Visit to SOS Village and Frafraha Children's Homes

The team wanted the chance to work with some of the local orphanages and foster care centers during our weekends.  We visited two orphanages, the SOS children's village www.sosghana.org, and the Frafraha foster home http://www.facebook.com/pages/frafraha-foster-home/116385368464054. 

We first went to SOS children's home which is an independent, non-governmental and social development organization, which has been active in the field of children's needs, concerns and rights since 1949. Its activities focus on neglected and abandoned children and orphans, as well as disadvantaged families.  There are 10 houses on the SOS campus we attended, and each house has a house mother and an "aunt", who lives and takes care of the children.  There are about 8 children per home and the children range from newborns to 18.  SOS has an on campus school all the way through high school.  They continue to work with the children until they are about 21 or older if they are not yet deemed "independent".  It was a wonderful campus and the children seemed very happy.  They were so happy to see the IBM team and were very curious about our countries.

We visited Frafraha about a week after SOS and it was a different atmosphere.  The children seemed happy as well, but it was apparent that they did not have the same resources as they have at SOS.  Frafraha is a foster care and orphanage.  They typically do not take children younger than 5 years old, but there have been a few cases of abandoned babies, that they have had to take into their care.  They do not receive government funding and get funds via private donations.  We played with the children and they showed us how to dance Azonto, which is the latest dance move in Ghana.  We brought various gifts and plenty of candy for the children, which they really liked.  It was sad to say goodbye, since they were really reluctant to see us go.  It was very touching to see how much the kids appreciated us just showing up.

Learning the Asonto at SOS children's village

adorable kids at SOS

Petra with girl at SOS

Boy at Frafraha foster home

Kids at Frafraha

IBMers at SOS

Frafraha children

Frafraha kids playing

Chicken anyone?

So I would be remiss if I did not share my experience and that of the team's on the Ghanaian cuisine.  There are all varieties of great tropical fruits such as, mangoes (many varieties), pineapples, watermelons, papaya, coconut, etc.  And many times these fruits are used to cook and flavor the local dishes.
Since we have been in a hotel for our entire stay, we have had to go out to many different restaurants to eat.  There was a lot of chicken and rice.  It tasted great, but got tiring after a week.  There typically is jollof rice or fried rice and chicken on every menu at every restaurant.  It is a staple of the cuisine. 

My favorite of the local dishes is jollof rice with fried plantains, roasted chicken and shito sauce.  The shito sauce is made from hot peppers with some type of fish flakes.  Also, I like Red Red a lot.  Red Red is black-eyed peas cooked with some spices (fish flavoring, unless you specify you don't want it), palm oil and served with fried plantains on the side.

We have gotten very familiar with the restaurants in Accra, and here are some of my observations:
1) If you want to eat dinner at 7:30, get to the restaurant by 5:30PM, 6PM is pushing it.  Because we were typically a group of 12 or more, it took a very long time for our food to be prepared.
2) There is also a high probability that what you get will be different from what you ordered, especially if you deviate too far from the menu.
3) The restaurant staff typically do not like to give bad news and tell you that something may not be readily available.  We had a manager run to the store to buy ice cream since they had run out of ice cream and rather than saying they were out they decided to go and buy. 
4) Some of the continental foods you may be familiar with may be prepared differently from what you are used to.  For example, if you go to a local Ghanaian restaurant, it is probably not best to order lasagne. 
5) Many of the things are not pre-prepared, so everything is generally made from scratch.

We were strongly advised not to buy food from the street vendors, so this limited our options also.  Due to all the starchy foods, many of us on the team have put on some unwelcome weight, so we are working on diet and exercise plans on our return back to our home countries.

Breakfast at the hotel.  Usually made up of pancakes, eggs, baked beans, gravy, etc.

Kelewele; plantains fried with pepper spices.

Banana bread and "puff puff".  Pastry made with flour, sugar, eggs and deep-fried.  I don't remember the Ghanaian name.

Local dish with, couscous, stewed beef and "wacky"(which is black-eyed peas and rice).

One of our most frequented lunch spots since it is fast and is similar to Nando's. 

Chicken from Barcelo's

Ghanaian and Nigerian restaurant in downtown Accra.  Very good food and ambiance.

Who doesn't like pizza?

Steak from the restaurant at the Movenpick hotel.  After a few incidents with ordering steaks, it was nice to have one prepared without incidence.

Team at Movenpick

Working late

Gerard and Deiva working on presentation

Gary and Deiva working on report

I am sitting in the Ghana Ministry of Health boardroom to present our initial findings and presentation. It has been a good discussion and we feel good about the work we have done so far.

I have been nominated to present our findings for my subgroup, to the Technical Working Group (TWG), so this will be a good dry run for our final presentation on Friday.  It is shocking how quickly the time has flown by and it almost feels that there has not been enough time to do everything that I wanted to do.

The feedback from the TWG is positive and I only need to make a few tweaks to our final report and presentation.  I believe it is going to be another late night for the group.

Trip to Volta Region

We are really bonding as a team and my sub-team and I have really gotten fallen into a comfortable work rhythm.  We have decided to make trips to the various medical facilities in the country.  Since we only have a limited amount of time, we have split up the team so that two people visit a region and cover more ground rather than all 4 of us traveling together.

We visited both the Volta and Eastern Regions.  There are 10 regions in Ghana, and we had already visited the Greater Accra region, which we are staying in.  I went to the Volta region with my teammate Deiva, and Gerard and Gary went to the Eastern Region.

It was about a 3 ½ hour drive to the Volta region, and a great deal of the long drive time was due to some of the roads being difficult to travel on.  The Volta region is where the Volta River is located.  The Volta River is the largest in Ghana and is beautiful to see.  

We first stopped in Koh, which is the capital of the Volta region and is surrounded by small mountains.  We had interviews with many health facility workers and they were very welcoming and eager to discuss options for improving the health system.  We also visited some more remote facilities; one was right at the border with Togo.  It was interesting to see the contrast between the cities and some of the more remote regions.

In the more remote regions, you saw fewer vehicles and many of the children waved at us as we drove by.  I was glad to see that there was a electricity in the very small village that we visited and wells for clean water.  

The further we traveled away from the city the more excited people were to see us and help with anything we needed.  They were also fascinated by all the different ethnicities and cultures that were represented by the IBM team.  It is always fun introducing ourselves and going through where everyone is from.

After visiting the smaller health facilities we went back to Koh for a late lunch.  We had lunch at the Sky Hotel, which is located on a mountain and overlooks the valley city of Koh.  It was really a beautiful view.  

At the end of the day, we were all tired but really happy that we had the chance to go outside the city and get another picture of Ghana.

Health Directorate in Volta

Village of Wudzedeke near Togo in Volta Region

View of Koh from the mountain

Trip to Cape Coast

Although we have been very busy working on our projects, we planned some weekend activities to explore Ghana.  We took a trip to Cape Coast which is in the Western Region of Ghana, to see both the Elmina and Cape Coast castles and also to visit the Kakum National Park.

For those who are not familiar with the castles, here is a brief history taken from Wikipedia.  Elmina castle is the largest and oldest of the castles built by Europeans in Ghana. 
The Portuguese first reached what became known as the Gold Coast in 1471. Prince Henry the Navigator sent ships to explore the African coast in 1418. The Portuguese were attracted by rumors of fertile African lands that were rich in gold and ivory. 
These motives prompted the Portuguese to develop the Guinea trade. They made gradual progress down the African coast and finally reached Elmina in 1471. At Elmina, they discovered a thriving gold trade already established among the natives and visiting Arab and Berber traders and the Portuguese established their own trading post, and it became known to the Portuguese as “A Mina” (the Mine) because of the gold that could be found there.
By the seventeenth century, most trade in West Africa was the sale of slaves. The Elmina castle acted as a depot where slaves were bought in bartering fashion from local African chiefs and kings. The slaves, often captured in the African interior by the slave-catchers of coastal tribes, were sold to Portuguese traders in exchange for goods such as textiles and horses. The slaves were held captive in the castle before exiting through the castle’s infamous “Door of No Return” to be transported and resold in newly colonized Brazil and other Portuguese colonies.

Exterior of Elmina Castle

 In 1637 the fort was taken over by the Dutch who made it the capital of the Dutch Gold Coast.  During the period of Dutch control, they built a new, smaller fortress on a nearby hill to protect St. George Castle from inland attacks.  The Dutch continued the triangular Atlantic slave route until 1814, when they abolished the slave trade. In 1872 the British took over the Dutch territory.

It was a somber tour to hear the stories and see the place.  There was a very strange smell in the rooms where the slaves were kept, and it is rumored that it is the smell of death.

We also, visited Cape Coast Castle, which was a 20 minute drive from Elmina and was built in 1637 by Swedish traders.  It was a similar story to Elmina except smaller.

By the end of the day, we were tired and ready for a break from the sobering history.  We went to a beautiful resort on the coast and relaxed.

The following morning, we went to visit Kakum National Park, which was about a 90 minute drive from the resort.  Kakum is one of the most famous national parks in Ghana and is made up of mostly undisturbed rain forest.  There is a canopy walk that has been built through the trees and is the major attraction at the park.  There is also a nature walk, but the entire team decided to go on the canopy walk.

The walk was great for me, but not so great for those who were scared of heights.  There canopy is made up of 7 bridges, and after the second bridge, you have to complete all 7.  The bridges, become increasingly more crickety and swing a little more, so it could be a little nerve wracking at times, but it was mostly fun. 

I have posted pictures below of the park and additional pictures from the castles.  Overall it was a great weekend trip. 

Elmina Castle

Female dungeon at Elmina

Tour guide at Elmina

Cape Coast Beach

Point of no return

Dwight overcoming his fear of heights at Kakum

Gary swinging from a tree at Kakum

                     

Today has been a busy but very productive day.  I promised on my last entry to provide more information on what I am actually working on. 

To explain my work, I will need to draw a quick picture of the different entities that are involved in the project.  The real aim of the project is to improve visibility withing the Ghanaian Public Health Sector's supply chain and really make health commodities available whenever needed by the citizens.  To improve the logistics system in the region, the Ghana Ministry of Health has partnered with the USAID|DELIVER PROJECT (http://deliver.jsi.com/dhome) to design a new system for delivering health supplies.  IBM is partnering with USAID through the CSC program to bring our expertise in developing a plan for the Ghana Ministry of Health.  And finally, IBM has partnered with CDC Development Solutions who is the implementation partner.

We have local liaisons from CDC Development Solutions who have been with us from the start of the project to help facilitate the logistics and also assist with getting the right resources from the various stakeholders who need to participate in the project. 

It is exciting to be part of something that can really have an impact on people's lives and  help increase people's speedy access to health commodities.  The Ghanaian government agencies whom we have interacted with so far, all seem to be very committed to improving Healthcare access and  building a sustainable system.  The commitment by the government is really refreshing and has impressed the entire team.  We are all determined to deliver something useful and that we can be proud of at the end of our project.  Hence, the reason why it has been a busy day and I expect that it will only get busier in the upcoming weeks.

Although there are 12 of us, we have been subdivided into three teams made up of 4 people.  My subgroup is focused on the technical requirements that would be needed to implement a system.  Below are some pictures from our first working day.  The first picture is with all of the attendees, made up of various agencies from the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, IBM CSC members, USAID, John Snow International and CDC Development Solutions (CDS).

The entire group

Technical subgroup

End of the day.  Picture with the IBM CSC team.

Akwaba means Welcome

Hello everyone, it has taken me longer than I thought to write the first issue of my blog.  I will try to make the following ones more frequent.


So, I started this blog to share my experiences while I am in Accra, Ghana, participating in the IBM Corporate Services Corps program. 

The Corporate Service Corps was launched in 2008 to help provide IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering high quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. The program empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 - 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four week community-based assignments. During the assignment, participants perform community-driven economic development projects working at the intersection of business, technology, and society. 
 
My particular project, is in Accra, Ghana and my group will be working with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health.  

Ghana is located in West Africa and was formerly called the Gold Coast, because of both the Gold in the country and the slave trade.  It has a population of 24 million and 4 million live in Accra, the Capital.  Accra is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the weather is tropical; hot and humid generally.

I arrived in Accra, Ghana on Saturday, April 14.  Unfortunately, I came down with the flu while visiting Nigeria right before my arrival in Ghana, so I did not get to meet the rest of the Corporate Services Corps team on Saturday.

On Sunday, April 15, I was able to meet with my team when we went on a short tour of Accra.  I plan to upload some of the other pictures in the upcoming days.  But there is a picture of the entire IBM team (12 in total) from all over the world.

The team is made up of a Brazilian from Sao Paolo, a Chinese from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, 2 from India, 2 Americans (myself included), German, Irish (by way of Australia) and 2 Australians.  We all have various jobs within IBM, ranging from marketing to finance to project management.  Everyone is so excited to be in Ghana and to work on the project.  Also we are working with CDC Development Solutions (CDS), who are the implementation partners and are helping to coordinate all the logistics.

So far, I have found the Ghanaian people to be very hospitable and easy mannered.  They are so willing to help and they are very proud of their culture.  The food is great and spicy; I will discuss food in more detail on my next blog.  I need to get some pictures to add to it.

IBM Ghana 8 CSC team and Maeve from CDS (on your far left)

Drum making shop in open market called Arts Center.