My Work

Just in case you all think that I am here just having a jolly good time, I thought I should give a quick update on how I have been earning my crust (or more to the point spending your taxes). A lot of my time has been spent trying to sort out my role here working with the local District Assembly. The crux of this has been to draft a new job/project description and to present this to my boss Mr B. What I have done is to greatly broaden the role to make it more of an advisory and strategic role. It seems that very little time here is given over to taking a look at the bigger picture and linking all the micro developments to the larger macro perspective. One result of this is that a lot of work goes on in isolation and there is very little linking up to wider strategic goals. Consequently there is a lot of duplication and poor use of resources. Of course this means trying to bring together the many stakeholders, lead by the disabled peoples groups to agree on where they are trying to get to, which in itself is quite a challenge.
The next step is getting this across to Mr B and means endless waiting at his office (he never makes appointments) hoping to grab his attention long enough whilst trying to communicate my message across to him. Because I am not alone in this – there are four of us across the country trying to work with the local assemblies, VSO called a meeting in Accra to get us all together to try and work out some ways forward. Well – for the first time in almost three months I had a one to one with Mr B, lots of good intentions were expressed but back at the ranch I still do not have an office at the Assembly and still seem to be working in virtual isolation – walk on!
One successful project has been to learn how to use the movie maker programme on the computer (wow Mr P what is happening here!?) and to put together a short clip for the VOLPHIG AGM. This did in fact take me hours, being such a slow learner on this darned thing, but I was dead chuffed to put together a pictorial record of some of the consultation work that VOLPHIG carried out in the villages. I now go under the name of Yevu Abobo productions and am planning more ambitious works.
I also supported a self help group of people with disabilities in a small community in Agatime Afegame to prepare a funding proposal to present to their local District Assembly in Kpetoe. I never thought that I would begin to learn about goat rearing and cassava harvesting at this time in my life but there you go. Once the proposal had been completed I went with the Chair of the group Mr K to see the District Coordinating Director (aka Big Man) – who was in fact a tiny man in a huge leather chair. His smart computer continuously showed a slideshow of luxury cars and their leather interiors, ending with a shot of him ensconced in his chair - had to stifle the giggles. So, having hopefully used all the yevu influence I could muster, we wait in anticipation for the money so that they can begin to buy their goats and plough their fields – ho hum.

Last week it was back in Accra. Wisely or perhaps unwisely I have volunteered my services as the Volta regional rep to plan the 50th VSO Ghana conference. We worked hard all week as a group to design a stimulating and challenging conference but are still unclear whether we can proceed as funding is tight and we still have a number of challenges to overcome. Have to say that I was glad to get back to Ho – not only to see Kiran but because it is a lovely place and Accra does my head in. One of my next projects will be to train a number of new counsellors for another NGO working in Ho, so that will keep me off the streets! So – there you go – all those of you out there who think I am on holiday – get real!