Izzy Tolputt – my trip to Ghana

When I was 7 years old I learnt about ATE in an assembly at Ramsbury Primary School – little did I know that 11 years later I’d be in Lawra myself!

I did my work experience with ATE, exploring the impact of period poverty on girls in Lawra and Marlborough – and I was so excited at the opportunity to go and volunteer in Ghana this summer before I started university. I’d been inspired by this work since I was a small child, it was a dream come true.

When I landed in Accra, with my boyfriend Brodie, it immediately struck me how different Ghana is to the UK, the air was hot and thick and seemed to stick to my skin and everything was a lot louder. It felt like every driver was beeping, and motorbikes were whizzing passed us from every direction. At red lights women would rush into the road and walk to different cars trying to sell things like food and fabric, our taxi driver said we could do all of our shopping without leaving the car!

Sitting in the taxi I felt so many emotions. I was anxious about being in a new place and being away from home for so long, but I also felt excited for our volunteering in Lawra and Nandom.

The first few days of our trip we were in Big Milly’s Backyard, a backpackers beach resort in Kokrobite, about 2 hours from Accra. We used this time as an adjustment period so we could get used to being in Ghana. And 2 days later we made the 600 mile journey to the Upper West – we flew to Wa and then got a taxi to Lawra.

From the moment I arrived, I felt so safe and welcomed by the team and everyone that lived there, with everyone greeting us when we walked through town. I felt hot, overwhelmed and emotional – and I loved it straight away.

We loved have dinner with Olivia (Hub Assistant), Gafar (Hub Manager) and Michael (Tech). Whilst waiting for the noodles, we spoke about a lot of different things such as football teams and who we support, how driving lessons work and what movies we like, Michael told us about what living in Accra was like and how much he loves Lawra, this was such an amazing night as we really felt at home in Lawra with the team. We have so much in common.

We started working the following day and I started to notice more differences between Ghana and the UK, especially for your people to learn a skill. For example, in Ghana you have to pay the business owner if you want to be an apprentice – this was quite shocking to both Brodie. It made starting a career or learning a skill seem very difficult. When we saw the opportunities for young people through ATE we were amazed. We enjoyed working with children on computer skills, reading and playing.

One of the best experiences we had was going to the different SNAP meetings around Lawra as we got to see how impactful ATE’s work has been for the disabled children and their mothers. We went to very rural Dowine SNAP group when school uniforms were being given to the children to enable them to go to school. Seeing this was incredible as the atmosphere in the room was amazing, everyone was so excited and all the children were looking forward to the upcoming school year. I felt really lucky to see this side of the back-to-school season as back to school in Marlborough was always a dreaded part of the summer as a new school year was just around the corner, but in Dowine, September was being treated with joy and excitement.

A few days later, we visited Biro which is a village about 40 minutes away from Lawra. In Biro we met with two school girls who were about to attend Senior High School, one of the girls was 18 and the other was 19. We were gathering case studies, with one of the heavier questions being ‘what would you be doing without ATE’s support?’ and both girls told us they wouldn’t be in school. They said that they would have married someone in their community or gone down south to mine or farm as both of these would relieve their families of financial burden of having them stay in the house. This made me feel very emotional as I am 18, the same as them. I am so lucky in the fact I am at university, but even if I wasn’t, I could live at home and have a job and marriage would not be part of a conversation involving finance. For these girls, marriage was a way to help with finances and to try to relieve a financial burden from their families. It made me so sad.

After hearing all of this, I fully appreciated how big of an achievement getting to Senior High School is for the girls in Biro. They are amazing.

Before leaving Lawra, we took some of the team out to Sparks (a bar!) for drinks. For me, this is one of my favourite memories of the trip as we spoke to everyone about their lives and were able to connect over so many things, Michael and Gafar recommended us different Ghanaian musicians to listen to and we spoke more about football and what our lives are like in Marlborough. We also learnt about the Kobina festival and Kapke, Blandina and Olivia explained what happens at the festival and why it is so important to Lawra. We were so connected, so similar – it had been a brilliant time in Lawra.

After our time in Lawra, we went to Nandom. After arriving in Nandom I noticed how different the town is to Lawra with Nandom being very busy and very loud but overall an exciting place to be! I enjoyed going to the market with Kanyiri (Impact Manager) and buying fabric which we got made into a dress for me and a shirt for Brodie. We also bought some sensen, which are pancakes made out of bean flour – it is amazing and I am determined to make it here as both Brodie and I miss having it for lunch.

Whilst in Nandom we were able to go to Tokuu (a remote rural community) for the first ever day of the new ATE school feeding programme there. This was an amazing day even though it rained a lot! Seeing the happiness from the students and the teachers was exciting as they had never had a school provided lunch before. After speaking to the headmaster I realised how big of an impact the school feeding will make on these children’s lives as he told us many of the children do not eat before school. Usually attendance at the school is awful, but for the day of the feeding there was 100% attendance and all the children were so happy and excited about being in school. At the time of the feeding the atmosphere shifted again as the children were about to eat, many of them were exhilarated to get their lunch!

 

Speaking to the students was interesting as they told us how difficult it is to learn whilst hungry. One boy telling us he used to go home if his hunger pains were too bad because he couldn’t concentrate and he told us knowing food will be in school makes him want to come to school more because having food means he will be able to concentrate. Seeing the feeding was a highlight of the trip as we could see the big impact of ATE and how happy ATE makes people in different communities.

There were so many other things we did! We spent time with amazing people, on farms, with businesses…. it was all so interesting.

Overall this whole trip was an incredible opportunity- it’s opened my eyes and helped me connect with amazing people from such a different part of the world. I’m so glad we went and will continue to support this wonderful small charity as much as I can in the future.

By Izzy Tolputt