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Tuesday Aug 11, 2009

Changing norms

It seems strange to me that it took just three weeks of living away from home for my new surroundings to become 'the norm'. The children shouting 'silly minger' (meaning white person) and the goats and cows who casually roam the streets while the cars politely wait for them. The women carrying loads on their heads ranging from water to kitchen tables.

Every day I work from 8am to 5pm at an NGO The Centre for the initiative against human trafficking (CIAHT) .My work with CIAHT involves visiting rural villages and speaking to victims of trafficking. Yesterday a women with wrinkled skin and brightly patterned clothes told me about her child who ran away because of lack of food. These stories are now as normal to me as the women carrying portable shops on their head.

It's not an uncommon story, trafficking is a massive problem here.  Children run away from home or are taken by traffickers promising a better life than their poverty stricken villages. They arrive in the richer areas of Ghana to become virtual slaves and prostitution often becomes their new existence.

Extreme poverty here is a normal part of life. These stories no longer shock me like they did at first. I, like most others saw poverty through the lens of Oxfam adverts and political statistics. I find it very different seeing the daily details of poverty and meeting real three dimensional people.

While I confront the symptoms of poverty on a daily basis, I am also starting to wonder whether the reactions of the people I meet show a part of the problem. When any Westerner walks down the streets of Tamale the attention they receive is of a celebrity.White skin is so different that some children cry in fear. Sometimes it feels like when people look at you all they see is money.Your status here as a Western person makes you feel a bizarre sense of power.

I treated the reactions of the Ghanian people I met at first as comical. The marriage proposals for the girls have become a daily occurance. It all seemed like such a pantomime,such an illusion. The reality is that I have the money and therefore the power to change these peoples lives. I feel the way we relate to each other as individuals has  parallels with the way our countries relate to each other in terms of power. Power in the world is not equally distributed. I'm starting to see the power and therefore responsibility I have in my living room or in the streets of Tamale its just here its real and measurable.

CIAHT works to prevent trafficking and rehabilitate victims. After a few days of working with CIAHT I was writing a document and needed clarification on the amount of time CIATH provides to victims in terms of counseling . I asked my boss  and the reply was CIAHT provided one hour .He explained there are no facilities for counseling in Tamale and there are no government services at all to  rehabilitate women. I asked my boss if money was the issue could we not train volunteer councilors.This led to my boss researching and the creation of a new organization was suddenly on the agenda!

Three weeks in and I have embarked on a massive research project on what currently exists to rehabilitate victims of trafficking and what we think the new organization should look like. A number of Tzedek volunteers are involved and its early days but its coming together. Its been amazing to meet and speak with numerous government officials and victims of trafficking as part of the project. I do not know where the new research project will lead  but it's exciting.

My whole experience with Tzedek has meant  my way of looking at power and responsibility has changed. Studying politics it was systems and theories, now I link the statistics to individuals. When I go back maybe my life wont be so normal,such a given.

Written by Lucy Newman and edited by Talia Chain.

Posted by Lucille ( 4:49 PM )
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