My Trip to Ghana - Day 2

We had a range of meetings today at the three Upper East projects in Bongo, Bawku West and Bolgatanga. I had the opportunity to meet Project Managers, Field Officers, volunteers, beneficiaries, community representatives and committee members as well as traditional rulers and representatives of the Ghana Association of the Blind.

The issues arising at the meetings were all very similar: there is a significant backlog of (a) those needing cataract surgery and (b) those waiting for rehab. One common request was for us to provide for education of blind children and for children of the blind. All the beneficiaries and the GAB (Ghana Association of the Blind) were very keen that rehabilitation and integrated education projects should go hand in hand.

Looking at the map of Ghana at our country office later, I realised that we really only scratch the surface when it comes to rehabilitation work; we cover the Upper East region and some of Volta but nowhere else. Of course, even within these regions we only cover some districts, and this begs the perennial question: do we put more of our money into existing projects which are already set up and so can reach more people more quickly, or spread more thinly in more regions? It’s a tricky question.

Beyond this, there’s also a clear need for more (and more accurate) baseline data. Here, as everywhere in Ghana, they simply use 1% as a likely figure for the prevalence of blindness, despite it being an area where river blindness is endemic. In one village near the Burkina Faso border we met three blind people in three adjoining houses; either a massive coincidence or blindness is at a far higher rate than is assumed.

Finally, we had dinner with the Bishop of the Archdiocese and Father Jacob (the Project Coordinator). They mentioned that they were twinned with the parishes of Portsmouth and Chichester – perhaps there’s room for some kind of community fundraising? I suspect that this sort of twinning happens quite a bit in West Africa, so coordination should be possible with a range of partners.