Full Speed Ahead!
I sincerely apologize for my lack of keeping everyone informed with my project and Work placement here, as I still am having troubles with the Internet. However, as I head in to the end of my fourth week, and before I move any quicker, I want to bring everyone up to speed with the weekly reports that I have been making in regards to my project. Therefore, if time permits, please read up as we will be boarding for the next half of this journey soon!
Weekly Report:
June 3rd-June 7th
This week all of the interns received a strong introduction on what the social welfare Department in Cape Coast consisted of. After our introduction, we were asked to choose an area that we desired to focus on while interning with the Department. After a deliberation, we all felt that it was crucial to place our energy in working on enhancing the methods used to monitor and Register Day Care Centers and Residential homes/ Orphanages who operate as None-governmental organizations here in the Cape Coast metropolis. Upon this decision we all than agreed that it was important to first revise the “SMCD Day Care Regulations Act”, as a way to give distinction on what to look for when inspecting Day Care Centres for their registration with The Department of Social Welfare. We completed Revision of the Act on Friday June 7th, 2013. It is now our hope that we will be able to get those on the Assembly in the Cape Coast metropolis who are in charge of assisting The Department of Social Welfare in inspecting and monitoring the quality of Day Care Centers in this area, to adopt and enforce our newly renovated Bye-law to the Act. In the mist of all of this, our team here at the Social Welfare Department received the honor of visiting two Day Care Centres as well as one orphanage/residential home. This experience definitely gave us all a better understanding of the conditions that Day Care Centres and Residential homes here in Cape Coast operate under. More importantly, the chance to visit the centers allowed us to witness more issues that need to be addressed in our bye-law in order to ensure that the proper care for the children is in effect at all times. Because of this, after visiting the centers and the home, we decided to go back through our bye-law a second time for revision to add some important details. This Week has been filled with so much! I am extremely happy with my placement at The Department of Social Welfare, I really feel as though the work that I am doing here will be long lasting!
Expectations for Week #2
During week two it is my hope that my team and I will be able to spend more time brainstorming ideas(incentives) to get the Assembly Members, whose job it is to monitor the Day Care Centers in the Cape Coast area, to be more actively involved in the community by doing so. If I have not explained before, Assembly Members are individuals within different communities who have been voted by the people in thier particular community to serve as advisors and overseers of the activities that are taking place within their jurisdiction. As Assembly members, one of their tasks is to monitor and inspect Day Care Centres and report the quality of them to The Department of Social Welfare, who will in return do follow up inspections to make sure that all rules and regulations are being abided by in accordance with the Day Care Centers Regulation Decree. Because it is so important to get the Assembly members involved, I strongly feel that our work here in Cape Coast will be insufficient or for a better word incomplete if we are unable to find a way to better resolve this issue. As I have observed over this past week, my findings have concluded that a non-involved assembly is the root of the challenges when it comes to monitoring and registering Day Care Centres and NGO's in this community.
Challenges:
I sincerely apologize for my lack of keeping everyone informed with my project and Work placement here, as I still am having troubles with the Internet. However, as I head in to the end of my fourth week, and before I move any quicker, I want to bring everyone up to speed with the weekly reports that I have been making in regards to my project. Therefore, if time permits, please read up as we will be boarding for the next half of this journey soon!
Weekly Report:
June 3rd-June 7th
This week all of the interns received a strong introduction on what the social welfare Department in Cape Coast consisted of. After our introduction, we were asked to choose an area that we desired to focus on while interning with the Department. After a deliberation, we all felt that it was crucial to place our energy in working on enhancing the methods used to monitor and Register Day Care Centers and Residential homes/ Orphanages who operate as None-governmental organizations here in the Cape Coast metropolis. Upon this decision we all than agreed that it was important to first revise the “SMCD Day Care Regulations Act”, as a way to give distinction on what to look for when inspecting Day Care Centres for their registration with The Department of Social Welfare. We completed Revision of the Act on Friday June 7th, 2013. It is now our hope that we will be able to get those on the Assembly in the Cape Coast metropolis who are in charge of assisting The Department of Social Welfare in inspecting and monitoring the quality of Day Care Centers in this area, to adopt and enforce our newly renovated Bye-law to the Act. In the mist of all of this, our team here at the Social Welfare Department received the honor of visiting two Day Care Centres as well as one orphanage/residential home. This experience definitely gave us all a better understanding of the conditions that Day Care Centres and Residential homes here in Cape Coast operate under. More importantly, the chance to visit the centers allowed us to witness more issues that need to be addressed in our bye-law in order to ensure that the proper care for the children is in effect at all times. Because of this, after visiting the centers and the home, we decided to go back through our bye-law a second time for revision to add some important details. This Week has been filled with so much! I am extremely happy with my placement at The Department of Social Welfare, I really feel as though the work that I am doing here will be long lasting!
Expectations for Week #2
During week two it is my hope that my team and I will be able to spend more time brainstorming ideas(incentives) to get the Assembly Members, whose job it is to monitor the Day Care Centers in the Cape Coast area, to be more actively involved in the community by doing so. If I have not explained before, Assembly Members are individuals within different communities who have been voted by the people in thier particular community to serve as advisors and overseers of the activities that are taking place within their jurisdiction. As Assembly members, one of their tasks is to monitor and inspect Day Care Centres and report the quality of them to The Department of Social Welfare, who will in return do follow up inspections to make sure that all rules and regulations are being abided by in accordance with the Day Care Centers Regulation Decree. Because it is so important to get the Assembly members involved, I strongly feel that our work here in Cape Coast will be insufficient or for a better word incomplete if we are unable to find a way to better resolve this issue. As I have observed over this past week, my findings have concluded that a non-involved assembly is the root of the challenges when it comes to monitoring and registering Day Care Centres and NGO's in this community.
Challenges:
My main challenge and I think the Main
challenge for our Department as a whole, is finding a way to Provide incentives
to the Assembly Members who along with the rest of those who are a part of the
Ghanaian culture, are always looking for some type of reward for their doings
(may it be something that is considered required of them or not.) This is an
example of why it is a challenge to get things done in Ghana, as everyone wants
a handout, but there are not enough resources to be handed out.
Until next time,
"Araba", (Tuesday Born) LC
Week 2 Social Welfare
June 10th - 14th
This week was not as fast paced as last week, however there were many things that occurred that will assist us in the advancement of our project which is to find a more efficient way to Monitor and inspect the quality of Day-Care centers (If you haven't read.)
In order to reach our goal, this week all of the interns worked diligently on the following things:
To begin with, we found activities to incorporate into the Attendant (child caregiver) trainings so that they are not simply being lectured to throughout the entire course, but also have some type of activities to assist them with during their course of learning. Some of the ideas that we came up with to include in the trainings are: Making a PowerPoint of the training courses, Role playing to assist with the proper learning of 1st aid, and the incorporation of games such as Bingo and Charades so that they are better able to digest some of the material. Attendant training s are given through the Department of Social Welfare, and it is required that at least one of the two or more attendants caring for the children, attend these trainings. However, while doing inspections at Day Care Centers, I have learned that most Attendants do not meet this qualification nor do they meet most of the other qualifications listed in the Decree under the section title” Qualifications for attendants.” In addition to brainstorming activities for the training courses for Attendants, the interns and I worked on finalizing the Creation of the Bye-Law for the “SMCD Children's Day Care Centre Regulation 1979” so that it will be ready to be presented to the Assembly members at a follow up workshop that we are in charge of putting together. The meeting will be held sometime next month.
Lastly, and what I believe to be the most important event that took place this week, was our meeting with the proprietors and proprietress who serve as the Head Masters of the Day Care Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. This meeting took place on Wednesday the 11th of June and was called in order to ensure that all proprietors and proprietress are doing all that they can to enhance the quality of their Day Care Centers so that they may continue to meet the requirements for registration and renewal with Department. In addition to this, one of my fellow interns Meghan who will be leaving this weekend gave a speech on her project with the social welfare department. Meghan’s project included visiting Day Care Centers, and teaching the Children how to properly clean their hands. She had chosen this project after going to inspect Day Care Centers and seeing that most of the children were not properly cleaning before meals. I had the pleasure of going along with her on one of my visits to inspect a center and in addition was able to assist her in helping to teach the children how to wash up before meals. At the end of the meeting, we introduced the new bye-law to the proprietors and proprietress of the Day Care Centers since it is targeted to their organizations. I hope they were able to fully understand what this means for them....New regulations to be enforced!
Until next time,
"Araba", (Tuesday Born) LC
Week 2 Social Welfare
June 10th - 14th
This week was not as fast paced as last week, however there were many things that occurred that will assist us in the advancement of our project which is to find a more efficient way to Monitor and inspect the quality of Day-Care centers (If you haven't read.)
In order to reach our goal, this week all of the interns worked diligently on the following things:
To begin with, we found activities to incorporate into the Attendant (child caregiver) trainings so that they are not simply being lectured to throughout the entire course, but also have some type of activities to assist them with during their course of learning. Some of the ideas that we came up with to include in the trainings are: Making a PowerPoint of the training courses, Role playing to assist with the proper learning of 1st aid, and the incorporation of games such as Bingo and Charades so that they are better able to digest some of the material. Attendant training s are given through the Department of Social Welfare, and it is required that at least one of the two or more attendants caring for the children, attend these trainings. However, while doing inspections at Day Care Centers, I have learned that most Attendants do not meet this qualification nor do they meet most of the other qualifications listed in the Decree under the section title” Qualifications for attendants.” In addition to brainstorming activities for the training courses for Attendants, the interns and I worked on finalizing the Creation of the Bye-Law for the “SMCD Children's Day Care Centre Regulation 1979” so that it will be ready to be presented to the Assembly members at a follow up workshop that we are in charge of putting together. The meeting will be held sometime next month.
Lastly, and what I believe to be the most important event that took place this week, was our meeting with the proprietors and proprietress who serve as the Head Masters of the Day Care Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. This meeting took place on Wednesday the 11th of June and was called in order to ensure that all proprietors and proprietress are doing all that they can to enhance the quality of their Day Care Centers so that they may continue to meet the requirements for registration and renewal with Department. In addition to this, one of my fellow interns Meghan who will be leaving this weekend gave a speech on her project with the social welfare department. Meghan’s project included visiting Day Care Centers, and teaching the Children how to properly clean their hands. She had chosen this project after going to inspect Day Care Centers and seeing that most of the children were not properly cleaning before meals. I had the pleasure of going along with her on one of my visits to inspect a center and in addition was able to assist her in helping to teach the children how to wash up before meals. At the end of the meeting, we introduced the new bye-law to the proprietors and proprietress of the Day Care Centers since it is targeted to their organizations. I hope they were able to fully understand what this means for them....New regulations to be enforced!
In conclusion to the meeting, the interns
and I were able to get a feel of some of the concerns that the proprietors and
proprietors have in their community, and with running their organizations, such
as parents not paying, rules with registration etc. Along with this, we also were able to hear some
of the concerns that the executive board (The Department of Social Welfare, and
Chairmen of the Board of Education) has with the proprietors and proprietress,
such as hiring attendants who are not properly trained, and some of them not
attending trainings themselves. I really
enjoyed this meeting as it was extremely informative and assisted us in
understanding the things that need to take place in order to move forward with
our project. Also this meeting gave the interns and me an idea of how a meeting
is set up and how we should conduct the Assembly Members Workshop meeting. So
far, we have created a timeline/setup of how our meeting will be laid out. It is
my hope that Next week we will have completed at least the entire PowerPoint
for the Meeting as well as put into place a final structural set up of how the
Assembly Members workshop will flow. I am excited to develop questions
that we can ask as a team, as to what we can do to further assist the Members
on becoming more involved in the community. I am also excited to see how
accepting the Assembly members will be of the new bye-law. This will be a very
important meeting for me, The Department, as well as the rest of the Interns.
Sincerely, Araba
Week 3
June 17th-21st
It takes three weeks to form a habit, so I would like to say that I am really in the groove of things here at The Department. This week, the Interns and I traveled to three Day Care Centres, "Brightly Beamed", "Redeem Baptist" and "Cape Coast Educational Complex" in order to investigate their candidacy for registration with The Department of Social Welfare. One thing that I witnessed while doing my inspection, was the lack of space that each child has for playing and learning. As a result, there was no room to maneuver around the rooms to do a thorough inspection. However, in addition to this, it was surprising to see that as unregistered Day Care Centres, each of these Day Cares where qualified in an area that many registered Day Care Centers are not, which is having some type of medical Care for the Children available should they fall ill. After witnessing this, I have come to wonder which qualifications are most important when it comes to What Day Care Centers and Residential Homes The Department of Social Welfare decides to register, as no Centre that I have inspected (registered or unregistered) have meet ALL of the qualifications for registry under the old Decree let alone the new bye-law.
At the end of each inspection, The Department then goes the recommendations that they have for improvement with the proprietors and proprietress of the center. However, as I have witnessed, The Department has not been very strict in the past or as of yet, when it comes to pushing the proprietors and proprietress to make the recommended changes that we handout in a detailed report after inspections. I have found that this challenge persists because Ghana as a whole is a culture where people often fear rocking the boat. It is very hard to be strict by laying down the law since most of us can either empathize or sympathize with the economic and environmental conditions that many are living and working in. However, I fear that if The Department does not do its job by stating the requirements and enforcing them, the quality of education for children in this area will continue to decrease. This is the last thing that Ghana needs. My question now, is when is enough, enough? When does one stop giving out pity, and begin to hold those who must act accountable, accountable?
Other than working on the investigation of Day Care Centers for registration, we began and finished a presentation for ProWorld discussing none governmental organizations and the role that they play in Cape Coast metropolis. The Department will be in charge of giving this presentation within the coming week or so. The role of NGO's in Cape Coast is to deal with some of the issues the Government does not see as a main priority or better said an issue that can wait until later to be resolved since it does not have the resources to care for everything. In order to find out what NGO's mostly work on in Ghana, the interns and I went through all of the files for registered non-governmental organizations in Cape Coast and found that the top 3 areas worked on, are Education, Health (HIV/AIDS, Sanitation) and Woman's Empowerment. As I look around, I wish to know more about the budget plan for Ghana, and even more specifically for Cape Coast. Where are all of the Government Resources going? (Many professionals such as teachers, Doctors, Nurses and Government workers have not been paid since January.) I also wonder, what sectors do Government feel to be the most crucial areas to pay attention to at the moment, and how is it that they tending to them? I think it would be nice to have a better understanding of these things, and a foundation lay as to how things once were in Ghana and how far the country has come as a whole, being one of Africa's most developed countries. On that note, we also learned the importance of laying a foundation in order to better understand what something means. It was not until after clarification that we learned the history behind where the Children's Act 560 and it's sub part came from that the interns and I understood exactly what this new bye-law we have created, will mean for Cape Coast if it is adopted....It is definitely a huge deal! Lastly all of the interns, (Emily, Lydia and I) worked more diligently on planning and creating the presentation for the Assembly Members Workshop, which we are close to finishing.
Next week, I would like to be able to finish the Assembly Members Workshop meeting, and have a total layout of exactly how things will go such as the date it will be held on, and any other important details that must be established. In addition, if time permits I would also like to have more discussion on the Social issues in Ghana with my Director as he seems to be an open book of information!
Be back soon,
Araba! (Tuesday born)
LCD
Sincerely, Araba
Week 3
June 17th-21st
It takes three weeks to form a habit, so I would like to say that I am really in the groove of things here at The Department. This week, the Interns and I traveled to three Day Care Centres, "Brightly Beamed", "Redeem Baptist" and "Cape Coast Educational Complex" in order to investigate their candidacy for registration with The Department of Social Welfare. One thing that I witnessed while doing my inspection, was the lack of space that each child has for playing and learning. As a result, there was no room to maneuver around the rooms to do a thorough inspection. However, in addition to this, it was surprising to see that as unregistered Day Care Centres, each of these Day Cares where qualified in an area that many registered Day Care Centers are not, which is having some type of medical Care for the Children available should they fall ill. After witnessing this, I have come to wonder which qualifications are most important when it comes to What Day Care Centers and Residential Homes The Department of Social Welfare decides to register, as no Centre that I have inspected (registered or unregistered) have meet ALL of the qualifications for registry under the old Decree let alone the new bye-law.
At the end of each inspection, The Department then goes the recommendations that they have for improvement with the proprietors and proprietress of the center. However, as I have witnessed, The Department has not been very strict in the past or as of yet, when it comes to pushing the proprietors and proprietress to make the recommended changes that we handout in a detailed report after inspections. I have found that this challenge persists because Ghana as a whole is a culture where people often fear rocking the boat. It is very hard to be strict by laying down the law since most of us can either empathize or sympathize with the economic and environmental conditions that many are living and working in. However, I fear that if The Department does not do its job by stating the requirements and enforcing them, the quality of education for children in this area will continue to decrease. This is the last thing that Ghana needs. My question now, is when is enough, enough? When does one stop giving out pity, and begin to hold those who must act accountable, accountable?
Other than working on the investigation of Day Care Centers for registration, we began and finished a presentation for ProWorld discussing none governmental organizations and the role that they play in Cape Coast metropolis. The Department will be in charge of giving this presentation within the coming week or so. The role of NGO's in Cape Coast is to deal with some of the issues the Government does not see as a main priority or better said an issue that can wait until later to be resolved since it does not have the resources to care for everything. In order to find out what NGO's mostly work on in Ghana, the interns and I went through all of the files for registered non-governmental organizations in Cape Coast and found that the top 3 areas worked on, are Education, Health (HIV/AIDS, Sanitation) and Woman's Empowerment. As I look around, I wish to know more about the budget plan for Ghana, and even more specifically for Cape Coast. Where are all of the Government Resources going? (Many professionals such as teachers, Doctors, Nurses and Government workers have not been paid since January.) I also wonder, what sectors do Government feel to be the most crucial areas to pay attention to at the moment, and how is it that they tending to them? I think it would be nice to have a better understanding of these things, and a foundation lay as to how things once were in Ghana and how far the country has come as a whole, being one of Africa's most developed countries. On that note, we also learned the importance of laying a foundation in order to better understand what something means. It was not until after clarification that we learned the history behind where the Children's Act 560 and it's sub part came from that the interns and I understood exactly what this new bye-law we have created, will mean for Cape Coast if it is adopted....It is definitely a huge deal! Lastly all of the interns, (Emily, Lydia and I) worked more diligently on planning and creating the presentation for the Assembly Members Workshop, which we are close to finishing.
Next week, I would like to be able to finish the Assembly Members Workshop meeting, and have a total layout of exactly how things will go such as the date it will be held on, and any other important details that must be established. In addition, if time permits I would also like to have more discussion on the Social issues in Ghana with my Director as he seems to be an open book of information!
Be back soon,
Araba! (Tuesday born)
LCD
So much detailed information! It sounds like you are learning a great deal and area really involved! Awesome!
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