Making Pancakes

Today we had a great workshop. I (Julia, the volunteer) showed some women from the village how to make pancakes. We had a great afternoon and the taste of the pancakes showed us, that we were successful.

 

We made the paste together and then, after making a fire, every woman could make her own pancake with the pan. They could choose jam or peanut butter to put it on it. All the women were very fascinated how easy it was and they learned really fast. Finally we tasted the pancakes and they were delicious.

Most of the ingredients you get in Guabuliga (milk, eggs, salt), flour, jam, peanut butter or honey you have to buy in the next city. 

The idea of the workshop was that the woman can make the pancakes themselves and sell it in Guabuliga or in Walewale at the market day. Some things are expensive for the village people (eggs and jam). I suggested that the women can buy it in a group, make together the pancakes and then they sell it at the market and make their own money. Hopefully they`ll really do it and are successful.

Meeting Week

This week Sarah, one of the founders and board members of Braveaurora visited Guabuliga. She is 25 years old, holds a Masters degree of social work and trains many people on issues like human rights and civilcourage. It is her fifth time in Guabuliga and she calls it her second home already.

We had many meetings with her, where we explained and discussed different topics with the staff of Braveaurora, the parents and the children. These meetings are taken place every month.

At the staff meeting the employees of Braveaurora talked about their work of the last month - if there were any problems or developments. For example, the social workers talked about their families-visits or the educational coordinator told us about some changes in the school system. And Sarah explained new projects to them – the foster-care-community building will turn into a training center for the whole community. The project will be developed with the ideas of the stuff and members of Braveaurora.

The staff of Braveaurora: Baba (Libarian), Severin (Projekt leader), Malam (Gardener), Saibu (Educational Coordinator), Sarah (Board member Austria), Yidana Wuni (Watchmen), Julia (Volunteer), Suzie (Social worker), Peter (Farmer), Schola (Assisent Educational Coordinator), Eklimatu (Social Worker), Zenabu (Cleaner), Dahamata (Host Mother)

We also had a parents meeting where we talked about the microcredit program. The caretakers of the children should become more self consistent and no more dependend on Braveaurora. Because of this the support package for the kids will be reduced. Many of the things will be still provided for them, like the school materials. Food and hygienic articles will be reduced slowly. In the end the parents should be able to buy these things  on their own because of the microcredit program.

Parents and Caretakers of the Braveaurora Children.

At the kids meeting we also talked about reducing the support package, which was very difficult for the children to understand. The school materials like school uniform and slippers will be provided once a year. School books, pencils and pens will be given to them every term. If they attend Junior High School every pupil is getting a school bag with a high quality. At the end of the meeting every child got an orange, like we do every month and they were very happy about it. 

The Braveauora kids

Project Fando

This week we started a project with a disabled boy from our community. He is ten years old and his name is Mfando. Mfando`s left arm and foot are debilitated and he isn`t able to walk for 9 years now.

We started this project because a teacher from Austria spent a big amount of money with her class to us to help this boy – many, many thanks to Mrs Erika and her pupils!

We went for a two-day’s journey to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (one of the best hospitals in the Northern Region). They made a lot of test with Mfando and two doctors examined him. They told us that he had suffered from Polio as a child. The effect is, that the brain is affected and because of that he`s not able to walk. They also told us, that the best idea would be to consult a neurologist, but in the Northern Region they don`t have one. So the only possibility is to go to an orthopedic specialist – hopefully he can tell us how to help Mfando. We have to come back next week to the hospital, because the specialist is only working on Tuesdays.

All together we had two exhausting days in Tamale because we had to wait many hours and were sent from one doctor to another. On the other side we`re getting closer to help Mfando and he had a great and exciting time there because it was his first time to be in a city. 

Ready to start the journey: Halidu (Mfandos uncle), Mfando, Julia (volunteer), Eklimatu (social worker)

The doctor takes blood from Fando for the tests.

Workshops started!

Music and Electricity Workshop

This week two workshops started.

The music workshop began on Monday and  it takes place every day at 5 pm.  The children are very interested, especially the younger ones. We learn new songs and dances from each other, it`s a good exchange. For learning we use our voice, our body, the guitar and the drums.  It is great how fast they learn new things and that they are so happy about it.

Julia and the kids are singing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes"

The electricity workshop is every Tuesday and Thursday in the morning and in the afternoon. During the first lesson of the workshop the boys and girls learned how to handle a multimeter and what is the difference between current and voltage.  The workshop had a surprising attendance and  we hope that the pupils will keep this high interest for  the next weeks.

The boys are working with Gunther in the electronic workshop.