Hello all i hope all is well for you. Things have been good here at the project, busy as always. This week we had a quarterly partners meeting with our sole donor, Action Aid. When they came to visit us last month we learned that they were withdrawing two thirds of their funding from the project. We were not surprised because we have been working with them for about 4 years now and NGOs (non-profits) typically like to support any one given project for an average of 3-5 years. I have found it to be the nature of funding from NGOs worldwide. So the last few months we have scaled back our activities while we wait to see if we are going to be funded by Ghana AIDS commission. The partners meeting was informative. I always enjoy hearing about all the great programs that local NGOs come up with. There was recently a new Domestic Violence bill passed in Ghana so there are a lot of activities going on right now about educating women on their rights. Women's rights is really starting to take off in this country, it is encouraging how many activities and how much dialogue is happening around the issue.

Anyway, I wanted to address some of the perceptions that I have found to be common in the Western world about Africa. Africa is hardly mentioned in the "world news" of major American networks at all, and when it is, it is almost always negative. There are a lot of misperceptions about Africa and as an American living here, I though I would address them in an effort to dispel some myths.

Perception #1 : People are starving everywhere
Okay I work with a malnutrition centre so I can say there are many malnourished people here. But actually Ghanaians eat a lot, the portions are huge in this country. It is just that the diet is so high in carbohydrates that sometimes people are full, but not getting enough protien and vegetables that they need. But I think it is more accurate to say "people are overeating everywhere."

Perception #2: Africans are lazy
This is perhaps the most laughable misperception of all. Ghanaians typically work 6 days a week for an average of $2 US a day. I would like to meet the American who would work so hard for so little money, because I don't think he or she exists. Our clinic attendant/malnutrition centre employee/orphan take care of-er/cleaning woman/general saint Madam Gyovaa comes to work at 6 or 7 am and is supposed to go home around 2 but usually stays until at least 5 pm and makes less than $.75 a day. That is of course when we are paying her, which we haven't for the last 2 months because of our loss of funding. Ghanaians are seriously hard and dedicated workers.

Perception #3: Corruption is rampant in Africa
This is the one negative perception that seems to ring very true. Corruption is rampant in all levfels of government and society as far as I can tell. It is not that every politician is corrupt, but enough of them are that it seriously affects the quality of life of people in society. Just being here a short time I think there are 2 main reasons that I can see why Africa's development has not been as effective as it could be: 1. is corruption. I am sure so much of the debt money that countries now owe is sitting in the foreign bank accounts of its leaders. 2. is lack of production facilities. If Ghana could produce certain products instead of raw materials, then they would pofit much more from their natural resources. A perfect example is shea butter. They have a lot of shea here, especially in the North, which is the poorest part of the country. If they had a processing plant here they could make mass quantities of high quality butter for export. As it is, they just have a local market for the butter which doesn't produce high profits and export the rest of the shea raw which is worth a lot less. Sorry I am digressing. Anyway, corruption seems to me a major problem from the local the national level.

Perception #4: Everyone is poor
This is just as ridiculous as the peception in Ghana that all Americans are rich. Poverty is a huge problem here, especially in the North. But as it every society, there are the haves and the have-nots. Your middle class Ghanaian man is probably relatively better off than your middle class American man in terms of providing for their family by the standards of their society. I am talking relative here, don't think I mean most middle class Ghanaians have washing machines, computers, and ipods :)

Perception #5 Africa is dangerous
This one is not so easily agreed or disagreed with. I think it is a lot less dangerous than people think. Ghana in particular is not plagued by the tribal conflict and coups that other countries experience. One viewpoint I have heard is that Ghana doesn't have problems with tribal conflict because of its high school system. High schools, or secondary schools as they are called here, are boarding schools. So because at a very young age Ghanaians have to live with and tolerate people from different tribes, they don't have major tribal conflict. I know my own experience of living with people from different backgrounds in high school made me tolerant and influenced my interest in other cultures at a young age so I can relate.
However, I don't go out alone at night in Africa, this is because of the misperception by Ghanaians that all Westerners have a lot of money and walk around with fists full of dollars all the time. So in that sense I felt safer living in San Francisco.

Anyway my time on the internet is almost up, I am leaving and going back to Lawra this morning. Thanks to Freida for organizing a benefit, the help is definitely appreciated. Saturday, June 16th is the date of the event. I will send out details beforehand of how people can support us that are unable to attend the benefit. Take care all and have a good weekend.