PAAJAF, the organization I’m with, is interested in helping with the development of the underserved community of Gbawe.  Gbawe is one of the developing areas of Accra.  Since it is removed from the centre of Accra, development of the area has been slow in happening.

The primary focus of PAAJAF is development through education.  It currently runs an adult education class for youth and adults in the area. Classes happen three nights a week and takes place at one of the government public schools in the community.

Though there is no shortage of schools in the area, schooling remains a challenge for persons from families facing financial hardships.  The public schools are under-resourced and the private schools are too expensive.

PAAJAF’s interest is to try and fill in some of the gaps that occur in education in the area.  The adult education class is one example of this work.  The first few weeks of my stay here in Accra was spent working on a conference that was supposed to give youth from the community an opportunity to discuss local, national and global development issues.  The plan was to have a week-long conference for youth to interact. We put in a strong effort to design the conference by working on the details of it- logistics and content.   However, the conference has been postponed until further notice.  Why? Because of financial issues.  I’m sure this is one issue that small organizations like PAAJAF face on a regular basis.  Not having a budget to operate with is a major issue of the organization and finding help is not an easy task.  There are so many NGOs in the country that finding your way to the top is a difficult challenge.  I’m also told that the high cases of fraud makes it tough for organizations to secure funding for worthwhile projects like a youth conference.

In any case, the time frame for the project was too strict and the window within which to pull it off was too narrow- hence the postponement.  The conference was scheduled to take place at the end of November 2010, however, until my arrival in July, not much had been done in terms of attempts to secure funding/sponsorship for the event.   The four or so months to pull off all the major components of the event would have been possible in some other circumstances, however, I’m always reminded by my coordinator that ‘this is Ghana’  and things don’t move as fast as one would always want.

The conference would have been a wonderful event, especially for the Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary school students, who would have attended.  They would have been provided with the forum to discuss development issues with fellow youth from different locations across the country and beyond, as well as with government personnel and other individuals/experts involved in the development field.

At first it felt as though the work that was put into designing the conference was wasted.  But that isn’t so since the idea and the will still remains.   And thus when the right time comes –as in, when PAAJAF secures a little funding, the conference will happen.  That’s assuring.

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