Girls Club at State School for the Deaf

Submitted by Lindsey Hanson; Adjei Kojo, Greater Accra

A girls club can be a great addition to any community. It teaches young women leadership, independence, assertiveness, and pride. I think all volunteers should have at least one club that meets either weekly, or monthly, depending on your schedule. It has been one of the best parts of my experience and lets me work outside of my primary project to teach students about issues that I feel are important to them. These topics are often things that are not taught in school and perhaps the parents do not discuss with their children at home, such as personal hygiene or proper condom use.

Based on an outline generated my Stephanie Carey, an education volunteer, I designed a girls club at my school. (See below) The first step was finding strong women teachers who were interested in running the club. I spoke with them about what issues female students at our school are having. From there we outlined what topics would be best to discuss and I arranged them in an order that made sense to me, several to coincide with National and International holidays. My main role in this club is to inform teachers and students when the meetings are and what topic we will discuss that month. I make the teachers run the meetings themselves, but I sit in and assist. I also was able to procure through the GYD SMALL FUND GRANT Ghc150.00 to purchase some items for the club meetings. These include red ribbons to support National Aids day and beads to make menstrual cycle bracelets. My other role is to contact guest speakers and put them in touch with the teachers running the meetings. I hope to forge some strong relationships, so the speakers will continue to come in the years after I am gone. By giving the teachers the lead role in this club they are setting good examples for the female students and also learning that they can run the club with little help from me. I hope this encourages them to continue the club in future years. If you need any more advice on starting a girls club feel free to contact me or your regional GYD representative.

Month	Topic	Activities
November *December 1st National Aids Day*	HIV/AIDS	Making pins and posters to raise awareness for National Aids Day. Learn about the ABC’s and play the risk game led by peer educators.
December	Personal Hygiene and Menstruation	Making fertility bracelets using recycled glass beads.
January	Entrepreneurship	Tour of Global Mammas distribution site in Ashaiman.
February	Assertiveness and Communication skills	Assertiveness role playing games, Deaf Pride slide show and discussion
March *March 8th International Women’s Day*	Leadership	Guest speaker from Leading Ladies Network in Accra to discuss leadership and what skills are found in a good leader.
April *April 16th World Malaria Day*	Malaria	Risk Game and Neem Cream demo and Net hanging demonstration. Guest speaker from Ghana Heath Service.
May	Self Defense	Basic techniques of protecting oneself demonstrated by local Tai-Kwon-Do instructor.
June	Self Esteem	Making God’s eyes craft and taking photos of the girls to be printed.
July	Birth control Family Planning STD’s	Guest speaker local nurse to discuss family planning and condom demo. Watch videos from PEPFAR and discuss the situations.

Green Nets

Submitted by Mike Mayo

Green Nets is the name of my startup project where my students and I make soccer nets out of recycled material. Our material of choice is water sachets. I thought up the idea at the Peace Corps All Volunteer Conference. At the conference, every PCV in Ghana comes together to share ideas and help each other with projects they are working on. After seeing the water sachet hammock created by another PCV, I realized that I could make something using the same method but much bigger: a football (soccer) net. Since then I have been collecting sachets and making nets.

There are two obvious benefits of this project. The first is it helps clean up the environment by collecting and reusing the plastic sachets that are typically discarded on the ground. You need at least 3500 sachets for one net. Even though that seems like a lot, if you can get your community and the surrounding communities involved the sachets really start to pile up. The second is it provides soccer nets for villages throughout Ghana.

If Green Nets becomes as popular as I hope it will, there is the potential to start selling the nets and creating job opportunities for the local villagers. There is no mechanical way to make the nets so you would need to pay the men and women of the village to weave the nets together. You don’t have to stop at soccer nets. You can show people how to make hammocks (Ghanaians love taking a midday nap and a hammock is much more comfortable than a bench), and volleyball nets. This weekend I even made a kite using water sachets, straws, some thread and a needle. The primary school students loved it! This project is only limited by your imagination.
The most important aspect of this project is its feasibility and sustainability. All you need to make a soccer net out of water sachets is a pair of scissors, plenty of sachets, and some free time. “But Mike,” you might say, “you said you need at least 3500 satchets that is 3,500,000 cedi (old currency), how can I afford that on my Peace Corps stipend?!” My answer for you: you don’t need to buy the sachets, you gotta be a good PCV and pick’em up off the ground! As for scissors they can be purchased at your local Melcom’s at a reasonable cost. In terms of sustainability, as long as Ghanaians keep drinking water out of sachets, PCVs will be making things out of them.

Recently I have partnered with GreenIsEasyGhana, an environmental organization trying to clean up Ghana and supporting small projects they feel can make a difference. They will be supporting my project by providing funds that will help me buy new quality scissors and recycling containers that I will place around mine and the surrounding communities. I will also provide them with pictures and videos that they will post on their website to promote the recycling of water satchets and show the process of making the nets.

To sum up I think this is a great project for everyone to take up. It is easy to learn and the communities love the nets. I will be trying to host an IST in Cape Coast sometime in the future to not only teach the net making techniques, but also to show Cape Coast the possibilities of recycling their massive amount of water sachet waste.

Darien Book Fund

Submitted by: Danielle Dunlap, Central Region


In the spring of 2012 I received information about a book donation program for people abroad that need books for their communities. Darien Book Fund is an American program that has a special process for Peace Corps volunteers. I sent an email telling them who I was, where I was located, who the books were for, and the genre and reading level of the books needed. The email was responded to within a week and in late summer I received a 20-pound box of children’s books and National Geographic for the kids in my town. The one thing Darien Book Fund asks is that you inform them when you receive the package of books and that you take pictures. I did just that along with a “Thank you” video message from the kids.

My counterpart and I have set up a library-esque check out system (the community is currently working on constructing a library) to prepare the youth for obtaining books from a real library. The kids come by my compound and select a book, then sign there name, and are given a 1 week due date. This project was well received in my community and the kids continue to come by and borrow books. The one down side is that you have to educate and motivate the borrowers on bringing them back on time. Some people do and some don’t. Fortunately I have all the names so I can track who checked the book out.

I believe that the Darien Book fund is an excellent idea if you have the patience and time or already have a book borrowing system/library in place. My kids love selecting books every week and I believe that it will help broaden their minds and increase their level of English understanding.

 HEY PCV's! 

It's time for you to put down the laptop (even though Homeland is the most addicting show ever) and get to work supporting Gender and Youth Development at your site! We love hearing about the amazing projects that volunteers have been working on with their communities, so to help you get started we've compiled a list of ideas for GYD-related projects. And remember, your friendly GYD Committee is always here to support you (financially and otherwise) in anything you decide to undertake regarding GYD!

-School garden

-Tree planting event

-Trash clean-up day

-Business classes

-Canning project

-Reading group/tutoring

-Cooking club

-Painting a mural / world map

-Craft club-recyclables

-Ultimate frisbee

-Bike riding

-Quilting/crochet/sewing club (tap into your inner grandma!)

-Language exchange

-Pen pals/World Wise Schools Program

-Movie night

-Jogging club

-Volleyball

-Yoga

-Singing group

-Dance group

-Basic business skills program for young girls (especially those who are vulnerable to travel on Kayayo).

-Boys & girls soccer camp

-Spelling bee at the local Junior High

-Round table discussion with some female leaders (ex: clinic staff or national service volunteers)

-A Men as Partners program with opinion leaders from the village

-Start an HIV & AIDS/art/reading/cooking club

-Start a women’s Shea or Batik group and teach some skills

-Sit with your local women, men, or children and listen to their stories; take the time to discuss their daily lives

-Watch Harry Potter with the kids (because being a good role model starts with good, fun quality time)

-Sit in on a baby weighing (and hold the cutest nuggety chunky-monkeys in the world)

-Try your hand at farming (or any chore that is made easier with a little bit of chit-chat)

-Learn about age- or gender-specific beliefs in your area (be it rumor, stereotype, superstition or ghost story)

-Endear yourself to the nearest school and offer to help with lessons

-Organize a village clean-up day with the local youth and teach them a bit about waste management

-Hold a nutrition or family planning course for the local mothers and mothers-to-be in your community

And remember, send us your story! We'd love to hear about anything you've done (a lesson learned, a successful project, or just a picture of a cute baby).

The Sneaky Teacher

Submitted by Betsy Conway, Brong-Ahafo Region

As senior school science and chemistry teacher, I am in the prime position for educating the young people of Ghana about HIV/AIDS.  They are just at the right age and education level to really understand some of the more complex particulars of the disease.  Futhermore, I can give an HIV/AIDS lesson without them even knowing...

What do I mean?  I mean I am the Sneaky HIV Teacher!  I mean I can sneak in heavy duty information about HIV/ AIDS, while the students think the topic of the day is the digestive system.  I mean I routinely educate people about HIV/AIDS without them becoming ever uncomfortable or burnt out.  I mean I encourage healthy sexually practices wihout ever waving a condom around,  I mean I am the Sneaky HIV Teacher!

Here are some of my recent Sneaks in my Integrated Science class....

Section	Topic	The Sneak
Classification in Biology	The Five Kingdoms (Prokaryotae, Protoctista, Animalia, Plantae, and Fungi)	"There are five kingdoms into which all living organisms can be classified... [blah blah blah] ...But you know something interesting?  Viruses don't fit into any of these categories because they aren't technically "living."  And one particularly interesting virus is human immunodeficiency virus..."
Introduction to Chemistry	Mixtures	"There are two types of mixtures: homogeneous and heterogenous.  A homogeneous mixture is a mixture which appears uniform in consistency.  For example, blood is a homogeneous mixture, which in addition to blood cells can contain all sorts of stuff!  Like bacteria, or the malaria parasite, or HIV..."
The Immune System	Leukocytes (White Blood Cells)	"There is a special type of white blood cells (leukocytes) in your body called lymphocytes, which play very important roles in the function of the immune system. And one very important lymphocyte, the CD4+   T cell is this type of cell that gets attacked by HIV..."
The Circulatory System	Blood	"The blood consists of red blood cells (erythrocytes), plasma, and white blood cells (leukocytes and plasma)... [blah blah blah] ...And leukocytes - do you remember our class about the  immune system?  About the Lymphocytes and the CD4+ T cell...."
Diseases and Infections	Infectious Diseases	"Infectious pathogens can include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites.  Malaria is common infectious disease caused by the plasmodium parasite, which enters your blood when a mosquito bites you.  HIV is a common infectious disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus..."

I could go on and on... But you see the point, right?  Just sneak it in there when they least expect it, and they will never feel weird or uncomfortable about discussing HIV/AIDS!

Sincerely,

Ama "The Sneaky HIV Teacher" Fati