Harriet in Accra 2009

New donations arriving in Ghana
All children are well and they have received their presents - great happiness in the home! This took, however, a big effort. They went with 10 people, Harriet, Anne-Marie Galanis, her friend Anne Stowers and 7 of the older children to the customs authority to collect the container shipment from Germany. This meant that they had to empty the whole container, everything was checked and then had to be put back into the container. The older children had come to watch the things removed from the container, so that they would not 'run away'! This all took 6-7 hours! But they could only pick up the things the next day, as the customs duty still had to be calculated. But then there was great jubilation.

The children are very happy about the bicycles they got from their godfathers and -mothers! Those that cannot cycle yet are being taught by their housemates, and they become mobile. The largest part of the children now owns their own bike, but this also leads to chaos on the home's premise. Also this problem Harriet solved in her down-to-earth style: She made a plan for a bicycle shed that she then had built behind the security house. Now each child has a place for his or her 'vehicle' and order is reestablished on the premise.

A new school bus has been donated
Thanks to the generosity of our donors we were finally able to adjust our school bus capacity to our increased number of children: Together with Harriet also the large container with the bus donation from the Broich family and all the other donations at the seaport. With the two minibuses all 52 children can be transported to school and back simultaneously. They were also used for driving to the beach party. One can imagine the fun bunch of people on the road - 52 singing children, Harriet, four Germans and several more people.

A field trip with the children
For one day, the plan was to visit a nature reserve. So all buses, cars and people were set into motion again - for a 4 hour trip. Then, upon arrival at the nature reserve, it turned out that another 3 hour waiting period would have been necessary to enter the reserve. This was not desirable and so the return journey was begun. Luckily, a restaurant was discovered, and Mr. Broich invited everyone for a meal - that was a premiere for all children, since none of them had been to a restaurant before. There was chicken with French fries or rice and Coke and Sinalco for everyone. Mr. Broich said that it was a great job by the three men in the restaurant to serve 60 people so fast and well. The restaurant was closed for the day afterwards, though - the whole food stock had been finished!

The house is growing

The main reason for her trip was the timely continuation of the construction work of the third house. Everybody who has ever built his own house knows what this means: As soon as the building owner is away, nothing happens at all! So once again Harriet spent weeks as architect, builder, procurement operator for building materials, lead worker and labourer in one person. She again did justice to her reputation as 'slave driver' with the Ghanaian workers. During the last days of her stay the plaster floor was cast and the concrete walls plastered. Now the second floor is more or less finished. The rooms of the ground floor now have ceilings to protect them from rain and are partly in use already. The office moved from the girls' house to the new building and is fully functional: There are three PC places and an extra room that only contains filing and registry, and two toilets. The former office is in transitional use as a guest room. Also rooms of the ground floor that are not completely finished yet are being used by the children as dining rooms or for doing their homework.
How important Harriet's eyes are 'on site' became also evident regarding the unpaved front yard surrounding the houses. After each heavy rain shower, of which there are quite a few in Africa, the yard became a swamp with water rising ankle-high. Harriet solved the problem by ordering three lorryloads of stones to pave the yard.

New staff members
The growth of the number of children and the increase in the size of the home were a significant challenge regarding administration and financial affairs, housekeeping, learning efficiency, logistics, medical and pedagogic care and safety. Due to her long-term observations from March to August, Harriet had to notice inappropriate developments and to react to them. This meant to restructure staff for the benefit of the children: The contract with the present director was cancelled. For finding new staff, job ads were published, suitable candidates were invited for interviews and the most suitable persons were offered a trial contract. Only after a trial period and subsequent discussions the contracts will be approved by the Germans steering committee. The financial situation will play a large role in this process. As of now, the following positions were filled by new staff members for a trial period:

Principal director of the home, Rebecca Yeboah, made her Bachelor of Science at university and also has experiences in administration. She will be responsible for running the home as a whole regarding administration (including reports and accounting), home economics, staff management, and pedagogy. She will also represent the home towards governmental authorities and engage in contacts with other Ghanaian institutions.
Assistant director, Janet Dowetin, trained as a teacher and will support the director especially in the areas of education and pedagogy, but also in administration and school issues.
Office assistant, Rhoda Hammond, will be mainly occupied with office work, but will also, from time to time, supervise the work of other staff as well as the children. Harriet preliminarily employed these three persons for the same sum as was previously paid to the old director alone. Additional members of staff were employed in order to adapt to the new situation (higher number of children):

Sports coach, Kennedy Sarpong: Sports are hardly taught at school. But there are a number of girls and boys who are already very talented soccer players. These are in danger of being attracted by empty promises of so-called club scouts and sometimes diverted away from school to very dubious soccer clubs. They will usually yield to these temptations and be lost for a good education. We therefore decided to train these talents at our home. To this end, a sports trainer currently comes to the home three times a week to coach our soccer talents. Additionally, he carries out a compulsory early morning exercise every Saturday from 5 to 8 am for all children and their mothers.

Daytime caretaker Helen Nketsiah. Since the two home economics staff are busy preparing the meals nearly all around the clock the children were too little attended too often. Currently, Helen provides this attention until 10 pm. In case financial resources will admit some day, we will of course prefer 24hour attendance.

Security personnel: These positions are very sensitive since they concern the children's safety. Harriet had to give notice to one of the two male security guards as he had proven unreliable. Since there are only few female security guards in Ghana, Harriet had to employ another male, Uriah Ballan. He is a lucky pick, though, as he is a bicycle repair expert and takes care of the children's vehicles.

Our main mission: Education of the children
The main goal of African Angel is to provide a good education for the children from Bukom as a basis for their future! In contrast to Germany, there are no good public schools in Ghana. So we are dependent on private schools. When our program started, Sakumono Complex School was an appropriate solution. But unfortunately conditions there deteriorated during the past: Classes are crowded now and there is a shortage of teachers especially in for the first few school years, which are of special importance. This lead to a lack of interest and motivation among the children which in the end turned Sakumono Complex School into a mere 'children retention establishment'. This development was so worrying to Harriet that she decided to have some children change to different schools. Since May 2009 most children are attending Ann Lisa International School, and some will start at Vison Intellectuals School with the beginning of the new school year. The remainder still attends Christ Preperatory School in Sakumono. Support and stimulation for the children are much better in these schools! Their behavior and especially their study habits considerably improved after changing schools. But this success had its price - school fees roughly tripled compared to the previous situation.

Another aspect of the children's education are the so-called Vacation Classes that are preparatory classes for the next school year. The are not strictly compulsory, but yet almost indispensable to ensure success during the next school year. And there is something like peer pressure: Those who do not participate get isolated from the rest of the class. Vacation Classes started the first week of August and ended first week of September, when regular school started. Attendance fees this year were 13 Euros for each child, i.e. 676 Euros in total. The money could be raised by Harriet with a big effort.

Protection of culture
In order to protect the old cultures from getting lost in the cause of the society's modernization, Ann Lisa International School holds a 'Cultural Day' in July. On this occasion, children dress in the traditional costumes of different tribes, also from Ghana's neighbor countries, and celebrate the cultures. Of course, children of African Angel participated in this, and symbolically performed several ceremonies, like the Kpanlogo-Dance, the Wolomo (priest's prayer), rites of Nigerians when they meet an Ingwe, a Nigerian king, and the appearance of an Asantehene (Ghanaian Asante king).

The Book!
For one and a half years a book on the life of Harriet has been in production, and it will be published in October. The author Beate Rygiert visited the African Angel cottage for a week in May 2009 to have a detailed discussion about the book with Harriet, and to see the children's daily life herself. The book will be published by 'Lübbe Verlag'.

"Ye da mu ase, Nyame enshira mu"
The children of Bukom thank you for your interest and your kind support, saying "Nye yiwala donn agbo agboi" ("Many thanks" in Ga) and "Ye da mu ase, Nyame enshira mu" ("Thank you and God bless you" in Twi).