Narrative Report

This was a successful project for the community and volunteers. The community demonstrated  their understanding and appreciation for the project through their high level participation, while community leaders exhibited commitment throughout the whole project period. The project also experienced good integration of the Dutch team and local community members, promoting understanding and team work during construction. The food offered to the participants was good. Other project activities such as children program, Life skills program, home visitation went well. Participants were accommodated in a school building.

The road leading to the project community was very bad, making it very challenging to transport project materials such as building material to the community. With the help of the chief and community members, some work was done on the road to facilitate the transportation of both building materials and participants to the project community. Wood for the project could not reach the project site early enough for participants to build at a plan pace. AG Care regrets the situation. The reason why this happened was that the new government in Ghana took a quick review of cutting of timber in the country, leading to inadequate supply of wood at the time which coincided with the time of this project. The challenge was strictly a national policy issue which was above AG Care’s control.

The level of participation of community in the project was very encouraging. The project was completed one week after Dutch participants left Ghana and is currently in use by school children.

Schools in Ghana, especially the deprived communities in northern Ghana face the challenge of inadequate classrooms. This unfortunate situation has a long term negative impact on the access and quality of education in affected communities. This results in the fact that parents are not attracted to enroll their children into school. It also promotes school drop-out, poor teacher student engagement and interaction that lead to poor learner performance. As a response to improve the undesirable situation the community, local government and district education office requested funding from World Servants through AG Care for the build of 3 classroom. This to help attract and retain children in school and at the same time, enhance quality teacher child interaction during school hours.

Planning, organizing, scheduling etc. during the project was to a large extent well managed, given the context of the local project community. The community was well mobilized and empowered with effective project information about the project. This led to effective project delivery. The World Servants team exhibited high level of flexibility during the project period which paved the way for easy integration. The outcome was sound team work that delivered the desired project outputs within an agreed time frame.

Construction works was done in line with the approved design. Wood for the project could not reach the project site early enough for participants to build at a plan pace. AG Care regrets the situation. The reason why this happened was due to the fact that the new government in Ghana took a quick review of cutting of timber in the country, leading to inadequate supply of wood at the time which coincided with the time of this project. The challenge was strictly a national policy issue which was above AG Care’s control. AG Care’s technical team and the Dutch technical leader worked together and succeeded in leading other members of the Dutch team and local community members to execute the project. By the time the Dutch team left the project community, the building was yet to be roofed. A water tank was also constructed.

Facilitation of the team on the average went well. AG Care detailed another staff to help facilitate this project since Stephen Abarika was coordinating another World Servants project in Dindani. Ali Jaliu was the staff of AG Care that facilitated the project. Accommodation was well arranged under the prevailing condition in the project community. Participants were accommodated in a school building in the community. Good meals were served to the participants during the entire project period.

The children’s program created a lot of awareness among the children in the community about who God is and how He loved them. The sessions with the kids covered many other activities making the program an exciting engagement which will be remembered by the children for a very long time to come.

Life skills program targeted the Junior High School students. They had memorable engagement with the Dutch volunteers.

Football for water activities was also implemented in three communities to raise awareness on water, sanitation and hygiene among school children and the community at large.

Cultural exchange activities were carried out during the period participants stayed in the community. As part of the activities, homes of locals were visited with the main aim of interacting and to understand each other’s (participants & local people) culture. The team also undertook touristic outings which went well.

Transportation was well arranged. The bus by which the team traveled did not encounter problems. AG Care provided a vehicle which was used to facilitate the project. This came at a cost, since the vehicle had to be repaired before it could be used.

The cooperation with the World Servants leadership team during the project period was highly cordial and productive. The high level and good cooperation was the main reason why building project and other activities were successfully executed.  

3.7.1 Applicant

Was encouraging. The applicant (Education Office) provided the needed support (physical and moral) i.e. visiting project community before, during and after the Dutch team left the country. They also helped in community mobilization.

3.7.2 Staff

The cooks did a good job. They provided tasty meals for participants.

3.7.3 Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiaries of the project, who are the teachers, unfortunately did not actively participate in the project. The reason being that they live far from the school community. 

3.7.4 The local authorities

The local authorities helped in mobilizing the local community for the project and were represented during the interim handing over.

3.7.5 Community

Community support for the project came in the form of providing land for the project, water for construction and contributing unskilled labor.

The work on the three classroom building continued by AG Care’s technical team and members of Za-ari community. The enthusiasm among members of the community towards the provision of unskilled labor and other form of project support was sustained after the Dutch team left, signifying community gradual build-up of a sense of project acceptance and ownership. The presence of the World Servants team in the project community contributed immensely to promoting the self-help spirit that was noticed in community members before, during and after the World Servants team left the project community.

More and quality time and resources spent on community mobilization is very necessary to empower community structures for quick, quality and active participation in development initiatives in their community which will normally lead to sustainability of interventions.