First day at work part deux

  Cape Coast, Ghana
Thursday, April 10, 2008

Nurses working hard

After one week working at the EWIM health clinic I came to several conclusions. First, that I was way out of my depth as I had neither trained to work as a nurse or a doctor; second, that as a result of the first conclusion I wasn't going to be much help in a fully operational health system (like the one in Cape Coast); and third, that the clinic was overstaffed. After mulling over this and having several discussions with the Abusua Programme Coordinator, Erin, I decided to seek out another placement in Ghana. Erin and I had a sit-down and discussed some of my options. As I'm quite keen to get stuck in and avoid having too much free-time we decided that doing two placements side by side was the way to go. The first placement would be with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the other would be on an Abusua run venture to create a youth-run newspaper.
So my first day at work part deux began this Monday. I've decided to do mornings with CHRAJ and afternoons at the Abusua office. Work began at 8:30 on Monday and I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the staff were there when I arrived on time. I sat in a very comfortable air-conditioned office for about an hour while the bosses mulled over my CV, deciding where to put me. I was eventually told that I would be working with the Public Education department, reporting to Mr. Aggrey. My new boss smiled warmly at me and led me into another room where his colleague sat looking over some papers. That morning I sat in on a mediation session. A complaint had been made to CHRAJ by a widower and her daughters who were upset after they had been evicted from their land by the dead husband's brother. The resolution was complicated by the fact that not only did the inheritance law change in 1985, but that Ghana recognizes 'customary law' and upholds the decisions of local chiefs with respect to marriage and property laws. That means that you can 'buy' land simply by approaching the chief and offering a present of peach schnapps. This is considered a binding agreement for the buying and selling of land, so you can imagine how this complicates matters when introduced into the modern legal system. The session went on for about two hours and my two colleagues were kind enough to keep me in the loop with the facts of the case and the rationale behind the advice they gave to the parties involved.
 

Cape Coast high street

We then hopped in the car to do some networking for some upcoming education lectures. Funnily enough CHRAJ is doing a series of human rights lectures with, get this, nurses. So I would see my old friends after all! We visited the nursing college in Cape Coast and also met with a grassroots social club called Keep Fit, which meets in one of the poorest areas of Cape Coast. Everyone we met seemed keen to have us come a do lectures and they all seemed to have a certain amount of respect for CHRAJ as an organisation.

Village outside Cape Coast

 
The next day at work was more of a day or research and reading. I was given some documents to read to bring me up to speed with CHRAJ, as an organisation, and the state of human rights in Ghana at present. Interestingly my boss gave me a US State Department report to read on human rights in Ghana as in his opinion it was the most comprehensive and up to date material available. CHRAJ's last annual report was published in 2005. Through my readings I was surprised to read about a several problem areas. One was what can be best described as 'witch camps'. These are camps filled with women and children who have been accused, many times by charismatic churches, of being witches. These women are then run out of town, and are forced to move into refugee-style camps and rely on the aid of NGOs. Another disturbing fact is that homosexuality is illegal in Ghana, and that public displays are punishable by law. Ghana is a religious country (mainly Christian) and this plays a big part in legal system, and how people perceive human rights.
 
The other project I'm working on is a newsletter called Youth Alive! Abusua Foundation has just received a grant from the German Development Agency to create a youth run independent monthly newsletter. My role is to get the publication published (to schedule and on budget- to echo my Blackwell Publishing days) and to mentor the youths to learn the skills required to run the newsletter on their own. The challenge here is really the budget as the publication costs seem to be higher than was originally expected. But that's why I'm here I suppose.

Ahh the beach

Our local liquor joint