a series of unfortunate events...

This is my fourth week now in Accra, Ghana, and a lot has happened over the past couple of days.

Before I’ll go in depth into my experiences of last week, let me first give you some background information on the project I’m working with: the Lifeline project in Agbogbloshie.

Lifeline is a project from the locally based NGO AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services). The project is located in Agbogbloshie, an urban slum in Accra. Within the gates of the compound here, Lifeline offers room for girls who have lived on the streets of Accra, working in the market areas. These girls get a one year schooling in either hairdressing, cooking or sewing. They live on this compound, they get class here and they eat three times a day in the dining room.

Usually Lifeline offers room for one hundred girls, but due to the effects of the global economic crisis, this year there is only space for 53 girls. These girls are between the ages of 12 and 22. Some of them come from the North and moved to Accra to earn some money. This is the group of girls I’m conducting my research with. I’ve talked to some of these girls who still live on the streets, I visit them on the market areas and I will continue to do so. This week I’ve also started interviewing those girls within Lifeline who came from the North. The other girls who are staying here at Lifeline come from Accra themselves, but some of them have grown up on the streets and cannot recall any life before that.

During the day there are also around 250 young children on the compound here. They are children from mothers who work on the markets and who cannot take care of these children during the day. So they come here in the morning and they get a uniform, two meals a day, they play, learn some things, and they sleep on the ground in the afternoon so that they can get some rest. They spend their nights on the market areas where they can hardly get any sleep.

Now that I’ve given some background information to the project I’m working with, let me tell you what happened last week.

Last Tuesday the President of Ghana died, due to natural causes. I was at Lifeline when I heard it and soon after I received the news, one of the girls and I heard some shouting outside on the street, so we went out to see what was going on. As we stood on the stairs leading up to ‘my grandmothers’ flat, we could look over the gate and we saw that some young men were fighting and rioting. Many people were fleeing away because of the violence so it was utterly chaos. Right in front of our gate a car is parked everyday and the owner sells new mobile phones out the back of his car. We saw how a young man, shirt taken of, with a machete, was stealing all the phones while smashing the car continuously with his machete. Then another girl who had came up to stand beside me shouted “they killed someone” and pointed across the street where a group of men and women were carrying the lifeless body of a men in their midst. I shall not forget the look in the dead man’s eyes.

I got scared, of course, of the sudden outburst of raw violence that was going on just outside the gates of Lifeline on the streets of Agbogbloshie, but my biggest fear was that the rioting men would try to force themselves into our compound, considering we have 53 young girls here. So I did my best to calm the girls and to lead them back to their quarters. Unfortunately there was no other staff present at the moment; it was only me and a security woman. Luckily the violence stopped after the police showed up and it did not turn out to be a prelude to further violence in response to the death of the President. I was told it was rather common for some young men in Agbogbloshie to burst out into violence now and then, though I hope never to be confronted with it again.

The following day, after I returned to Lifeline, I heard that one of the girls who was pregnant (there were two girls pregnant) had given birth that night to a baby girl. The girl had hidden that she was already nine months pregnant because she feared she would be expelled from the project. It turns out that there is indeed no place for young women and babies at Lifeline, so the girl had to be send away. The staff has found a small room on the market here in Agbogbloshie where she could stay with her child for one month, before going back to her family in the North. I accompanied the girl and her baby to that room. It truly is in the midst of ‘Sodom and Gomorra’, as they call Agbogbloshie, and I had to leave the baby, not yet one day old, behind with her mother on the floor of a cement room where she would sleep with four other women. The baby girl is beautiful and it broke my heart to leave her behind. Oh if I could only take her with me to Holland, the girl said I could….

I visited them again today though, and I will continue to visit them until they leave for the North. It’s hard holding the baby though, knowing I have to give her back to her mother at the end of my visit. It’s really confronting to see how this baby girl is brought into the world and to compare it with my own birth, 24 years ago in Bawku, and the warm family that I was welcomed in…

Fortunately, I also experience many nice things here. I enjoy the company of the girls, they are all very lovely, kind and special to me. Today I made some small presents for a group of children who are coming here this afternoon to practice for their church performance tomorrow. Two of the girls helped me to create these lovely packages. 

Well know, this post has been long enough, I will write again next time! All my love, and please email me how everything is going… I do miss home sometimes…

Week 2

I am far into my second week in Accra now and time seems to be flying.

I divide my time between the Lifeline project in Agbogbloshie and the market areas across town. When I go to the market areas I visit young female migrants and interview them about their reasons for migration, their life here in Accra and their future prospects. During such an interview I am usually surrounded by ten to thirty other girls and females who are curious about my presence in their midst.

Sometimes I take a child on my lap to give them some extra attention, and because I miss my nieces so much…

My fellow student Keetie also joined me one day to one of the market areas.

When I stay on the Lifeline project I usually work on my computer, typing out the interviews, in the morning and in the afternoon and evening I join the girls who finished their class and enjoy some leisure time playing, singing and dancing. I have gained two small sisters here who I wish I could bring back home with me. They are 12 years old, the youngest in the project, and one of them has lived her whole life on the streets of Accra. She has no idea where she came from. When I sit outside in the afternoon, this girl runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug you can imagine. 

I will post some photos and more information on the Lifeline project in a next post. The pictures below here illustrate the life that goes on behind the gates of Lifeline. Agbogbloshie is a slum area on the outskirts of Accra. Some describe this place as Sodom and Gomorra. But don’t worry, I feel quite safe here!

Until next time!

first week in Accra

Today is Monday and I have been in Accra for almost a week now. I can say that time flies, but still, the prospect of three months is quite a bit daunting…

I arrived last Wednesday morning in Accra, after a long flight without sleep. I had to stand in line before immigration for at least an hour in the African humid heath. After I passed immigration and retrieved my suitcases, I was welcomed by a young man named Sunday, who brought me first to my hostel, and later to the LifeLine project, where I will be doing my research. At the LifeLine project, my ‘grandma’ Nebo is also staying, and she was, and still is, glad that I am here.

Sunday is also the one who is picking me up in the morning from my hostel and bringing me back home. In the morning we go by tro tro, transferring once at Kaneshie Station, yet in the evening we go back with a taxi. After tomorrow, I will move to a place that is closer to the project so I can go by tro tro everyday, by myself.

Accra is an interesting city. I cannot say that I am overwhelmed while driving through Accra. It does feel a little bit familiar. Maybe because of my visit to Nigeria 8 years ago? I do not know. But still, it takes time to adjust here. There is so much chaos, at least to me it is chaos. There are people everywhere, the traffic is terrible, people are selling their stuff on the streets, children are crawling on the pavements. When you visit the markets, as I did with Issahaku, who introduces me to some of the migrant girls there, you will find even greater chaos. The ground is full with dirt and mud and young children and babies walk around barefoot through it. You will see many groupings of women on the markets, they will go out in the morning to carry goods for some of the wealthier Ghanaians, in the late afternoon they will come back, sit and chat and go to sleep, on the floor. Only on Sunday it is a resting day. On Sunday the market women and girls group around and rest, chat, dance. Yesterday I visited two market places and interviewed six women and young girls about their lives, their migration and their future prospects. I have some interesting findings already!

In the afternoon I come back to LifeLine and eat with grandma and Sunday. Accept for last Saturday, I went to an outdooring of a babygirl with Issahaku. We spend the afternoon there and I met two of his bosses who took me out to dinner.

Tomorrow I will hopefully get to start my research on the project here as well. I had to get official permission to do so, which I have now. I will talk more about the project in a later post. For now I will say goodbye!