‘Hoe kijkt coördinator Stephen Abarika terug op het project?
De partner vertelt... van 9 oktober 2024 door Stephen Abarika
Elk jaar vragen we onze partner hoe het project is gegaan en welke lessen de partner heeft geleerd.
Context and summary
Describe the original plan/idea for the project. Has the project been executed as planned?
A community called La-Atari in the East Mamprusi Municipality through the Municipal Directorate of Education made a request in 2017 for a 3-classroom block. The request for a 3-classroom block was aimed at improving good quality education since the only existing 3-classroom block was inadequate. World Servants after considering the request, approved for a 3-classroom block with an office and store to be constructed for the community. This decision was to help improve access and sustain good quality teaching and learning. Like a normal World Servants project, it was expected that volunteers from World Servants would come in 2020 to Ghana and to work with community members in La-Atari to construct the classrooms. The global incidence of COVID-19 made it impossible for volunteers from the Netherlands to come to Ghana for the project. Some other factors including a very poor access road leading to the project community caused the project not to be carried out until 2023.
Give a (short) general description of the implementation of the project.
The project was implemented without a team from World Servants. Members of the beneficiary project community were not happy that volunteers from Holland through WSN were no longer coming due to COVID-19. AG Care as an organisation was equally not too happy because the unique nature of implementing a project with a team from Holland was missing this time around. Challenging as it was, AG Care working with other key stakeholders such as the Ghana Education Office, the local government, community chiefs, leaders, and members of the community managed to implement the project eventually in 2023.
Construction works were carried out mainly by AG Care’s local artisan and his local team together with community members. Women played a very crucial role during the construction by providing water regularly while their male counterparts assisted in collecting blocks and helping to mix concrete. The provision of unskilled labour by local community members contributed in no small way to the completion of the project.
How do you look back on the following topics? How was it arranged, what went well, what could be done better?
Construction
Buildings worked on
During the period under review, a 3-classroom block with an office and store and a Girl’s Changing Room were constructed. The project objective in terms of buildings was achieved according to plan.
Tasks to be done
The classrooms and Girl’s Changing Room in La-Atari were completed at the end of March 2023. The newly constructed classroom block is now in full use by teachers and schoolchildren. The tasks were generally shared among the technical team of AG Care and community members. Having to wait for some years to complete the project at a point demoralized some community members.
Programs
Children program
Not applicable (no group).
Cultural and touristic outings
Not applicable (no group).
Life Skills program and Football for Water (also include the amount of tranings given and the number of people from the community actively involved in training).
Not applicable (no group).
Cooperation and involvement
Leadership team World Servants
No team came.
Local leaders / key persons
Local community leaders cooperated very well and mobilised members of the community to participate effectively during the construction of the project. The cooperation of local leaders can be rated on a scale of 8 out of 10.
Community
The community and its members’ level of cooperation and involvement in the project was good. There was a great understanding between AG Care’s technical team and the local unskilled workforce. The cooperation of the community can be rated on a scale of 9 out of 10.
Beneficiaries
The teachers and school children gave their support by securing building materials in the already existing school block.
(Local) authorities
On the part of the local authorities, not much was done especially when they were requested to help make the road leading to La-Atari motorable so building sand and other materials could be transported to the community. The reason given for their inability to provide assistance stems from the fact that they had not received their budgetary allocation from the central government.
Facilitation of the team
Accommodation
Not applicable (no group).
Food
Not applicable (no group).
Transportation
Not applicable (no group).
Safety
Not applicable (no group).
Lessons learned
We did not anticipate Covid -19 when the project was initiated. Little did we know that the bad nature of the road leading to the project community would pose a much bigger challenge for such a long time which delayed the implementation process. As an organisation, we were overwhelmed by the rate of inflation which saw the soaring prices of building materials. Despite all these challenges, key stakeholders remained positive and focused while attending to one challenge at a time. One lesson learned during the period is that it is good to build trust, grow it and sustain it among project community members during project initiation and implementation periods. This way, members of the community will continue to be there and remain committed even if a project goes through various stages of delays.
WS should continue to stay in close contact with the implementing partner for periodic review and assessment of the project if it encounters the above-mentioned challenges. These reviews would help to provide relevant information to interesting groups such as participants.
