electing a President for each (both of them girls as it happens) and requesting a celebratory club trip to Paga to stroke the crocodiles and even the possibility of ICT Club T shirts. They started saving 20 pesewas a week (about 8 pence) towards the trip.
I am delighted to say that after 16 sessions over 8 weeks, we retained 33 students to sit their final exam of competence to become ICT Trainers. Their time keeping was somewhat variable, but some of them were fantastic and arrived early for every session! Almost all the girls made it through to the end.
As the end of term approached, the students began to get excited about the certificate presentation ceremony we had promised them. They started to prepare a drama and practise a song ready for the big occasion.
So, we have a record of the final result which took place at the District assembly Hall with about 130 attendees. The presentation became a great occasion with Chairman and 2 MCs and guest of honour, a packed programme beginning with an Christian prayer and closing with a Muslim prayer. Thirty three proud students received well deserved certificates for their commitment and hard work over the previous 8 weeks.

It was a wonderful occasion, as was the trip to Paga. Twenty three students managed to afford the trip which was subsidised by a generous last minute donation of petrol by the District Assembly and a wonderful send off by the District Director of Education.

There were times when I felt a little discouraged by the time keeping and attendance. Also the absence of transport for the 100 plastic chairs we had hired for the big occasion left us with a headache until they were finally loaded on to motorbikes at 8 in the morning! (Thanks Fati and friends)

But, would I do it all again? Yes of course I would. We made a fantastic team and have big plans next term for helping the Junior High School 3 students achieve their ICT component in their BECE exams in April 2010.
Watch this space for the next installment.

Here is the song, sung by younger computer users, the "Brilliant Stars"....

UPDATE:

There are more images and videos about the ICT club, the presentation and the trip in an entry on this blog dated 14 January 2010.

An update from Anna

Hello from Walewale, this is Anna writing. We thought it might be interesting for you guys to have the perspective of someone who’s been here less than a week. Dan and I left home last Saturday evening and arrived in Walewale on Monday morning. We’ve seen and experienced so much since we’ve been here. I don’t want to bore you with all the ins and outs of everything we’ve done so thought I’d pick one day to give you an idea of what being here is like. Tuesday and Thursday we had lots of excitements with the ICT club but I’m going to leave that for Mum to write about so I’ll talk you through Wednesday.

We woke up as normal at 6am with the sunrise. We had been told that the Imam from the local mosque wanted to visit and that he would be coming for breakfast at 7am. Assuming they were on African time and would be several hours late, Dad wasn’t even dressed when we saw a car approaching at 7am. We thought he might bring one or two other people with him but this turned out to be six so we had to rush to tell Fati (who cooks for us three times a week) to make more oatmeal and eggs. They stayed about an hour and asked lots of questions about what we were doing here. After that we walked to the Ghana Education Service Office where Mum works to greet people. It is so hot so even walking short distances is exhausting. From there we went to see Madam Paulina’s school, where we were mobbed wherever we went. We went into P1 the youngest class where there were 90 kids sitting on the floor, desks and generally wandering in and out of the classroom. They wanted us to sing them a song. We went for Old Macdonald but their English wasn’t really good enough to understand what we were talking about.
In the afternoon we walked to the market. Seeing the slaughter house made me rather hesitant about eating any more meat here! The market itself was really noisy with hundreds of people selling stuff and donkeys, goats and cows wandering wherever. We bought a live guinea fowl and walked to the chief’s palace where we waited for Mashood, a friend of Mum’s who was to act as our interpreter. When we were called we went in to see the chief sitting on his little podium, attempting to do the appropriate greetings but I think we failed. We all had to crouch and the men had to do a clapping thing while Mum and I were supposed to make a clicking sound with our thumb and little finger but neither of us managed to make much noise. He said he was pleased to see us and asked what Daniel and I had to say to him. We stayed talking for quite a long time before presenting our gift to him. Obviously I made Daniel hold it and just pretended to be hanging onto it!

Next we headed over to an orphanage, where there were lots of very excited children who wanted to play with us. It was a nice change to have children who weren’t frightened of white people. When we are walking around town the small children tend to either look at us and cry or just stare! I rode on the back of Fati’s motorbike, hanging on very tightly as we swerved around various animals and people to get to her house. We met Mum, Dad and Dan there and she showed us where she lives and we met her daughter and boyfriend. She gave us watermelon to eat and then we helped her collect water from the well.

Dad had a really good technique but I was absolutely rubbish, it’s much harder than it looks. She then wanted to see how good Dan and I were at cooking so gave us both a pile of charcoal, two sticks and a box of matches. Needless to say I won and set my charcoal alight first but Dan’s construction probably looked better.
We walked home back through the market and stumbled across a group of children who were particularly excited to see us. They went for the usual chant we get wherever we go ‘Sulaminga (white person). How are you? I am fine. Thank you. Madam’ but were particularly enthusiastic and jumped up and down a lot as they continued to repeat their tune. The other side of the market we ended up with about twenty kids following us. We had several attempts at trying to send them home but they were undeterred by all our efforts. In the evening, Victoria and Louise, Norwegian and Swedish volunteers from the orphanage we had visited earlier came over for tea.

I know you lot are freezing either with snow or the promise of it. Right now that’s hard to imagine as I’m absolutely melting. We have a fan but unsurprisingly the power is off so it’s not working. We’ve just handwashed all our clothes which is quite a mission and are chilling out for a bit. We’ve done a lot of travelling the last couple of days and we’re going to be away again until Christmas Eve. Hope you’re all looking forward to Christmas. There is pretty much no acknowledgement of it here although we are going to teach them a carol in church tomorrow.

Updates from Mike about Charlotte in Ghana

Mike will be in Uk early Dec and early Jan, with a range of photos etc and is happy to provide people with updates, assemblies, slide shows etc if you want.
The picture shows Charlotte's Organisational Development (OD) Committee looking at the results of the Organisation Assessment that she has been conducting with the West Mamprusi District Education Office .

management and motorbiking!

Ramatu and I greet Letty (the new VSO Management Support Officer from the Phillipines) on her first day in the office. She will be working with me to get the Organisational Assessment done over the next three weeks.
Mike advises Mark, Mashood and I about what should go into the ICT proposal for the District Commissioner. Unsurprisingly, we are finding the 7 working computers at the Community Information Centre painfully inadequate for the numbers of students and adults wanting to learn and access the internet.
Here I am working on the master plan for the Organisation Assessment - the start of the Organisational Development (OD) process. Quite a logistical nightmare and then I have to actually make all this happen according to the plan! Planning is not a word much used in Ghanaian contexts.
We shall see what transpires.

Ready for action in the Comme Ci Comme Ca hotel car park. This was before we had actually seen our bikes and the state of the roads!

My TENI bike (TENI = "Tackling Education Needs Inclusively = the Comic Relief funded project = trying to ensure equal access for tyhe disabled and "the girl child" - hence we allocated the 20 places at the ICT club to 10 girls and 10 boys). I can just touch the ground with my feet on either side. I am told it is heavier and therefore more stable than some of the other bikes but this is small comfort when it is lying on your leg and you have fallen into the concrete drain just outside the VSO office in Bolga!

On Day 3 we went to the Tongo Hills to practise steep slopes. The gradient was fine but the ruts and ridges in the road were an added challenge.

We met the Chief who has 17 wives and over 100 children. One of whom showed us around the extraordinary village. There are shrines here where they take animal sacrifices and the shrine will tell the villagers how to vote in the national elections. It only talks to men though! Male children are taken there from 2 weeks old so they can get tuned in.

The chief and the motorbiking gang. One instructor and 10 learners had its moments. Dan was actually a mechanic. He is the one with the dentist mask to keep the dust out of his face.

We found some of his delightful children. You can see some of the animal sacrifices in the background. they were dotted all around the village. the main shrine is up on the hill behind.

The guide demonstrated how to get into one of the houses. it is a bit like a concrete igloo but with a boulder blocking the entrance. Great defensively I am told!

My birthday was spent waiting at the DVLA Office to get the paper work sorted for my driving licence. Now there we saw a whole new level of bureaucracy. Forms in triplicate with carbon paper and 8 receipts for the 20 cedi amount so that each person who signed a form got their appropriate recompense. A certain sequence of form filling that had no apparent logic but required us to return the next day and miss our last day of motorbike practice. Still, I now have a Ghanaian driving licence (for motorbikes and cars!) so I must be a competent road user mustn't I?!

Whizzy Websites Working Wonders in Walewale

You may remember seeing some pictures of Mike giving website tuition by candle light on the blog last month. Well, if you want to see the results of his guidance and Mashood's labour, then go to www.walewale-cic.blogspot.com/ and read up on the latest excitements at the Walewale Community Information Centre. We are currently planning the certificate presentation ceremony for Dec 15th, where hopefully 40 of our newly trained ICT Instructors from the Local Junior High School will be congratulated on their effort and achievement. The students are preparing a drama on the importance of ICT for the audience of parents, guardians and officers from the District Education Office. We hope that the Chief Executive of the District Assembly will present the certiificates and we are working out fundraising options for buying refreshments. Hopefully Anna and Dan will be able to attend as well since they will have just arrived for their Christmas visit. Then on Thursday we are all off on a jolly to see the crocodiles at Paga. The students have been saving 20 pesewas a week to cover the cost and are also hoping to save up to have some ICT Club t-shirts made. How cool is that?!

A further tro-tro guide for sulamingas (white people).

You’ll find a basic introduction to the tro-tro at this web address. www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=76087
[Tro-tro = Any private shared taxi bigger than a car - e.g. small minibus into which 18 passengers will be fitted - generally on a fixed route like a bus]. It’s all true. The defining moment on my first tro-tro ride, with Charlotte’s bike on the roof, and with us sat in the worst seats, four facing four, was when the final people boarded. Eight knees face eight knees and as the final people squeeze in sixteen knees lock like a rugby scrum, and no-one can move until the next stop.
The medium-distance tro-tro (e.g. Bolga to Walewale) doesn't leave the start-point until all seats are sold. This can be frustrating if you’d like to leave by a certain time – or if you’d just like to leave. But there is a way…. On Tuesday I was at Bolga after dark sat on maybe the last tro-tro of the day, hoping to reach Walewale (30 miles). After a while the tro-tro mate (tout) told me the bus wouldn’t run – there were only five people on it. He needed to fill all 18 seats at 1.40 cedis each to make 25.20 cedis (just over £10). Now a way round this is that you buy all 18 seats. This now makes you the Bus Owner, and you get to travel in the front. The bus sets off, and everyone else pays you. (I didn’t realise this on Tuesday, negotiated the 25 cedis down to 10 and was prepared to pay that - £4 - to get home. But I’d missed a trick here. I should have bought 7 seats. Then the first 11 seats filled would have been fares for the tro-tro mate, but if any of my 7 seats had been taken then those fares would be mine. In fact the bus was packed from people boarding at villages between Bolga and Walewale, so the tro-tro won on the deal. I was still addressed as “Bus Owner”).

Just as another illustration, - heading to Bolga on Thursday morning to run an Organisational Development (OD) workshop.

My plans are disrupted by the (reasonably reliable) 7.45 am Metro Mass Transit coach declining to stop for me. I find a tro-tro in Walewale, with many seats taken but as time goes on it’s still not full. One or two passengers seem to be losing interest and looking elsewhere – not good news. Time is slipping by – 8.30 am comes and goes - and I have a meeting to organise starting 10 am more than an hour away. I ask the mate how many seats are unsold – two! I buy two more seats, everyone is suddenly galvanised into action, we can go. I even get my money back for one of the seats because another passeneger materialises. I have the privileged view (see picture) that belongs to the front seat passeneger as marginal Bus Owner.

Clutching the takings the driver takes us to fill up with just enough fuel for the journey (after a push-start that is). After that the journey is uneventful – just one further push-start in Balungu - the driver has to get out to open the tro-tro sliding door, and unfortunately this time the engine dies. A couple of passengers are summoned to push the tro backwards (downhill slightly) for a jump-start – no good. The driver jumps out again and bangs on the front door. (Having bought two seats, I don’t actually have two seats but I am in the front passenger seat). My neighbour and I get out; I could probably claim exemption from pushing as marginal Bus Owner, but I help anyway. Success! We all get back in. But the sliding door won’t shut. The driver grabs his hammer and goes round to the door again. Engine, please don’t die…..I make it to the workshop at 9.58 – ahead of the attendees, so the day works out ok.

Maranatha Orphanage in Walewale

Maranatha Orphanage is owned and run by a Baptist minister and his wife. The wife, Madam Paulina is the Head Teacher of a primary school near to the District Education Office where I work. Mike joined us and we got on our bikes and rode the 5 minutes into Walewale centre. The orphanage has about 25 orphans and then a day care centre for other children. These children pay to attend the day care and these financial contributions enable the orphan children to be taught and the staff to be paid.

Madam Paulina and her husband are having a residential block built next to their house and are hoping to move all the orphans there when it is finished.
We had fun singing some songs with the children.



This is where Madam Paulina lives and where they hope to bring the orphans as soon as they can. At the moment they are all living with guardians but the children often don't want to go home after school.

250 children and a blackboard under a tree

Some of you might remember a facebook status entry on 20th October...150 children under a tree, one teacher (with a sick child tied on her back), one blackboard, one stick of chalk, one pointer, and only one counting activity! I had made a few suggestions and said I would come back and do a demo lesson when I was next around.
Well, this school (and this teacher in particular) was really playing on my mind. Soon after my first visit I had started collecting resources. I saved empty tins and metal bottle tops, which I wrote on inside with a black marker pen. I put letters on some, shapes and numbers on others and devised sorting and matching activities. I collected sticks and made some into bundles of ten and found an assortment of similar sized stones. I then offered to go back and teach a lesson for them.

Armed with my resources and some balloons and puppets that I had brought from home, I got on my bicycle and arrived at the school at 8.30am. The children were still sweeping the compound but we were warmly greeted by the staff who were happy that I had come with some new ideas. The 150 KG1 kids (aged from 4 years) were rounded up under the tree. It then became obvious that the two KG2 class teachers would also like to watch and were quite happy to leave their hundred or so kids to their own devices, so I invited them to join us. It was now definitely feeling more like a Maths assembly with about 250 children sat on the ground in front of me.

I launched in with some missing numbers, counting on fingers, counting forwards and backwards (we pretended to be rockets but I suspect most of the children hadn't got a clue what a rocket was!). We found different ways of making six with our fingers, we sang 12345 and "One man went to farm, went to farm a field (an adaptation of "One man went to mow" which had been suggested for the african context, but not only did they not understand "field", most mampruli speakers seem to find it impossible to pronounce the word). Anyway, we bashed on...remember these children speak very little english so all my efforts had to be transated. Also, they are trained to repeat whatever the teacher says so we had some hilarious moments when they repeated all my instructions.

We did dropping metal bottle tops into a tin (a challenge in the outdoors with so many children).

By this time it was break and we were gathering quite an audience of older children keen to see what the nutty "sulaminga" (white person) was up to.

The Head teacher Madam Christiana was delighted with what was going on. She very kindly took some photos for me (just to prove that I am actually teaching some children out here) and then was very disappointed that she wasn't going to be in the pictures so I had to quickly take some of her. She is the lady in the yellow dress with the spotty dog puppet on her hand.

Our session had lasted over an hour and the children had been great. To conclude, they sang me a mampruli thank you song. I was then able to chat a bit to the Head and teachers and pass on some materials about mental maths activities that had been compiled by a VSO volunteer in another region. The staff have promised to collect loads more resources and use some of the ideas. I have promised them another visit soon to see how things are going. My parting words were that "learning really ought to be fun!!" (Understandably, given the conditions, sometimes it feels like a bit of an ordeal out here). The Head thought about this and said "Yes, it's true, learning should be fun."

A working week-and-a-bit - from 23rd Oct to 3rd Nov

Most definitely not a typical working week, but I thought it’s time to put in some words myself, not just the pictures/captions. (Entries headed "23rd Oct" to "4th Nov" are by Mike and are more about my working week on OD work - see the "posted by" footer). Here’s the last week or so. It’s a little long so I’m going to split it into daily entries. Start reading from entry headed “Friday 23rd October” if you’re feeling ready for this......... (this has already been pushed back into "Older Posts" - you should be able to see all the recent posts in the "Blog Archive" panel on the left, and you can go from post to post by clicking "Newer post" at the bottom of each post)
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Well done if you read it all.. I didn’t plan to write all that, but there’s some material for those who've said “I keep looking for new entries on the blog”. You can also blame the fact that I’m trying a radical productivity innovation – I’m using the laptop, but as far as possible inside the mosquito net in the spare room. Makes a big difference to have fewer insects attacking the screen.

Tuesday 3rd Nov - back to Walewale

Tuesday 3rd Nov
Back to Walewale on the tro-tro – but not before Anthony & Laura's chicken is dipped and introduced to his grandiose chicken-house.

He will have company soon.
Back in Walewale, we still have no water, so it's another trip to the well.
Laptop going ridiculously slowly - getting nothing done at all. I decide that the computer is horrendously hot. Reboot anyway once I can persuade it to close down, but also judicious application of frozen water sachets in a tupperware box to try to bring the temperature down. (This isn't even the hot season yet...)

Monday 2nd Nov - all together now (lunch, that is)

Monday 2nd Nov
The Education workshop. This needs to consider all the work done last week (ok, written up on Friday), endorse it or change it and take the process to the next level. We consider what success today equates to, and indeed what success with Organisational Development (OD) means.


We get to work, in groups - Pat and Anthony - Cornelius Charlotte and Rachel... and Ubald Stephen and Kirsty.
The master-stroke for this workshop is lunch. We’re eating at “Swab Fast Food” next door which last time was anything but fast. This time everyone’s orders are taken as the workshop starts, and the restaurant agrees to have the food on the table at 1pm. It’s all there by ten past one, which isn’t bad. During the workshop Mar and Mark emailed with very positive words on the combined OD material from the perspective of Secure Livelihoods volunteers. We end up with a good level of agreement from the Education volunteers too, and decide that we’re far enough forward now that the remainder can be agreed by email. The group will meet in about 6 weeks , but as a User Group to compare experiences etc.