Jau-Yon Chen (USA/Taiwan)
Community Development with Women's NGO in Nkanfoa, Ghana

I have returned to the States from Ghana. I can't believe that time passed by in a blink of an eye. My 12 week stay there has come to an end.

I just want to let you know that my project there was a success; thanks to my dedicated interpreter and my Coordinator’s care and attentiveness to each and every one of the participants.

I am also impressed with the caliber and the dedication of other Cosmic Volunteers, Shalle and Nathan. They are so dedicated to their projects and they also have a genuine concerned with the people that they are working with.

Both my Coordinator and Nathan were with me in Nkanfoa during my last meeting with the women this past Friday. Nathan helped me guest facilitate by answering the medical/health related questions while My Coordinator was there seeing how the meeting was conducted so that he could send future participants to continue my project.

I bought little gifts for the women who attended the sessions so that they could remember me. I also compiled a report documenting each of my meetings with the women. The purpose of the report is for future participants to read the topics covered during my meetings so that they can continue where I had left off.

I hope that the informal educational sessions in Nkanfoa could continue and that Cosmic could place participants, especially those with medical/health related backgrounds to work at the PPAG Clinic that is scheduled to operate in Nkanfoa in late June/early July and help continue the informal educational sessions.

I had an opportunity to visit the Lake Volta area and the northern part of Ghana. I went to Mole National Park, saw the unique African style mosque in Larabanga, passed by Tamale and visited a remote village outside Bolgatanga during the weekend before my last week there.

It was truly an African adventure that I will never forget in my lifetime. I had to sleep on a bench in the junction to Mole National Park, bike for a total of 12 kilometers from Larabanga to Mole and back since no trotros or taxis are available, and ride a two hour bus ride from Damango to Tamale on a rough, bumpy and dusty road. I was so dusty by the time that I reached Tamale.

In the remote areas of the northern region, there are no electricity or running water. They really need infrastructural development and investments to help improve the livelihood of this region. Whenever an opportunity arises, I will encourage people, businesses and organizations to invest in the northern region of Ghana and help develop the infrastructure there.