Itsy Bitsy Spider

Our 10 person delegation left Accra by plane and arrived in Tamale, where our first stop was Nyohini Orphanage, a beneficiary of the CRS Safety Net program. In Ghana, where nearly a third of the population lives in extreme poverty, children are sometimes abandoned or lose their parents to disease. Orphanages provide a net to catch the children when they fall, and CRS tries to help nourish them through food aid. Our delegates are learning with each visit, however, that the food aid will be phased out by September 2008 due to cuts in government funding (known as Title II Food for Peace) from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Representatives of each orphanage and school we visit express gratitude for past support and make respectful requests that the food aid continue. Our delegates, who have dubbed themselves “ambassadors for CRS Ghana,” have promised to return to their homes in Texas and Florida and tell elected officials that the people of Ghana still need the support and partnership of CRS.

Our next day, we traveled away from Tamale over land to the Upper East Region. At our first stop we are greeted by parents and students of the Savelugu primary school in Bolga. In the northern regions of Ghana less than 50% of students go to school, but the CRS School Feeding program is an encouraging success story. By using a combination of direct feedings during the school day and by sending food rations home with girls, school enrollment increases and stabilizes. In 2006, a total of 327,799 children were supported.

Parents take a role in the program by forming Community Food Management Committees, what we might think of in the States as a PTA. The CMFC members are trained in food management and accountability and are responsible for monitoring daily cooking. They are also tasked with mobilizing community contributions to the food inventory such as oil and spices, thereby creating a joint investment in the project. While we were at Savelugu, the delegates watch sorghum being prepared and shared a plate of the grain while the students took their lunch break. We also chatted with mothers and their infants, thanks to interpretation from CRS Education Officer Paul Nabila.

No interpretation was needed, however, when Elementary Education major, Sarah Yanes from the University of Texas/Austin, led a class in learning “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Although some among our group had confessed a fear of bugs and we had already had a run-in with insects during a tour of Shekinnah Clinic near Tamale, the simplicity of the nursery rhyme, coupled with the fun of learning the finger motions, made Itsy Bitsy Spider a great way to cross cultures and engage the students in some smiles. The principal of the school asked Sarah to write down the lyrics so the children could practice and remember our group. Sarah gladly left behind a memento of our time, while the delegates carried our digital photos and videotapes promising never to forget all we were experiencing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 and is filed under Fair Trade . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

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