Saturday 20 April 2013

Wedding, Ghana Style


I attended the wedding of a work colleague a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting to see the Ghanaian take on Western traditions. There are some things I can't discuss here as, shall I say, they were not necessarily appropriate for a wedding in my opinion! However there were some good and bad bits to the day.

The bride looked a million dollars. Honestly, the effort that goes into making up a bride for her big day is incredible - not that she needs it; Ghanaian women are known for their natural beauty. 

The turnout was great with a whole range of friends and colleagues around - I was surprised at how many people I knew actually. 

It was held in a Church - my first proper Ghanaian Church experience. For those of you who know my views on Church/religion, you'll understand why everyone thought it was hilarious that I went along. I did survive, but am not keen to repeat the experience. 

There were some points that the Pastor made during his sermon that made me equally laugh and cringe:
1. a marriage is between a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman;
2. if you do not invite god into your marriage, satan will destroy it; and 
3 there was a whole conversation about a woman's role in the marriage and how if she does not satisfy, the man will look elsewhere. Not a conversation I can repeat here.

What was most interesting to me is that the whole wedding was treated like a regular work programme, to the point there was even an MC (yes weddings have pastors, and MCs). I was less than impressed with this guy after he singled me out in front of everyone and lectured me about not understanding the language. I was mortified and furious! It was one of those moments where I was reading something and gradually realised that the place had fallen silent. I looked up to see everyone staring at me. I turned to my colleague and she was giggling away to herself. She said 'he's talking to you'. He asked if I was happy - then repeated it in Twi. When I said I didn't understand, he went nuts! There was a lot I felt like saying to him, but I just smiled and carried on reading. I felt embarrassed that my being there was taking attention away from the bride, but apparently having a white person at your wedding is a huge honour so they were thrilled.

I was double-teamed this time when it came to unwanted attention. One of the guys was the same one as last time. I was so glad when somebody called me away to get my picture taken! At least it wasn't the pastor this time though! 

All in all, an interesting experience that I'm glad I was invited to be part of. The bride has sadly left our office (she was on a temporary contract) but I really hope we keep in contact. She's an angel and had a huge amount of patience when it came to teaching me sign language. It's not the same at work without her!!

 The Beautiful Bride


The Bride and Groom with my work colleagues












Just thought I'd throw this one in - our new addition to the office!

Wednesday 3 April 2013

30 Days, 30 Websites, 30 Empowered NGOs

I have recently become involved in a project with a friend who is trying to raise money for tuition fees. Rather than just asking for money, he has decided to offer out his web development services: for every £1000 raised towards tuition, he will develop a website for an NGO/non-profit organisation free of charge. The goal is to raise enough money in 30 days to allow him to develop 30 websites, and in turn empower 30 NGOs. 

Research has shown that many NGO websites are of low quality because organisations do not have the resources available to pay for professional development. This is true of the NGO I am currently working with - they have a website, but it was developed using a free template and is restricted to a small number of pages. My organisation would like to have a professionally developed site, but cannot afford it at this time. The result is that people become bored with it as they are unable to use the website in the way they would like to and as such, content becomes outdated very quickly.

In this day and age, websites can provide huge benefits to NGOs. They can help to promote the work they do to communities, policy makers, donors, volunteers and all other stakeholders. Websites are often the first point of call for people looking for information, and for interested donors when considering whether to partner with an organisation. They give NGOs a louder voice - to shout about the achievements they have made to date, and to highlight the challenges they are facing as well as the support they need to continue to achieve. As global internet usage grows, so does the importance of websites for organisations to stand a chance of being noticed.

30 days is not a long time to try to achieve the funding target, however it is hoped by keeping it short and sweet we can build momentum quickly.

I encourage you to visit the donation site for further information. Any support you can give would be much appreciated and would be going towards two very valuable causes (NGO empowerment and individual education).

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/websites-for-ngos

If you have an interest in NGOs and know of an organisation that could benefit from having a professionally developed website, please visit the Facebook page for further information on how to apply.

http://www.facebook.com/WebsitesforNGOs

Thank you for your support.
Rachel