He joined the Peace Corps and left for his training in September 2004. "The work is immediately rewarding," Ham said. So far, Ham has worked in a bamboo craft center, taught K-5 students and teamed with a nongovernment agency to help his students earn bicycles. He works for CREMA -- Community Resource Management Area -- and lives on a farm on the outskirts of the Ankasa Conservation Area with about 30 people.
Peace Corps Volunteer Stephen Ham helping poor community in Ghana in west Africa
Peace Corps work rewarding for OHS graduate: Ham helping poor community in Ghana in west Africa
Dec 29, 2005 - Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
Dec. 29--For the last 15 months, Stephen Ham, 23, has run every day on the main path of a small, isolated tropical rain forest reserve in Ghana. This week, however, Ham is at home in eastern Daviess County on a break from his 27-month Peace Corps assignment in a poor community of west Africa where he is an environmental volunteer. "It's a much slower pace so you don't get stressed out from that," Ham said. "But you can get frustrated when things don't go as fast as you'd like." Ham is a 2000 graduate of Owensboro High School. He finished his studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology that includes a minor in environmental science.
He joined the Peace Corps and left for his training in September 2004. "The work is immediately rewarding," Ham said. So far, Ham has worked in a bamboo craft center, taught K-5 students and teamed with a nongovernment agency to help his students earn bicycles. He works for CREMA -- Community Resource Management Area -- and lives on a farm on the outskirts of the Ankasa Conservation Area with about 30 people. The rain forest is completely protected, but there are problems with poaching of animals and different plant life. CREMA was started as a community-based cooperative that provides incentives to stop poaching.
Nine villages participate in CREMA, which also creates income-based activities for small groups. "The hope is that they will police themselves," Ham said. In the Peace Corps, the communities where volunteers live provide the housing. Paul Kodjo, the man who owns the land on which Ham lives, is the CREMA chairman. Ham and other Peace Corps participants receive salaries equivalent to low-middle income wages in their respective countries. In Ghana, that amounts to about $160 per month for Ham. The main food is fufu, which is pounded cassava, a starchy root, and plantain. The fufu is put into soup for flavor.
"Eating is not a social activity like it is here," Ham said. "You eat to get a full stomach." The national language is English, and the government wants everyone to learn it in school. "It's amazing with my small amount of local language and their small amount of English how well we communicate," Ham said. "I've never had a problem." Every Wednesday is community work day, and a CREMA executive committee decides what needs to be done and either divides up the labor or has all workers come together on a project. The current project is a solar-powered community center that is near completion.
It will be used for town meetings and funerals, which are big social events lasting from Friday to Sunday. The building also will include a small library for the community that is targeted for the schoolchildren. Bikes are important for transportation On his own, Ham has been working with a nongovernment agency which sends over used bikes that get refurbished. The bikes primarily are paid for by individual sponsors. "My community was so poor that I wanted to have a way the kids could get a bike, but not free," Ham said. "The organization has a daylong bike workshop, and every family selected must pay a small fee of $2.50-$3." The bikes are important since there is no transportation in the community's six- mile stretch.
Ham also has an interest in gender equity and is working with the Peace Corps Gender and Youth Development. Fifty- one percent of the bikes were targeted for girls. "There is a stereotype that the men are the providers in the family, but actually the women get up at 3 a.m. to cook and clean and then go to work beside the men on the farm," Ham said. "Some also have a baby on their hip." Ham's big project this year will be designing and constructing a community latrine that will serve about a half dozen families. "Sanitation is nonexistent here," he said. "I have my own toilet and latrine, but most use the road or anywhere." He also must find funding for the latrine project.
For that, he will look closer to Ghana. "That's the Peace Corps way; always start with those closest and work in concentric circles." Ham will return to Ghana the first week in January. He's making the most of his time at home visiting with family and friends. "I'm still on an emotional roller coaster, and there's nothing that prepares you for that," he said. "I'm lucky to have the family on the farm. I eat dinner with them every night and have coffee with them every morning, and when I go anywhere I tell them where I'm going." Ham also has his training group, the 29 other Peace Corps volunteers who are serving in Ghana.
Eleven from the group came to stay with him on Thanksgiving where Ham and others prepared a feast for 50. The Owensboro student said he's having fun, seeing the country and still working hard. After his time in Ghana is up, Ham wants to continue to have similar experiences. He expects to go back to school and then "get a real job" working on international issues. To Help Anyone interested in sponsoring bicycles for Ghanain students may reach Stephen Ham at stephenham@alumni.unc.edu. He expects to get 40 more bikes this year for refurbishing.
