Over 1 year ago I was in a very similar spot. Over 1 year ago, I was on my way to Ghana as a short term volunteer, for a 4-month placement with Engineers Without Borders and the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in Bongo District, as a full-time student at Concordia University - I was naïve, but I knew there was something ahead of me that for once in my life I wasn’t sure about. Now it’s slightly different, now I’ve graduated from civil engineering, now I’ve had a few more challenges, now I’ve had some experience with what it’s like to not entirely succeed at things, and now I’m on a path toward something I’ve dreamed about for that past year and a half. Now I’m living in and working around a town called Zebilla in the Bawku West District (close to Bongo…for those who like maps) to work with and scale up the Agriculture as a Business initiatives that have developed over this time.
I’ve dreamed about continuing to contribute to positive change with rural farmers in Ghana in West Africa. I’ve dreamed about working with Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) and with others at MoFA to become a more efficient, effective, and relevant organization that is facilitating the transformation of agriculture in northern Ghana from subsistence to semi-commercial.
This is exciting and important work. I’m talking about Sofo, for example, who makes long treks into the field to meet with the Afaapel farmer group, to discuss their challenges and to work with them and their ideas to work on expanding their oil processing, to motivate them, to groom them into winning Farmer Group of the Year at this Farmer’s Day, to share farming practices, and dream about what’s possible.
Sofo and the Afaapel Group sketching out their new processing building
I believe we can work to reduce global food insecurity and malnutrition, but I also think it demands a complex system of relationships and decisions that involve working to improve the way AEAs conduct their extension services, the role MoFA has to play in addressing market-access issues, and the process of developing MoFA’s learning systems; which means AEAs need skills in group dynamics, business, marketing, etc. “More than ever, he or she will need to be a skilled technician who also is a broker of sorts, being able to connect farmers in their areas to markets and other institutions that are demanded by farmers.” [-The Neuchatel Initiative]
I spent the month of November in pre-departure training in Toronto with 5 other awesome volunteers : Cat Denis and Romi Kahawita working in agriculture in Burkina Faso, Sarf Khan to Zambia with agriculture value chains, and Dan Beck going to Malawi to work on water point functionality. Robin Farnworth is currently the overseas director for EWB, she’s in charge of pre-departure training and for enabling this to be the most intense learning experience of our lives, for naming us Team Awkward, and for adding to the inspiration we thrive on that motivates us to contribute to improving the livelihoods of people in these developing countries. We’ve gone through workshops on analyzing the development sector, interventions and scaling up projects, organisational change, behavior change and influencing others, hierarchy, power, leadership with George Roter (the co-CEO of EWB), health and safety, and more!!!
I dove right into the first few weeks of work here: to attending a farmer group celebration (and showing off my Ghanaian dance moves), to attending Farmer’s Day and setting up a sign board celebrating the AEAs and farmers involved in Agriculture as a Business, getting a competition going (developed by the fabulous Meghan Dear, whose work I’m taking over) to reward the Best AAB AEA of the Year, attending a weekend Sector Meeting with the rest of the AMAZING EWB Agric Team discussing strategy, influence, and new volunteer placements…and playing ultimate frisbee.
I’ve had a bit of time to reconnect with the people I developed relationships last time I was in Bongo, and it’s about time I immerse myself once again into the culture and way of life here in the Upper East Region by spending this Christmas week in a village.
Please consider donating to my holiday campaign toward a World of Opportunity that will go towards EWB and the amazing work we’re doing:
http://opportunity.ewb.ca/
Check in every so often throughout this next year to read more about my life in Ghana, and a year in the life of Ghanaians :)
Wishing you a lovely holiday and prosperous New Year! Warm wishes from Ghana!
Big love,
Meg
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