Policy-makers trip
to Ghana
NGO
Mondo organised a combined policy-makers study trip and educators
award trip to Ghana in March 16-26. The participants included Kaili
Terras: Head of Development Cooperation Bureau, Estonian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs; Enn Põlluaas, Member of Estonian Parliament; Bianca
Mikovitš, journalist from Maaleht; Viktoria Rudenko, teacher from
Pae gymnasium, winner of "School World-day" competition;
and
Margit
Saal, gymnasium student from Otepää gymnasium, winner of student
essay competition.
 |
| Visiting a cocoa farm in Kumasi |
 |
| Meeting the Nabdam District administration |
The aim of the trip
was to get an understanding about the opportunities and constraints
for development in an sub-Saharan country and to see how EU and
Estonian development cooperation works in practice. During one week
the participants had the chance to visit the EC Delegation in Ghana,
a cocoa plantation and Kuapa Kokoo fair trade cooperative, Kumasi
market as well as Mondo's development cooperation work in Northern
Ghana. Mondo has worked for the past 6 years in Nabdam district in
Upper-East region close to Burkina Faso border which is the poorest
part of the country - lately affected also by desertification caused
by climate change. The activities in the community include
educational support to primary and secondary students, school linking
between schools, income generating activities for women and support
to schools and health centres. Estonian teachers, nurses, midwives
and designers have served as volunteers in the region. The group had
the chance of visiting the District administration, schools, local
homes and women's cooperatives. At the same time there was also a
film crew from ERR filming a documentary about the shea butter and
basket makers cooperatives that Mondo helped to set up recently. The
documentary will come out in the autumn.
After the trip the
participants have been active in speaking and writing about their
experiences in both social and traditional media. A Ghana evening was
also organised at Mondo on 22 April to discuss the results of the study trip
and Mondo's activities in Ghana.
 |
| Hon. MP Henn Põlluaas learning basket weaving |
 |
| Teacher Viktoria Rudenko giving a class in Kongo JHS |
No comments:
Post a Comment