The second session of Kekeli training got under way last week. We had 13 women the first day and 15 the second day. The candidates are really smart and good, and they already have a good feeling amongst each other.
Just to keep in touch, here is the latest from Kekeli, the work with women’s health promoters here in Ghana.
The second session of Kekeli training got under way last week. We had 13 women the first day and 15 the second day. The candidates are really smart and good, and they already have a good feeling amongst each other. This is so inspiring to see, how the group of women build up a unity amongst themselves. This is so encouraging for the future, the vision is that Kekeli will grown into a dynamic grassroots movement for health and development, and providing women’s leadership role models. Doris and Olivia from the first batch has come to help out. The training is led by volunteers from the US, Olivia and Jennifer. They are doing well. Olivia is a nurse from San Diego, and Jennifer is a public health graduate from Washington DC.
The candidates come from 9 of the communities that are part of the Northern Zone of the water project, and 6 more communities that lie to the north and North east of the water project area. The training is held at Somekpe village. That is the central location for the Northern Zone.
All the women from the first batch are active except Mawusi from Workpoe who has moved. She has been replaced by another very good candidate who is learning from Dorcas of Agorve and is catching up soon.
The volunteers are adding more teachings about blood pressure and maternal health. They are using a lot of drama and role play, and everyone is having fun. Emperor has been translating so far, as Bernice has been ill, but today I spoke with Bernice, so she is fine now and will be doing the translation for the rest of the training.
We are having plans for meetings of all the women together later (that is all 28 of them!) in the end of October, and other seminars before the end of the year. The other villages in the area are already quarrelling of which are will be the next training, scheduled for April next year. Probably it will be the communities along the road from Kpedzeglo towards Adidome, that is the communities near the road. .
Other volunteers from Canada are scheduled for later in the year and next spring when the next Kekeli session will start. And early next year we have some volunteers from Norway who is going to concentrate on health education through drama. We are busy researching and planning how to structure this work now. Creative ideas are very welcome!
Things in the water project and with the TBA’s (village midwives) are all going well. The homeopathic clinic now has its own room in the clinic, and we are doing clinics and follow up in several villages. The team in the UK is sending a senior homeopath to Ghana almost every month. We are back in contact with Engineers Without Border and hope to build new filters in January. I am off to Burkina Faso next week. We are having and independent evaluation done. And another ten day training session, starting on the 26th of September for ten days. Our funding for Burkina Faso is running out at the end of the year. We will regroup and plan new activities, and if we get some funding, hopefully resume the work, with a slightly different structure or format sometime before the middle of 2008. Much depends on the evaluation.
Other than that an assessment team is going to the flood affected areas in the north of Ghana. We are a bit late, but judging from what we hear in the media, there will be work do to there for some time to come. We are trying to select on neglected community and do something concrete for them. We will start with medical, and if things go well, we will try to assist with the reconstruction too.
Hope to hear form you when you have the chance.
All the best
Dada Daneshananda