At the beginning of March, Millicent Ntriwaah Adjei left Kumasi to take a job in Accra. We wish her all the best and look forward to continuing to work with her on an occasional basis in the future.
Lisa Parsons, a Canadian volunteer, has been working on updating existing orientation material for volunteers and creating new material. She will be taking on some of Millicent’s duties temporarily, as well as continuing to act as a volunteer advisor.
NALAP (National Literacy Acceleration Program) Step down training for teachers took place at Nkorang from the 11th to the 15th of March and in Hiawu Besease, Asakraka, Seidi and Kobeng from 25 February to 1 March. Mike and Yaw supervised the training. Resource persons from the District Education Office trained the teachers to teach the entire curriculum (kindergarten to Primary 3) in the local language. The resource persons doing the training had been trained by World Education International.
An organizational development and technical training workshop for partner NGO’s was held in Koforidia, from 3 March to 9 March. Mike Owusu and James Amanor (Light For Children’s accountant) received this training. Participants received training in human relation and conflict resolution, governance, leadership skills, communication skills, and strategic planning.
On March 16 tand 17th Yaw Otchere visited some of the children and their caregivers who are sponsored by Light For Children. All the children he visited were doing well in school and were in good health. Mike Owusu visited a sponsored child on the 18th whose academic performance is declining and needs further attention in the future.
Mike Owusu continued to monitor the literacy classes in villages participating in the ECHOES program. He visited Nkorang on the 14th of March and Besease on the 15th of March, to see the progress of adult and out of school literacy classes. Nkorang faces challenges in that some adult learners have stopped attending. Besease’s program is currently very successful. Power outages in March had a detrimental and demoralizing effect on all classes.
Trine Skov (a Danish volunteer) has been volunteering at the Street Children Project, going out to talk to the youth on the streets, assisting in classroom activities, and observing value talks and other activities at the Centre. In March she travelled to Tamale with the staff of the Street Children Project to witness and assist in the process of some of the children being reunited with their families. She very much enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in this process.
Klara Adrian (a volunteer from Sweden) started working at Mampong Babies’ Home on the 5th of February, and finished on March 1st. She started out working with the youngest babies and as time progressed spent more time with the older children as well. She enjoyed playing football with the older children, as well as feeding, bathing and caring for all the children. Klara was very glad to be able to bring happiness into the children’s lives whenever she could.
Volunteers Klara Adrian, Lisa Parsons, Trine Skov and Emmanuel Kwarteng have been visiting local schools to conduct the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program. Beginning on Tuesday, March 12, they spent 3 days in the office studying the materials and preparing dramatizations to illustrate to the children various types of assault and how to prevent them. School visits were hampered somewhat by the teachers’ strike, but the four visited private schools and will continue their work in April. Trine has now left to return home, but the others will continue the program.