My Work

"It is said that if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate the nation. From the Sara club our parents now know this to be true and now they send our sisters to school as well as our brothers."

These words are the result of a short group exercise we gave to the members of this club. Their challenge was to explain how the club had changed their parents' perspectives on the importance of girls' education. After 5 minutes huddled in small groups all around the school grounds, each group returned to the class and presented their findings in well-structured English sentences. I am impressed with their efforts, and motivated by the change they see taking place in the world around them.

Working with a group of Sara Club members

But let me take a step backward and explain how I got to this place.

Many people have been asking "so what are you doing in Ghana anyway?". I've been putting off answering that question because I was still sorting out the details of my work. But now I think things are relatively well planned out, so I will share my plans with you.

My first few weeks of work were spent soaking up information and getting a feel for the role of the Girls' Education program here at the Ghana Education Service (GES) District office. I am working closely with the District Girls' Education Officer (DGEO) - who just happens to be the same Natalia who is my host mother - and KK, a long-term WUSC volunteer who hails from the south of Ghana and is here on an 18-month placement.

One of the major initiatives in girls' education in the northern regions is the creation of Sara clubs. The initiative is a joint venture by UNICEF and many national governments throughout Africa in an effort to keep girls enrolled in secondary education. The clubs are based out of the Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), headed by a teacher and consisting of both male and female student members. The concept of the clubs is based on a fictional girl named Sara. Sara leads an exemplary life - she shows respect for her friends, parents and community, she is helpful, she studies hard in school, she abstains from sex and is a role model to her peers. In short, she's perfect. Through reading comic books and watching movies about Sara's exploits, the members of the Sara club learn moral lessons about the behaviour they should exhibit as young adults. They have discussions on personal hygiene, HIV/AIDS and other STIs, teenage pregnancy and relationships between boys and girls. They sing songs, act out plays and try to educate their communities about the "new" role of girls in society, not just as wives and mothers, but as educated professionals. The underlying sentiment is "anything a boy can do, a girl can also do", a phrase which I have heard repeated several times.

Students at a Sara Club meeting

In this district, Jirapa/Lambussie, there are 36 active Sara clubs. Many were just recently revived since KK started working here. Some clubs are more active than others - indeed, it seems to depend a lot on the motivation level of the club leaders. There are some champion teachers who are really doing a lot for their schools, and some deadbeats who just got roped into it and often don't even show up for meetings.

One of the major projects I'm taking on while I'm here is a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) "tour" of these 36 Sara clubs. In these 3 weeks, we are traveling to all of the clubs and spending about 1 hour with each group. First we spend some time with the teachers, finding out the logistics of the meetings - when do they happen, how frequently, who plans them, etc. We also ask the teachers if they have seen any change in the behaviour of the students who are members of the Sara club. Often they note improved academic performance and behaviour in the classroom, as well as a more respectful relationship between the boys and the girls.

Next, we meet with the members of the Sara club in one of the school classrooms. This can range from only about 20 students up to 80 or 90. They stand and greet us and we introduce ourselves and the purpose of our meeting. Then come the questions: "What do you enjoy about the Sara club? How are you benefiting from being a member of the club?", then "What are the challenges that you face?" and "How can you improve your club?". At first the responses are slow to come - some students aren't comfortable answering in English, and some just need time to think. But once the first few ideas are spoken, more and more hands are raised to add to the discussion. (It helps that we offer a prize for participation - a postcard, coin or "Make Poverty History" bracelet from Canada!) For the final activity, we divide up into the groups that I mentioned at the start of this post to answer the question "how has the Sara club changed the way people think about girls' education?". Each group considers a different set of stakeholders - parents, teachers, classmates, brothers and sisters, chiefs and elders. It is a heavy question, but an important one, and these students are in the best position to answer it.

"Before we were not respectful. Now that we are Sara club members we are respectful of our parents and elders in the community. They see this and they know it is important to send us to school."

"Our teachers used to be in love with some students at school, but from the Sara club we know how to say 'no'. Now the teachers know that we are strong and we are here for our education."

"Often the children who are not in school will copy the behaviour of those of us who go to school. Now that we are in Sara club, we live the life of Sara - we are respectful and obedient, we do our chores and study hard. We don't chase boys/girls and we don't have sex. Our friends see this and they have stopped their bad behaviour too."

It all sounds too good to be true. Often these students are describing the best-case scenario, the ultimate goal of the Sara clubs. They know this goal, and so they tell us what they think we want to hear. On one hand, maybe some of these Sara clubs really have had a dramatic effect on girls' education in a community. On the other hand, maybe some have had absolutely no effect. But how do we know?

This is a common problem with M&E: how do you gather qualitative information in a way that is both reliable and efficient? The real effect of the Sara clubs probably lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. An in-depth study of the community, interviews with several different stakeholder groups and sustained observation would give us a better idea. But who has time to talk to every person in a village? So we must compromise. We use a variety of techniques - one-on-one interviews, small group work, group discussions and brainstorming - but spend a limited amount of time in each location. This approximates an approach known to development professionals as Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) - more on this technique later.

Another group is presenting as I look around the classroom at the assembled students. They look proud when they speak of their new respect for themselves. There are small giggles and hand-covered smiles every time they hear the word "sex". One after the other, they tell heart-warming stories of parents sending girls to school, elders approving of their behaviour and brothers and sisters copying their reformed role models.

While I would like to believe the Sara club is greatly improving the availability of education for girls in this community, I must sift through the layers separating us - language, religion, power, race - to find the truth. And armed with the truth, I will find a way to support these students in their quest for a better life.