Always new stuff going on

I am still trying to get settled, which is not easy when just everything is different to what one is used to. At the moment every day is still a different day.

On Sunday I went to church with the family. Being an atheist I never go in Germany. But here it is really a special experience. The church is massive and I would say that about 500 people attend. Even though it is quite large not everyone fits inside so chairs are put outside. One week they would make a youthful service with awesome gospel singing. People start dancing and enjoy a lot. The other week they have a more mature service with choir music. This week the new attendees were asked to step up. Evelyn really wanted me to step up so I was handed over a microphone and had to introduce myself on stage in front of 500 people…me the atheist :D

This week I had my first “Nassala experiences”. The kids call me Nassala, which means white woman. Many of them can’t stop staring when they see me. Some would randomly ask me to give them money. A normal girl my age even stopped me and asked me to give her my earrings. If I gave her my earrings we could be friends. It is new to me but I probably have to find my way to deal with it.

The biggest event this week was probably that our family shrank. Alex went to boarding school. He was so full of energy that the house will be just quite.

And I finally got to meet one of the women groups that receive micro credits from HoLIFE. I didn’t understand a word but the energy was amazing. After 2 hours of discussions the women ended with pure happiness, singing, dancing and praying. This brings me finally to the introduction of the organization that I am supporting.

HoLIFE (House of liberation for empowerment)

HoLIFE’s mission is to empower women of the Upper West Region here in Ghana, where compared to the rest of the country poverty is still high, women don’t have many rights even though they usually are the bread winners of the family. HIV is also a big problem in the area. Many women lost their husbands to the disease and families are stigmatized.

Now HoLIFE is involved in many projects that in the end are supporting women of the region. One big project is the micro credits. More than 500 women in 8 different communities receive loans that enable them to open their own small businesses. How does this work? If the women in a community would like to receive loans they have to group up. They pick a group leader. The group leader has a special role. She needs to be able to read and write to document what it going on. As illiteracy in this area is the status quo this is important. Also the group leader is invited to workshops frequently and passes on what she has learned during the workshop to the rest of the group. During workshops they are usually taught about how to save, how to plan well, how to negotiate with potential buyers as most of them are producers of some kind of product.
The group leader is always the one who has the closest contact to our organization. They come with lists of the loans that the women ask for. Once the loans are handed out the group leader comes once a month to bring the repayments of the group. Only when each member of the group has repaid her loan the group can apply for new loans. There are quite high interest rates on the loans to create pressure to pay back in time. And we actually achieve repayment rates of 98%. Actually one of the problems is that because in the groups the HIV rate is sometimes 50% women just die while still repaying the loan leaving the rest of the group responsible to think of a solution for the open depth. But besides getting loans the women also have the possibility to save. As many of them don’t have bank accounts the organization puts away the little money they are able to save.

But this is not the only project HoLIFE is involved in. At the work place here in Wa there are also 6 women that produce different things. One of them is a sewer, the others are flexible in their work. They produce different spice mixes, make bread every day, when we get shea nuts they even make shea butter. Also there is a restaurant next to our office, which we are still trying to push. All the products that are made here are sold wherever possible. We attend trade fairs , try to get them into the stores and do everything possible to sell them locally but also more and more on a national lever.

The next project that is about to be realized is a day care for children between 6 months and 4 years. Here in Wa there is actually no possibility for working mothers to have someone take care of the children. Of course this brings along problems that HoLIFE is trying to fight.
The building has already been put up, there are teachers employed and the day care will open September 16^th. However, we still miss funds to buy materials, there is no electricity and a small school bus is needed to pick up the children.

The last project that has not received funds and is therefore only theory is the one that is the most valuable to me. HoLIFE wants to build a campus for female students that study here in Wa. Why? Well, here in Wa there are not enough accommodations for the girls. This leads to very high prices for rooms. You can easily have 8 students living in a small room. Girls prostitute themselves to be able to pay for their rooms and raping by the landlord is common practice. As a result the girls are psychologically destroyed and the HIV rate high. University started this week and Evelyn told me that raping will increase immensely the moment the female students are back from their villages.