Blog Archives - CORPSAFRICA

I Found My Calling

3/18/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Rwanda Volunteer Mr. Olive Duhoredushima

Recognizing that I'm volunteering and doing an exceptional job is critical. I had always felt indebted to give back to my country; fortunately, CorpsAfrica was the right place to respond to my calling since I was deployed in a new community far from home. I had never been as far away from home as I was this time, which is why my heart was beating so hard. Frankly, I was eager and enthusiastic to serve, but my thoughts were wondering how things would go with the new community. It didn't take long for me to realize how wonderful my community was; love and hospitality were the guiding lights; my community was quite remote from the main road; however, the lovely sight of nature, full of beautiful mountains above all the beautiful people and charming smiles, warmly welcomed me.

And it has been close to me during my integration, and I admire it. Because of the long distance, we had taken to reach there at midnight, my host family warmly welcomed me on the first day I arrived in the Nyamagabe district. They were essential in assisting me in integrating with the community, and I was very proud to be called a daughter by my host mum! The whole family showed me love and care, and I was touched then.

I started doing door-to-door visits throughout my first two weeks in my host community. I attended various activities, including weddings and celebrations, which built my trust in the host community.

When I arrived at the site, I found that the people would be doing various activities that would benefit them. But there was one thing they liked, and now they would use it a lot. I facilitated them in the Asset-Based Community Development and Human-Centered Design approach, where the development is centered on the community's involvement. The most remarkable thing about my story is being a part of the community and working together to lead their development. My life was influenced by this volunteering experience, which forced me to move on with my ideals from conception to completion. Indeed, being a part of a community is the best experience ever.
My stay in this beloved community always creates for me a unique and inspiring story to share, and my very transformative journey is going on. It is an absolute dream that I walk in, and it is another opportunity to connect with this new family of mine.

For over four months, you can see the people enjoying their community-led development, which gives them hope that more change will pour in, thus achieving sustainable development. I am fond of Maya Angelou's quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." I feel delighted and proud that this is my time, moment, and year to contribute to my country.

Journey to Kanfiehiyili

3/18/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Ms. Victoria Ndebugri Wintonya

At approximately 30 minutes past 10:00am, I left home to meet my field liaison officer and some colleague Volunteers in order to start our deployment. I was excited to see my colleagues again after our memorable moments at our Pre-Service Training (PST).

We started dropping off one after the other and I was the third but last person to be dropped. Immediately we arrived at my community, I went into a panic zone. Thoughts started running through my mind and at that moment, I was trying to match reality with expectations. However, the differences I could make were not much because I was quite familiar with the rural setting in northern Ghana.

I was welcomed by my host family representative who quickly organized a room for me. This was not the initial arrangements. According to the assembly man, they were expecting male Volunteers and had arranged for them to pair a room with some selected young men in the community. Since I was a female, my host family representative offered to receive me. His family had a smaller house with 3 rooms situated a few meters away from their family house which was occupied by his niece of about 16 years old. Therefore, 2 other rooms were empty and I was given one. I quickly moved in and settled down. All was set to observe, experience and explore my new environment. I was provided with food (Tuo zaafi with kuuka soup) and water by my host family. Seeing how receptive my host family members were, and how eagerly they were putting things in order (hanging my window and door curtains, supplying bathing water, etc.) to make me comfortable, made me move from the panic zone to the growth zone.

My place of residence. Standing right in front of my room with my fellow Volunteers who were yet to be deployed.

Volunteering Diaries of Victor Annani Togborlo

3/18/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Mr. Victor Annani Togborlo

It was an ineffable nostalgia when I entered the KG2 classroom. At the same time though, I couldn’t help feeling slightly wistful about a congested class of 45 young holy souls being taught by Miss B alone. Memories of my early days in school were flickering through my mind as I gazed at these young ones doing exactly what we did back in the day – going under the desks, disrupting class, frequent movements etc. I sure was one of the most vivacious kids who bothered my KG teacher the most and so I smiled as Sampson’s name was mentioned too many times to put him in order. Apparently, he was the zestiest.

This was only my third day in the South Dayi District and Kpeve Model Basic School was my first school visited in my attempt to integrate into the District for a volunteer experience that will span over the next few months.

In a short conversation with the class teacher, she mentioned the obvious congestion in the class as the most pressing challenge. To most people reading this, it will appear counterintuitive to say the congestion in the class is not as a result of inadequate number of teachers. The reality however is that the District Education Directorate had assured the school of posting new teachers to them if the school’s management ever made a request. The actual challenge – the lack of classroom space.

In a dialogue with the assistant head teacher, Stephen, I was awed by the achievements of the school over the past few years at both the regional and national levels. A national best teacher award (kindergarten category) won by the current headmistress, a national best student (Basic School category), first runner up of the national GH4stem Juneos challenge and many more.
The story of the school’s exploits in the GH4Stem Juneos challenge was intriguing. Mawumenyo, a son of a fisher, who represented the school designed an artificial fish to serve as a pirate detector to give cell phone alerts to fishers like his dad whenever illegal fishers intruded their area. Check it out here: https://fb.watch/ib-_SgFcOt/. Stunning right?

And to imagine that this is an invention of a basic school student whose school has no science practical equipment, let alone a science laboratory, only begs one question – what if these young ones experience an education where the suitable teaching and learning materials/equipment exist?

Among the challenges Stephen mentioned are computers for their computer lab, a library, science practical equipment, and above all, a classroom block to reduce the congestion as some classes are currently over 70 students.

Are you an education enthusiast?

Do you care about the quality of the human resource of Ghana’s future?

Do you fantasize of a moment when our young ones are globally competitive in technology, medicine, engineering etc.?

If your answer is “yes” to any of these questions, then avert your mind to the typical Ghanaian classroom in the underserved schools and if you have the wherewithal to support any school, don’t relent.

Guess what is on my mind concerning these challenges.

A community-led development approach, the CorpsAfrica development style.

Watch this space………

My First Week in Gumo

3/15/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Ms. Maridia Sule

Everything that we go through is a preparation for something ahead. I attended a university and as part of requirements to obtain a degree, students were expected to stay in a rural community for 8 weeks for the first 2 years in the university. I was very sad having to leave my parents for that long. Never did I know it was preparing me for a future, a future as a Volunteer at CorpsAfrica.

I arrived in my community on the 5th of January around 5pm with a flood of emotions. I knew I was well prepared for this new phase of my life but fear and panic set in on our way. I was not afraid of being alone in the community but rather afraid of the people I was going to be interacting with everyday and whether I will be accepted and loved in my new home.

I arrived in my community and the first comment I heard was “ Why did you bring a lady? We thought it was a man you were bringing. There was no plan to accommodate a female”. At that point, I could only think about how I was going to cope for 10 months with people who weren’t acknowledging me. A kind young man gave his room to me to spend the night and there I was, sleeping in someone’s room while thinking of the way forward.

Early in the morning, I woke up and had to start work that I was told to prepare for so that we could go and greet the elders. I spent the day greeting the elders and other stakeholders.
It’s been a week and I am beginning to love my site but I think I underestimated the responsibilities of being a Volunteer. Sometimes it’s hard and lonely. I hope it gets better because I’ve been given an accommodation for the next 10 months and the people are more receptive than before. I wish myself a successful stay in my site.

Speaking to a missionary sister in the community about CorpsAfrica and my mission in Gumo.

From Empathy to Philanthropy

3/8/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Rwanda Volunteer Ms. Magatte Ndiaye

Travel offers us the opportunity to take time out to refocus and to recognize ourselves. Often, it is tempting to move away from our comfort zone to get to know ourselves better and to have a clearer idea of what we want to accomplish in our lives. Therefore, going on an adventure towards the unknown allows us to escape from our daily life and to break from daily routine. I am a young Senegalese man in love with Africa who decided to seize the opportunity of CorpsAfrica’s exchange Volunteer program to explore a new horizon away from my home. This is how I left the country of Teranga for Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills. I appreciated everything I saw around me, especially the beautiful landscape decorated by the greenery and mountains that make this country special. I was far from imagining that this country would be a school of life for me. After a month of training, I was finally deployed to a site located in the North of the country and more precisely in the district of Rulindo. As soon as I arrived, everyone was staring at me, I didn't understand the language they spoke and they didn't understand mine either. Fortunately for me, I was deployed together with another fellow Volunteer who usually helped me with the translation. In my host family, I sat with them for more than half an hour, during which time I was often absent because of the difficulty of communicating in this language. I was then directed to a cement room with a roof made of straw on the inside and tiles on the outside. I went in and lied on my back and Morpheus took me in his arms and it was only in the early morning that I opened my eyes again. This first day was the launching of a great adventure where my feelings did not stop evolving. The questions were multiplying but fiercefully believing in my host community’s open arms and pleasant reception.

Between community meetings and focus groups, I kept explaining why I had come to this community, but for some people, only concrete actions could make them see reasons. It was my second time serving and I was really enthusiastic to facilitate sustainable change in Rwanda and my journey started then.

This experience was one of the best I have ever had and I now realize that volunteering is empathy in everyday life. It is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person without judging them. It took me some time to understand this but I must admit that it was a great help and I can now confirm that it is through the cracks that the light emerges. The other aspect that deserves to be highlighted is that this experience allowed me to make the decision for the first time to change my impulsiveness and work on my spontaneity. The practice of this daily empathy has led me to feel an unparalleled love for this community allowing me to promote philanthropy on a daily basis. I put the human being at the heart of my actions.

Today, I blossom and I live a beautiful period of my life. I understood then that volunteering is certainly a gift of self that gives the volunteer much more than what he offers. There are so many things to say to magnify this solemn experience that a novel can’t cover. With my current Service in Rwanda, I have no words to express my feelings towards facilitating sustainable changes in my community.

Once a volunteer, always a volunteer.

A Growing Mind

3/7/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Olivia Viola

I love travelling. I want to travel to as many places as I can in my lifetime. But I have come to realise, my desire to travel has been selective. I wanted to go to all the nice places in the world, never to the outskirts, let alone of my own country. But today I have come to understand why tourists leave comfortable homes to camp in the woods.

Too much has changed in such a little time. In precisely two months and three weeks I can confidently talk about mind-set change. CorpsAfrica is big on mind-set change. We had this intensive training about how mind-set change is paramount in community development, and how to be a catalyst for mind-set change in our respective communities. Little did I know mine was a mind in need of urgent change. My personal growth as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer? Beyond imaginable. I am not going to talk about how my integration has been excruciating to say the least. Sorry to disappoint. Maybe next time, probably next time. I am going to tap a little into the concept of humility and how I literally fell face front into it. How I have found myself needing validation from the ones the world has come to call "proletariats?". But listen, this approval is not an illusion. It is indeed credited.

When I thought about going to my site, Mpalale, Dedza, my stomach turned upside down, every time. I wanted to be excited about the new experience and everything that came along with it but my fears overcrowded me. I developed a coping mechanism to try and get over my fears. A very terrible one I must say. I told myself, “This can’t be hard. You’ll be dealing with a community that is uneducated and illiterate, bet they’ll listen to every word you have to say”. An extremely shallow mind-set. The kind of mind-set that certainly needed change. Fear has a big shadow, and mine came in form of negative coping methods, even in other situations. I would soon learn humility from these so-called ‘uneducated people’ who in so many ways have shown me just how significant they really are. My community has rendered me speechless in many times than I can count. They are rich in in knowledge, dignity, discernment, leadership in depths I can only admire. I have come to find out there’s so much more I can learn and it is not from a professor or a philosopher’s book. It is instead from modest human beings who have managed to find purpose in the smallest of things. My mind-set has since transformed from the divided view of people; from the negative coping mechanisms and views that made me see the world in unbalanced scales. I have a different perspective now, one I believe will take me a long way in life and I have CorpsAfrica to thank for that. There is no lesser or more, there is only diversity and there is beauty in diversity in its entity.

Participating in a community meeting with a women's savings group.

Taking a photo with a community during home visits.

Women grinding local snacks while passing time.

Volunteering Adventures

3/2/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Mr. Victor Annani Togborlo (Dreams)

A community far away from the population and the deafening noise of the city.
The cold breeze at night in the calmness of a small community.
The warm but pleasant breeze that ushers you into a new day and the freshness of the air that connects you to real nature.
The beautiful scenery to behold from my house, on top of the mountain.
The reverence of the people that pierces through every act, even greetings.
The busy morning - community folks hurrying to catch up with activities that constitute their bread-and-butter issues.
A palpable love that is exuded by everyone towards the other as shown even in the affectionate greetings among the people.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Change, they say, is scary in the beginning, messy in the middle, but beautiful at the end.

The last two months have made me appreciate this saying even more. In everyone’s life, certain episodes do not need to be written in diaries, because the experiences thereof are by themselves, capable of leaving indelible marks on one’s memory.

Two things struck me on the eve of my arrival in the community - the calmness of the community and the heights of the buildings. From the outside, the buildings looked just about my height. For a volunteering experience that would last for months, I wondered if the short buildings would create any inconveniences, like high temperature. However, my worries were settled the moment I got into my new room on top of the mountain, overseeing the community. The buildings only appeared short from the outside and had an awesome architecture.

The fun-filled communal labor that is invariably characterized by teasing one another at the least provocation, crowned by the excitement when the designated cooks arrived with the meal and climaxed with the traditional songs that convey the energy needed to last the long hours of labor for the day.

The sounds of the birds, often very clear without noise interjections, makes you appreciate the ecosystem as it is designed by the Creator. All these and more can be found in a community full of rich culture. It is a perfect environment to live a stress-free family life while being in touch with nature and culture.

The cultural details that we often pay less attention to in our cities, are sacrosanct here.
Growing up, I have always been conscious of the fact that we, the millennials and the GEN-Zs, paid less attention to many of the details in our cultural heritages. However, never did I imagine that I was growing half-fit into the culture of a region I hailed from. There was so much awkwardness when I realized that I could not exchange greetings to the fullest length as defined by our tradition. That was enough to ruin my day.

But let's talk about the Senior High school in a few words, a place I spent some valuable time at. Aside teaching elective mathematics and core mathematics in third year and second year General Art classes respectively, I facilitated the formation of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) club in the school. My thanks goes to the resource persons who heeded to my call and had their turns in impacting members of the club in diverse ways. I love it when students and teachers are open to new ideas and receptive to the bone.

I came across a boarding Senior High School with no resident teacher; not even the headmaster had a bungalow on the school campus. Students, boys and girls, between the ages of 16 to 22 are left on their own after the day's teaching. Learning ends for teachers at 3:00 PM. The weekends can best be imagined than to be told. Of course, teachers have no place in the weekend stories - they would be in their homes, far away from the students. By the way, there is no computer in their computer lab.

Upon spending the first few days in my new space, my itchy fingers had already put to draft, write-ups with varying experiences and encounters awaiting proofreading and onward publication. It however wasn’t long before I realized that many of these write-ups are better off left as drafts on my laptop than become online accessible contents. In hindsight, I believe whatever pricked my conscience and averted my mind to the fact that I may goof by publishing, did a lot of good to me. In my ignorance, the hasty conclusions I had about my observations at the time would have looked rather too awkward online today. Perhaps, the saying, "A hunter does not say it all" carries more than it appears in text.

As I close chapters of this phase of the volunteering experience, I must confess that I have never been more conscious about my culture than I have been in the past two months. I definitely have more to learn, but I really appreciate the added value over these two months. A big thanks to all persons and institutions that made this possible @mastercard foundation, @corpsAfrica.

Integrate with a CorpsAfrica Volunteer

3/1/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Wongani Mwasinga

When I first heard that I had been deployed in Balaka district, I was anxious especially when people let me in on how hot Balaka is, but I was still curious enough to know how hot it can really get. After I got to my site, I was warmly welcomed by my host family who up to date have been helpful in my integration period.

The first two weeks of integration were quite challenging for me as everything and everyone around me was new leaving me puzzled about how best I can fit in and blend in with the community. I felt like everyone's eyes were on me, observing how I talk, walk, dress and carry myself around the community just waiting for me to mess up, so I refrained myself from walking around the community aimlessly.

My community holds a lot of meetings and to my advantage, I was given a chance to attend the meetings during the first three weeks of integration. it was during the meetings that I was introduced to the community members as well as other groups such as the Community Based Organization, Village Development Committee, and Youth club just to mention a few.

In order to integrate into the community better, I decided to volunteer at Mpumulo Primary School (not its actual name), where I was privileged to teach Standard Three learners. This has given me ample time to interact with the teachers and students who have shared stories about my community, the people, the culture, and the beliefs.

Apart from volunteering at the primary school, I still couldn't find something that excited me enough to integrate well. This was until my host mother asked me to attend their business group meeting. The group focuses on the production of peanut butter, tomato sauce, and chilli by the community women. Having a degree in Food Science and Technology helped me gain passion in the food production sector by using available resources to initiate value addition of food products. These women's business is on a small scale but their hope and dedication inspired me enough that I found a motivation to carry on with my integration. I join these women in every production.

My integration has helped me understand and learn that in order to carry out your service as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, you need to learn how to turn the challenges you face into an opportunity that will work to the best of your advantage.

Wongani with Standard 3 Learners in her community.

Women in the community pose for a group photo after the production of peanut butter.

The Shocks that Came But I Guess I Was Made for This: Passionate and CorpsAfrica Trained

3/1/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Mr. Daniel Amoah (One Danny)

Wait until I tell you why. After I had settled in my community, my home visits and community transient walks (as ways of integrating), were uncountable. Aside from the fact that the visits and walks were uncountable, the reception from community folks was so great. At this point, I felt I had nailed it, so I thought it was time to begin facilitating meetings………. Hmmm! It was there I got to know that I had not gotten anything right. Why? Because, I had 95% of the arranged meetings fail as a result of low patronage. Due to this, I had to reschedule, and I mean reschedule meetings not once, not twice, not thrice but uncountable times.

My series of failed meetings got me thinking. As if that was not enough, I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Let’s see where I got it wrong”. While I was thinking of how to be the Volunteer CorpsAfrica trained by empathizing more, asking relevant questions, observing more and listening attentively, the feedback I got back from my community got me lost in my thoughts. This was because on average my community’s ratings on the following were 99.9%:

Lack of commitment toward development
Loss of hope in their own community
Prophecies of doom

At this point, I had a mindset that I could give up and I would not be blamed. But upon second thought, I told myself, “You cannot fail humanity.” So, I started to talk myself out of giving up. I started reading my handbook and notes taken down from my Pre-Service Training (PST) and this action empowered me. The support of my Volunteer Liaison with his words of encouragement, “we can do it”, “let’s make it work guys”, really motivated me. His encouragement anytime we had our weekly check – in calls gave me the push I needed to continue my service. At this moment, all I can say is that I have conquered.

The decision not to fail humanity nor myself made me come back stronger and harder. I took every moment to be a CorpsAfrica moment and also fed myself with daily doses of positive talks, not forgetting how I looked closely for community dynamics in:
            Power
            Gender
            Youth interpretations
            Seeing rural living as a normalcy that I had to refuse.

CorpsAfrica/GHANA, G1!!!!!......... The originals, making original and lasting impact.

Me returning from one of my transient walks.

My counterpart and I, during one of our home visits.

My Deployment: Positive Start

3/1/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Hope Ngondo

The stress of deployment started when the staff gathered in the conference room to announce where we were going. My mind was swimming in thoughts, but I was staying positive hoping to be deployed close to home. When my name popped up, I was placed in Mulanje. At that moment I did not think about it because at the moment, we were in Mulanje finishing our training, so I liked what I saw, and being my first time in Mulanje I was at ease.

I was okay until I got home. I told my parents where I was deployed and they said that’s too far but “kumeneko nde kukulako” (that is the growth) they said, that’s when my emotions built up. I started thinking of how I was going to survive without family, I have never been away from home for more than 10 months. I called the previous volunteer who served at the site to ask a few things and she told me one thing I was not prepared to hear at that particular moment, “there is no electricity.” I was not happy to hear that, and I had a lot of questions of how I am going to charge my gadgets. The day came on the 27 of September 2022 for us to go to our sites. I was nervous because I did not know what to expect, meeting new people far from home where I have never been to before in my life.

Our journey started and there were three people. Two of us were going to Mulanje but different villages and one was going to Phalombe. We packed our bags in the car and started off. I couldn’t believe that my CorpsAfrica journey had started. Our first destination was Phalombe. We dropped off one of our friends and it started getting real. I was the last person to be dropped off, and I arrived in the evening, and I could not see clearly where I was going. I was tense since it was dark, and my community does not have electricity. When we arrived, I met my host mother. She was nice to me, but I was still emotional. I locked up my emotions after seeing how my host family welcomed me. I kept the sadness and worries away.

After a few days of staying with my host family, I asked my host sister to invite her friends so that I could get to know them. I needed people to have small conversations with since I was spending most of the time alone in my room. One of the things I learned in my community in the first week was that they eat “kalongonda” I was surprised to see people eating it because I have always known that “kalongonda amapha kudya” surprisingly in my community it is a hot business and people cook and sell it.

I have met amazing people in my community, and so far, the journey has started well.

Me and my host mother on my arrival, with my host brother sitting on her lap.

Me in blue (CorpsAfrica t-shirt) with the girls I met.

This is the process of peeling Kalong Onda.

A Personal Experience in Facilitating Community-Led Development

3/1/2023

Written by CorpsAfrica/Kenya Volunteer Mr. Kelvin Mutuma

My first big assignment when I got to site and held the very first community meetings was to trim down the walloping expectations of the community members. It was not a walk in the park to stand there and inform them it is not as they thought. It was a daunting task for them also to let go of their preconceived notions on the kind of community development that CorpsAfrica had brought. However, the community members in Kyuso, were so happy to know that they are the ones who will lead this development intervention of CorpsAfrica.

The fact that I had come to the community with skills to pass on and facilitate them to get better was interesting, it was even more startling when I told the members “We will leverage on the local assets that the community has to help them grow; it is Asset-Based Community Development”. But we are not rich, we have no assets, some said. Some were surprised that I was not bringing grants and direct aid to them as had been. For those who felt this way or shared similar kinds of feelings, it only took them a few community meetings to open their eyes on what was possible with what they had. As we used to sing with the other Volunteers “Our CorpsAfrica song” I communicated to them that this is CorpsAfrica the New Africa, a phrase that has always lingered in the corners of my head. New in the way that development is packaged and brought to them, in the wrappings of Asset- Based Community-Led Development to ensure sustainability and build capacity.

Some of the challenges I have observed and been told about is the plight of people living with disability in this community. Many of the people here live in poverty and struggle to access necessities like clean water, electricity and healthcare. Despite these challenges, I have also seen the incredible resilience of the people in this village. They are determined to improve their lives and the lives of their children, and are always willing to work together to make things better. I have been amazed by their generosity and kindness, and by their willingness to welcome me into their community.

A personal experience that I have found interesting are the high octane dances by the Akamba. Their dance is high energy and vibrant display of cultural tradition and community spirit. The dancers moved in sync with the beat of their clapping hands, their colorful waist tied cloth adding to the lively atmosphere. I am always captivated by the energy and enthusiasm of the dancers, who moved with grace and skill, creating a truly unforgettable performance.

As a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, I have had the privilege of serving as a teacher at the Nascent Kimu Secondary school, where I have been imparting knowledge on the intricacies of Biology and Physics to the students. The school, although newly established, lacks the necessary staff, making my presence all the more imperative. But beyond imparting knowledge, my volunteerism has also served as a crucial bridge to integrate and connect with the members of the local community. In addition to my teaching duties, I have also actively engaged in various activities and trainings with the community members, tailored to address their specific needs and challenges. These endeavors have been a collaborative effort, with the community members themselves identifying the most pressing issues and working together to find solutions. Some of them include community-asset mapping, charcoal briquette making and training on WASH among others.

Overall, my experience as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer at my site since arrival has been an incredible learning and serving opportunity. I have gained a deeper understanding of the complexities of community-led development, and have been inspired by the determination and resilience of the people here.