Payday!

Payday

I must say, there's nothing more rewarding then reaping the benefits of your  hard labour. For me surprisingly, payday came earlier than I was expecting.

Since our Assembly Members Workshop meeting, the interns, Lydia, Emily and I have discussed with our Director Amofa ways to continue promoting our project during our last weeks in Ghana. The discussion was brought up after I expressed the concern of sustainability with our project since all of us had started to grow worry in our final days before conducting the meeting, about rather or not the Assembly Members would actually go out and inspect the centers once the workshop had ended. Because we did not want to be just a "one hit wonder" as my Director called it, we brainstormed a solution to keep the duty of inspecting Day Care Centres relevant in the minds of the Assembly Members through follow up calls. During these phone calls, we offered to schedule a date and time to accompany each Assembly Member on their first Day Care Centre inspection as a way to help them get a feel of how to do it properly. I was amazed at the turn out of all of those who were actually interested in carrying out their duties, and who have scheduled an appointment with us to go out and do an inspection. As of today, we have  scheduled to accompany a total of 17 assembly members (out of the 19 who attended the meeting) on their first inspection. So far we have already accompanied 7 of the 17 members who are scheduled, meaning that I will be extremely busy up until my final days in Ghana.  However, it is rewarding to see that out of the seven that we have already went on  in the last week, many of them have continued on with their duties after their first inspection. Because they have continued their work, a total of 16 Day Care Centres have been inspected in just one week! 

On that note, I am so proud of the work that my team and I have done. Honestly, I did not expect to get so much accomplished, let alone get every single Assembly Member who attended the workshop on board. I have to say, that it is most rewarding to see these Assembly Members out in their community not only committing to their duties, but actually loving what it is that they are doing,  doing it exceptionally well. Because of this,I like to think that before, I could only state that I knew why it was important for Assembly Members to  do inspections, but after being able to actually witness them go out and do the inspections, and seeing the relationships that they have with those in their communities, I truly understand why it is important that THEY are the ones who go out to inspect. I strongly believe that the Assembly Members are the key ingredient to making this project sustainable. In addition, I am also able to sense how happy they are to have our proposed bye-law as a guide to help them enforce the rules and regulations that Day Cares must abide by as not having proper regulations to follow was one of the key reason for the lack of inspections being done. 

Speaking of Bye-Law, we have taken the first step in getting it passed! It would be wonderful to see it passed before We leave, but of course that is a very high hope. However, I am really looking forward to the day "when" it will be passed, but until then I will speak it into existence!

Regardless, seeing the assembly members pursue their duties with enthusiasm during my last days in Ghana has certainly been rewarding. As you can see, the fruitage to my labour has come  early as I did not expect such a fast turn around, but boy oh boy it is ripe:)

- happy and proud Araba!

Payday