The Exorbitant Cost of Accessing My Own Money

By Ian Toal, 2nd year MDP student

The day before I left Xochimilco/Mexico, I was running a little low on money. I didn’t really need anything, but in Xochimilco almost all business transactions are done in cash – to my knowledge, there was only one place we used where groceries could be bought with a debit card. Just in case I needed anything, I thought I would maybe go to the bank and withdraw 100 pesos, just to have around. Withdrawing a larger sum would not be necessary, as I was leaving the next day. I didn’t want to have to exchange pesos once I got home. Another factor favouring a small withdrawal was that getting change for large bills in Xochimilco was difficult. Even a 20 peso note can be difficult to change. One hundred pesos would be a good amount.

 

As I considered this, I realized that the banking charge for a withdrawal was 24 pesos. So I would lose ¼ of my money just by getting access to it.

 

I decided against the withdrawal, but began to think about banking charges. 24 pesos is approximately the same value as a banking charge at a Canadian bank – somewhere around $2. So from that perspective, it does not seem like a high rate. However, when the buying power of the peso in Mexico is considered, the charge becomes less reasonable.

  

The day before, I had bought four grapefruit down the street for 9 pesos. Admittedly, they were ‘seconds’, either the wrong size or shape for the picky Canadian market, but they were perfectly fine. Grapefruit in Canada can cost up to $1 per fruit. Using this as a rough guide, in Xochimilco I could have bought about 10 grapefruit for the 24 pesos I would spend on a bank charge. To buy the same 10 grapefruit in Canada would have cost somewhere around $10. In terms of buying power, the Canadian bank charge should be somewhere around $10. If the Canadian cost was less for the ‘inferior’ fruit – say 50 cents each - it would still have amounted to $5, which is still pretty steep for a bank charge.

Although banking charges are not fixed – at the airport they are 30 pesos or more – 24 pesos seems to be a fairly standard fee in the rest of the Mexico City. So people are faced with a dilemma. Either they withdraw a large amount of cash at one time, or they lose a significant amount of money each time they go to the bank (not to mention the time involved in getting to the bank). While Xochimilco is a fairly safe neighbourhood, someone walking around with hundreds of pesos is at risk for losing it. And as mentioned, the people have to use cash – there is no other option.

 

The Mexican people I met were hard working, happy, but not well off. Affordable banking should not be beyond their reach. Why the banking charges are so high while the cost of other services are not remains a bit of a mystery to me. Tortilla prices are regulated, because they are a necessity of life. Getting access to a bank account is also a necessity. Losing a significant chunk of money with each withdrawal makes poor people even poorer. Walking around with large amounts of cash is unsafe. Payday loans are being investigated in Canada. Perhaps Mexico needs to investigate its banking system. Incidentally, the bank we used was Scotiabank.    

Further Communication

By Susan Maxson, 2nd year MDP student

Xochimilco, Mexico City

In our ongoing assignment to improve communication between RITA members and between central office and the members – the difficulties which I enumerated in my last blog – we asked the question “What about using the mail?” “It doesn't work” was the answer by many people in the RITA office.  But one brave person said “I don't think it works, but I don't really know.”  We then emailed the same question to a former MDP professor who had lived in Mexico.  His answer.  “Yes, it works, but it it isn't used very much.”

So Alejandro, Ian and I decided to test the  Mexican mail.  We sent five numbered envelopes to each of four RITA members (twenty letters total) whom we could phone and warn that the test letters were coming.  We asked them to tell us the date that each envelope arrived.

What a surprise!  The furthest place, Chiapas, received all five envelopes in only four days after they were mailed.  In the end, all twenty envelopes arrived promptly.  The Mexican postal system not only worked, it worked well.

This totally revolutionized the conversation about communication at RITA central office.  It opened up possibilities.   Our practicum team put together a proposal of a monthly newsletter which could go to all members whether or not they had a phone or Internet.  The newsletter would not only have articles by RITA head office but would include  photos, stories and events submitted by members.  Through this we hope to encourage horizontal communication between members as well as vertical communication from head office outward.  It is also hoped that  conversations on topics of interest could continue from month to month or be revisited to encourage clarification, and understanding of ideas or exchanges of practises which work in one area and might be tried in another.

Working on sending the "test letters" and the August newsletter

These are big hopes to pin on one small monthly newsletter.  But when communication has been so difficult, and the only good communication is the General Assembly every three years, this is exciting stuff.

Now the newsletter is written and ready to go out, but addresses are proving to be the difficulty.  There is no data base with all of the member addresses in it.  There did not seem to be a reason to collect them in the past.  We spent the last few weeks of our practicum trying to find addresses.  We have not been particularly successful.  We have only 21 addresses of the 120 members. So we are back to the grapevine method of communication.  We are putting an insert into all of the newsletters that are being mailed out asking for all of the addresses of members that they might know so next month RITA can send out more newsletters!

Relationships as the Backbone to Community Development

By Alison Everitt, 1^st year MDP student

I have now completed my field placement with the Health Division in Norway House Cree Nation. I spent eleven weeks working in the community and I can honestly say that I learned a lot. Leaving for my placement, I had certain expectations of what I was going to see and do during my time up north. I thought that I would write a few funding proposals, sit in on community events, and maybe see a bear or two. While all of this did prove true in the end – and certainly taught me a lot – it was the unanticipated knowledge that I found to be the most rewarding from my time in the community.

The main memory that I will take away from this experience is the importance of building relationships within the community. The people that we met in Norway House were incredible and I was always treated with great kindness. People were always ready to offer words of welcome [“We’re very excited to have you here!”] and pieces of advice [“You’re living on West Island? Watch for bears!”] in the hopes of making our stay in the community as rewarding and comfortable as possible. As Rachel and I only knew each other when we first arrived in Norway House, the support that was given to us by community members was greatly appreciated.

What I soon learned was that this level of support and kindness was the backbone of the entire community. All of the people in the programs in the Health Division work endlessly to help as many community members as possible in spite of limited access to the resources that are often enjoyed in ‘the south’. Local businesses make significant donations towards community events in the hopes of making them as successful as possible. Individuals also play their part: for instance, by the beach there is one family who will sit outside and make sure that all the children are safe while they play in the water. Family members also allow the children to leave their bicycles on the lawn outside their house so that they can ensure that the bikes won’t be stolen. 

Our work in the community repeatedly highlighted the importance of relationship-building. During my time in the Health Division, one program manager in particular demonstrated how this rapport is necessary for community development programs. By observing her interactions with the women who participate in her programming you could tell that they all really liked her and also held so much respect for her. This allowed her to talk about topics such as breastfeeding, and have everyone listen and really value her input. She really showed me that, particularly in a First Nations community, your relationships with people are your top priority. Your word is everything; and once people trust and respect you, then you can start having a meaningful impact in peoples’ lives. This is when actual change happens. Working with wonderful people like her was one of the most rewarding parts of this field placement and it is these relationships that I will never forget.

Rachel Bach (Front-L) & Alison Everitt (Front-R) at the Norway House Health Division

This summer, I saw how things actually work on a reserve. I was able to see what really needs to be improved and also to see what initiatives are already in place to try and do so. I can also now appreciate how many opportunities there are to make a difference, as well as numerous challenges involved in doing so. For example I learned how small initiatives, like a cooking class, can have such a large impact for those who participate in it. I now know that a project or program doesn’t have to be a big, complicated one in order to make a significant change; it just has to be one that will produce a change that is actually needed.

In sum, my time in Norway House taught me a lot of the things that I was expected to learn on my field placement. However, it also gave me knowledge and insight that I did not expect to gain and that is why my time in this community was so valuable to me.

Working with few in a community of two thousand people: some practical lessons

By Reuben Garang, 2nd year MDP student

I had ten weeks of field placement in Ghana. One was spent in Accra and another week settling in before the actual work began in Kperisi, which is a small rural community of two thousand people located about ten miles away from Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana.

Cattle drinking from reservoir

My experiences in Kperisi were highly rewarding, and gave me insights into some of the practical challenges of community organization and development. However, before going into that, let me summarize what we (two other MDP students and I) did during the field placement. In the eight week time frame, we held focus groups and conducted needs assessments where different groups within the community identified and prioritized intervention plans. The plans dealt with projects such as building a storage facility for a women’s group, rehabilitation of community's dugout ( lack of water is a big problem  in the Upper West Region in  Ghana) and Senior High School plan. Senior High School's students from this community and nearby communities study in boarding schools in Wa. The community sees this as separation of children from parents and families.  We consulted with different development agencies and government departments to gather information needed to facilitate the community development interventions. Finally, we wrote two project proposals and together with the community built a small storage facility for a women’s group. It was incredible! We enjoyed working with the people from this community.

Still, the processes which led to the above achievements were full of surprises as well as learning opportunities. It was our initial expectation that many people would show up for community meetings and work projects. However, we soon learned that our expectations and assumptions did not match up with people’s every day realities.

The first meeting held in the community was poorly attended, although the date and time for meeting were agreed to a few days earlier. In the morning of that day, my colleagues and I arrived exactly at the time communicated by the leadership. To our surprise, we were the first people in the venue. We looked around and saw people sitting down under trees and others were moving back and forth in the village. We began to speculate on why people were not coming, but community leaders were not worried. They were optimistic that people would still come. A few minutes later we were told about a group of people who were sitting under another mango tree. They were remembering a woman who died in the past year. We also noticed people were leaving the village to go and clear lands as they were waiting for rain to sow seeds. Parents, particularly women, were busy preparing food for family members. A lot of activities were going on in the community. In the end, people still managed to come for the meeting, and we found that quite remarkable.

The reality is that people in the community have their own lives besides planned communal goals (meetings in this case). For this reason, people may not show up in big numbers for community meetings or work projects. They have other priorities in life. You may see people sitting under trees while a community meeting is going on but that does not mean they are free. Some might be resting after work or are mentality and/or emotionally engaged with other matters. From this insight, I learned that I have the opportunity to acknowledge the numerous issues and challenges facing the community only when my mind is free from trying to blame people for not participating in community affairs. I learned to work with the few people who attend, and take steps to bring new faces to subsequent meetings. I learned it is easy for those who come to the meetings to disseminate information in the community. People will come and go and share the information at the same time as they pass by people in their homes. Sometimes, as I learned, people do not attend community meetings not because they are opposed to communal plans, but because they are aware of them  and perceive them to be in the interests of all. Also they have trust in the community leaders and the decisions that they will take on behalf of their community. In case of Kperisi, most of the people in the community supported the need of the dugout rehabilitation and for the community to have a senior high school.

MDP students with community leaders in Kperisi

My time in Kperisi also taught me about development fatigue. Rural communities across Upper West Region in Ghana frequently receive students doing development work. Some people in these communities have development fatigue from working with students on projects which are rarely implemented, and Kperisi is not an exception. People see no benefits and are keen not to waste their precious time. This reality might have contributed to poor attendance in our case. Another factor might have been community politics, which can divide people and thereby pose an obstacle to participation.

Although attendance for all the meetings we held in the community was not as high as we had initially expected, numerous people participated in the building of the storage facility for the women’s group. Youth, women, school children and elders did incredible work on this particular project. These experiences and the realization that the community has a myriad of social challenges and commitments governing each and every individual's life helped me learn how resilient the people of Kperisi are and how vigilant they are in maintaining collective pride and preserving their communal values.

Thinking out loud

By Badriyya Yusuf, 1st year MDP student

Picture this: You’re working from the 12th floor of a skyscraper in New York City, sitting behind a computer screen, sipping a steaming cup of Starbucks coffee as you collect data on climate change trajectories in Ouagadougou. Funny thing is you’ve never step foot in Ouagadougou, heck, it’s the first time you’ve ever come across the name of the capital city of Burkina Faso, but yet you are in charge of this data collection process. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a great researcher but is something amiss here? 

I came across the term desktop research quite a number of times while undertaking my field practicum this summer. It is defined as the process of gathering and analyzing information, already available in print or published on the internet. Pretty much the same process we utilize for our research papers. Online tools actually exist to make the process even easier. It is both cost effective and time efficient. It is also a methodology used by development, aid agencies and think tanks to formulate policy recommendations to be implemented in different corners of the world. However it comes with the risk of unreliable data, assumptions far different from the reality on the ground and the high probability that the intended beneficiaries will not be a part of the implementation process. Could this perhaps be among the reasons why sustainable development remains an elusive quest in many parts of the world?

Downtown Winnipeg

I recently found myself wondering about the ‘poverty trap’ as coined by Jeffrey Sachs. With so much technology currently available, collaborative knowledge sharing and money given in the form of aid and investment, why is poverty not a thing of the past? I found a partial answer in Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden” where he says “It is a fantasy to think that the West can change complex societies with very different histories and cultures into some image of itself”. (Did you know he was actually fired from his job with the World Bank?). Anyway, what if his words do actually hold some ground? To me, Indigenous populations around the world come to mind when I reflect on that sentence. Are there perhaps not alternative pathways to sustainable development? Did you say, “Well, if there were any effective alternatives, we would have known them by now”? You could be right, but staying put in a different corner of the world could also be why we are yet to get there. I strongly believe that sustainable development needs to be homegrown. It will require putting more youth through school systems that recognize their heritage, contributions and limitations, filling their libraries with relevant books and ultimately empowering them to sit behind a computer screen right there in their villages. Now that’s what I call desktop research that provides sustainable results!

Lessons from the West

By Lisa Dixon, 1st year MDP student

As I sit in my room writing this last blog, I’m feeling very reflective. While going into the placement I certainly had learning goals, I don’t think I necessarily had clear expectations. I’m fairly certain though, that any expectations I did have were exceeded. I’m grateful for the mish-mash of experiences I received during a jam-packed 12 weeks. Since my last post, there has been lots of work and even more events and I cannot believe I’ve been able to participate in as much as I have. 

Since my last post, Margaret and I began work in Saddle Lake Cree Nation, a community with almost 8,000 Band members. It has been a learning experience working in the community. The people have been fantastic but the issues the community face are staggering. There are times Margaret and I have been talking and both get frustrated because there are things to be done but nothing seems to be moving. But these are the realities in many communities and a 12-week field placement is not going to give us the time to see project/initiatives really move along. However, with that, I’m really happy to have had the experience working in Saddle Lake because the experience was invaluable and the lessons learned about working within community/political systems was something you have to experience.

 

Joe Stern (L), Winston Lapatak (Saddle Lake Economic Development Director), Margaret and Lisa

Prior to my placement I had hoped to learn more about the realities of the oil industry.  Up until my time in Alberta I had only read about the affects of oil development on the Indigenous communities in Alberta.  Like many people I was profoundly affected by the experience of communities like the Lubicon Cree.  Well I can certainly say my goal of learning more about the realities of this industry were met. In Alberta, oil is never far from the conversation. One event that I was really sorry to have missed out on was the Healing Walk that took place in Fort McMurray. There was not a week where there were not news stories about oil spills in the region. In July, Cold Lake, which is about an hour and a half away from Blue Quills, has been dealing with oil spills that have continued to do damage to the land.  Oil is also a particularly prominent topic in terms of Indigenous development in Alberta. For many people, this is viewed as the only real opportunity for development.  But there are those at Blue Quills that have the “radical” idea that there is development outside of oil. I was happy to be around people who had a similar view of oil development that I did. Some communities have done a lot of good work from revenue from oil development but it has also destroyed other communities.  This can’t be the only answer for Indigenous development and it was nice to see many were looking outside of oil for development options.

I had an absolute blast during my time at Blue Quills First Nations College and while leaving was without a doubt hard, I am comforted with the firm believe that one day I will be back!

Margaret (L), Lana Whiskey Jack (C) and Lisa (R)

Business experience, definitely an asset for a Development Practitioner

By Alejandro Dominguez-Suberbie, 2nd year MDP student

One of many of the activities that we MDP students (Alejandro Dominguez-Suberbie, Susan Maxson, and Ian Toal) did during our placement in Mexico was organizing with RITA a field visit to the state of Hidalgo, where one of the members of RITA, the Red Hñahñu is located. The main objective of the field trip was to get to know this member of the network and their tourism projects. Also, we wanted to conduct an assessment and provide feedback on the organizational and marketing capacity of  Red Hñahñu. This would be beneficial to both the organization and to the Indigenous Tourism directors at RITA.

After the field visit, the three of us designed and implemented a working session with members of the Red Hñahñu. The members requested that the meeting would focus on marketing.

Overall, we saw that the products and services needed more development and testing in order to find the proper market for them. Signage, was a very important topic. A comment underlined the importance of signage, was one that Susan Maxson made “you will never know about the potential customers who have gotten lost on the way to your business." 

We also talked about product development and testing, marketing strategies, and the target market.

At the end of the meeting we passed out a questionnaire related to the communication project we were working on simultaneously regarding RITA’s monthly newsletter. This questionnaire include three questions:

What information do you want to receive from RITA?

What information do you want to receive from other members?

What information do you want to share in the newsletter?

We presented these results to RITA’s board and the project was approved.

Northern Exposure

By Naomi Happychuk, 1st year MDP student

With my practicum coming to an end I have to say, that it has truly been an incredible summer. I learned so much, gaining practical experience, and building on my passion for northern development. Working with the Northern Sustainable Development Initiative in the city, I had the opportunity to attend various conferences and workshops and hear perspectives from a number of First Nations chiefs and Elders, government administrators, the Metis community, and private industries, particularly at the round table on “Models and Best Practices of Northern Development” we had organized in June.  I gained valuable skills in researching, writing, communication, and administration. I came to better understand the complexities of Indigenous Development in Canada.

Beluga Whale, Churchill, Manitoba

Travelling to Churchill, Manitoba and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, was an incredible way to end my practicum.  This was an opportunity to form my own perspective on development in the north and to experience first-hand, much of what I had been researching. Churchill was a great introduction to the north and I met with the Community Administrative and Economic Development Officer, the President of Churchill Chamber of Commerce, the Executive Director of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, and the Superintendent of Parks Canada in Manitoba’s north. I also toured the port, which is the primary source of economic revenue for the town, took in some history at Dene Village and the Prince of Wales Fort, and even saw some spectacular wildlife including tundra swans, beluga whales, and polar bears!  

Rankin inlet, Nunavut

In Rankin Inlet, I felt I truly got a taste of the north. This town on the west coast of Hudson Bay, with sparse vegetation over rocky outcrops and valleys of tundra is home to about 2500 people, most of who are Inuit and speak Inuktitut. In this community, which has long been sustained by mining, exploration and surveying is abundant. Sled dogs would howl loudly and I had just missed the passing of a large caribou herd, a staple traditional food for people of the area. I also had the opportunity to visit an old Thule site, with dozens of tent rings, meat caches, kayak racks, and fox traps all made of stone. Again I met with various community members and learned more of the challenges and opportunities of development in the north. 

Naomi on a tour of a grain elevator in Churchill with Randy Spence

From these trips I was reminded of the need for more action to be stimulated from all of the meaningful discourse and thorough studies, and of the need for development in the north to come from the north with the support of southern entities, and not the other way around. This has been an incredible summer of learning and insight, as a development practitioner and as a Canadian.

Women Sustain Families in Upper West Region of Ghana

By Douglas Baba, 1st year MDP student

 

The International Field Placement of the Master’s in Development Practice Programme in Indigenous Development took the three of us: Douglas, Megan and Reuben to the Upper West region of Ghana. The Upper West region which was created in 1983 from the Upper East is the youngest in Ghana. Most of the people belong to a tribe called Waala, who are predominantly Muslims and well-known for their hospitality and their locally brewed beer called pito.  Pito is made by the Waala women through laborious processes. The men are usually seen sitting under shady trees in Wa Municipality sipping their mild or alcoholic pito. This activity by the women groups forms part of a major economic livelihood support for many families in Wa Municipality and its environs. 

Dry season pepper harvest

Shea nuts processing into Shea Butter which is a seasonal economic activity is also mainly done by women in a traditional way. The fruits containing the nuts are picked from the bush and then dried for some days before they are boiled. They are further dried before they are manually cracked to remove the nuts from the shell. The nuts are then sent to the corn mail for grinding and then finally boiled to remove the Shea butter from the mixture. Women are also at the forefront of dry season farming using water from the dams or dug outs in all the dams dug outs communities we visited. They grow especially vegetables such as pepper, okra, garden eggs, and tomatoes.

The women in Wa Municipality work hard to get their families running economically. A trip to one of the villages in the Wa Municipality called Leggou where there is ongoing dam rehabilitation sponsored by the World Bank and under the supervision of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority. The project is called work for money programme where all those who participate get six cedis a day. Sometimes in some communities they do what is known as work for food where participants are given two meals a day. In all these programmes operating in the communities we visited women were at the forefront doing all kinds work relating to dam construction.

We spent close to three hours n Leggou and only women were spotted working at the site. When asked about the men the answer was that they came there early in the morning and they had all left by the time we got there around 10:00am. Some of the women were scooping the sand from the ground; others were shoveling while the rest were carrying the sand to the places where the embankments were being raised. The most amazing thing was seeing women in their 60s, 70s and even 80s manually doing the hardening of the embankments by patting with sticks while at the same time singing patriotic songs rhythmically to keep them working.

The women were doing all this hard work under scorching sun and teeming heat and some of them with their babies either tied at their backs or placed under trees with all the risks involved including snake or scorpion bites while working in order to get six Ghanian Cedis a day to feed their families. It is therefore very sad and worrying that despite all this hard work to keep their families running, most development agencies fail to either consider or include women in their poverty reduction strategies.  Women should therefore be given key roles to play in rural communities by development agencies if extreme poverty is to be eradicated among indigenous communities.

Baraka (Thank you)

Learning By Doing, Asking and Listening

By Stella Rakwach, 1st year MDP Student

Problem tree (causes & effects of financial exclusion) - focus groups results at Ma Mawi

Research is a very important aspect of community development, often providing solutions to challenges affecting them. Such solutions should be context specific, informed by local cultures and world views to improve their acceptance in such communities. One size fits all policies/solutions may not be applicable in addressing modern day development issues. What is considered a problem in one community may not be an issue in another. This is very evident when comparing financial exclusion in different communities for example Canada has three major financial sectors: mainstream financial institutions (MFIs), fringe financial institutions (FFI) & informal borrowing/lending. I was comparing that to my country Kenya which on the contrary only has the MFIs & informal borrowing/ lending. FFIs maybe a problem in Canada but is almost non-existent in Kenya. Hence in terms of financial systems in Canada there could be a middle ground while in Kenya you are either in or out of the system. Recently our team has been working on indigenous financial exclusion (IFE) & literacy research data collection. Finding participants for the research methods has not been very easy but it has worked out well courtesy of partnerships with SEED Winnipeg, Ma Mawi & Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN). By taking part in various activities at the sites I met new friends who introduced me to potential participants and later made use of the snowball effect to get more.

Money Management Class at SEED Winnipeg

We attended a money management class and had a small exercise dubbed ‘money & me’ which involved writing on a piece of paper about what one would like spend money on. Then we walked around the room as we asked each other questions and it was interesting to find out that people were saving for items like mattresses, glasses, couches, children’s education and cars etc.  SEED is doing a great job through its savings program which helps their participants save to meet their financial objectives and in addition to that an initiative to help parents set up RESP accounts to save towards their children’s education. In one activity, the class was divided into groups and tasked with identifying the challenges facing their community and suggest possible solutions to these challenges. Part of this activity included separating individual and communal solutions to the communities’ problems. I presented for my group and I had a wonderful time sharing especially on the one person solutions as that would be a development practitioner’s main job. So I talked about charity, volunteering, scholarships/sponsorships, voting, keeping rules, reporting crime as these would be key in promoting education, and good leadership and hence better laws and promote security and other areas of community development.

Cooking Class at Ma Mawi (McGregor site)

 

Lunch is ready! Stella (L) & Grenda (staff member at Ma Mawi)

The cooking began with a short orientation from the lady in charge of the kitchen, I washed my hands and she handed me a pair of gloves and something to cover my hair which I put on then she showed me around the kitchen cabinets to know where to get the cutlery, plates, cups etc. On the menu today is split peas soup & salad and bread.  I helped by dicing some onions and bacon then she put all the ingredients together into a large pot to get the soup boiling. Then we made some caesar salad together as we talked about mainstream banks and fringe banks (pawnshops & payday lenders) and by 12 noon lunch was ready and I put on my name tag and served lunch to the community at the kitchen counter. Later I walked around the dining area with a tray serving fritas for dessert. All that’s well ends well; the staff were very grateful and offered to introduce me to a few people who were interested in participating in the IFE research.

Finding Fisher River

At the beginning of the third week of July, we travelled to Fisher River Cree Nation, as we had completed data collection for the IFE study in Winnipeg. The journey began around 8:30 am after getting directions on Google maps hoping to get there before 11am. All was well till we reached a dead end at a quarry/ construction site, and we had to drive back to the main highway and get new directions from there. We later found our way and arrived safely. We had a wonderful reception courtesy of the band office, the people were nice and respectful. The place was quiet and full of fresh air and it felt so peaceful and refreshing away with no TV and the hustle and bustle of daily life in Winnipeg. In the afternoon of the same day and following days we visited the band office, community store and the Charles Sinclair High school and met a few participants interested in taking part in the resident survey, financial life histories or the focus groups. Therefore for community research & or development to be successful, one must be willing to take part in community activities, exchange knowledge and earn the people’s trust hence learning by doing, asking & listening.

Enjoying some fresh air in Fisher River after a successful day collecting data

The Beauty of Community Development Work

By Douglas Baba, 1st year MDP Student

The international version of the Master’s in Development Practice in Indigenous Development field placement has bestowed on me a lot of development experiences working with some development agencies like World Food Programme, UNICEF, Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, and indigenous communities around the Wa municipality, Ghana.

Working with the local people of Kperisi in Northern Ghana, in particular, has given me a sense of respect and admiration about the rich knowledge indigenous peoples possess despite their low level of formal education. The local people have a wealth of knowledge of information and ideas about every event happening around them - from traditional healing to climate change. In fact, their knowledge cannot be underestimated. They could tell the number of villages, schools, animals, dams, hospitals etc surrounding their community with which they share common interest and beliefs.

So many good things can happen in local communities where development partners operate if they identify themselves with the people there and develop trust and confidence in them. In this way, local people become not only excited to work but also see the project as theirs and therefore much commitment and dedication can be expected from them. Taking good care of the project as well as ensuring regular maintenance is also something that the people can be trusted to do after the project has been completed and handed over to them.

The kind of commitment and hard work the people of Kperisi - youth, men and women groups exhibited during a short period of construction of a community storage structure was beyond my understanding. It was so beautiful and ‘we feel’ seeing MDP students and Kperisi community members working as a group in different capacities to make sure that the community storage structure was completed on time. It was so amazing to the people seeing us participating in the labour work on the project-ranging from weeding, raking, carrying concrete mixture and cement blocks. This partnership can even make the people forget that they are working under the scorching sun with empty stomach due to the Ramadan fasting.

The commitment of local people in using their labour in a project can make a big difference. They know very well at every stage of a development process when to improvise in order to reduce cost. I couldn’t imagine how with the support of community labour an amount of about $600 could build a community storage structure. This is an indication that governments and other development partners can make a huge difference in local communities if they identify themselves with the people and work together instead of imposing projects on them. The community leaders have the trust of the people and are therefore capable of mobilizing the people at every stage of the development process to ensure success. The local people who have the technical skills such as masonry and carpentry are always ready and cherish rendering services without demanding a penny for their people. It was really amazing to us all when a mason called Iddrisu was able to mobilize all his apprentices to raise the community structure with the help of the rest of us in a day. The people of Kperisi have exhibited motivation and commitment to move their community forward.

 

Douglas Baba

Baraka, Baraka (Thank you, Thank you)