Today was a VERY long day of work with quite a bit of frustration, but overall it ended ok. As mentioned, I have a group of 14 here from NYU volunteering through ProGhana on an alternative winter break. They could be in Cancun, or partying in New York, but instead they have chosen to come here and try and do something meaningful. It's really quite inspiring to see students from all different majors (and none of them development or social work majors!) interested in coming out and doing this type of work for a few weeks.
They have spent the first few days doing HIV/AIDS outreach and education. I joined them for dinner tonight and their reflection which they do with a professor leading their group nightly. Each student shared their high and low point for the day. I was so happy to hear about the good experiences they are having here in Ghana: the people welcoming them into their homes and listening attentively as they share information about HIV and AIDS, the children they have enjoyed playing with and getting to know, and generally just experiencing Ghana. Sometimes I get a bit jaded with the heat and maybe some of the more frustrating aspects of doing development work and lose sight of all of the good aspects there are to it. On the other hand, there are some things that are quite hard to bear. I am going to give a few examples, and trust me one of them is quite shocking and unpleasant. The first that I thought might be interesting to some of you is that while we are educating people on HIV and warning them that doing things like sharing razor blades could lead to them infecting each other with the virus, as one man so eloquently put it, if we want them to stop sharing razors, we should provide them. Even something as small as a blade can be an expensive item for a family and they make do with what they can find. This just brings to mind how hard it is to combat something like HIV (and really all types of development work) when you also have poverty to contend with among other issues.
The really low point I heard about today really killed me. Apparently, one of the girls from the NYU group was playing with the small children outside of the office. There was a group of them and one little girl in particular that she was enjoying. At a later time a little boy of about the same age (4 or 5) came up and all the little kids were trying to explain something to her in Fante and were quite agitated. She called over one of the translators working with their group and had her chat with the kids. The kids claimed that this small boy had been sexually assaulting the little girl. I was so shocked. I honestly cannot even comprehend how such small children are taught this kind of behavior. The group came to me because they didn't really know how to deal with it, and really neither do I. I think the best thing I can do is contact a social worker and see if they can help us deal with the situation. Certainly, the translator mentioning that they shouldn't be doing this and telling the little girl not to be alone with him is not enough. It breaks my heart though. These children are so young and innocent, although apparently I am also quite naive because they are not as innocent as you would imagine.
Otherwise, the group is enjoying their work and they are really doing a great job. I am really happy to have them here with us.
I will have to upload some pictures soon.
Bedtime for me, it's been a long day.
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