Our work in Cape Coast - Money Talks

It’s hard to believe we only have a few weeks left in Ghana. The past month we have been enjoying our time in Cape Coast. Besides being a much bigger city, it is a larger volunteer location and production site. Our volunteer house is filled with 12 people of various ages from all over the world. We have volunteers from Japan, Scotland, China, Iceland, Canada, Nigeria, and the U.K. The cast of characters is completed by our housemaid, a talking bird, and a batty old security guard named, Appiah, who spends most of his time stealing our bread and practicing his aim with his homemade slingshot.

The office in Cape Coast is a much busier location with a retail shop below and a production office above. Women in Progress (WIP) employs 10 locals who manage the orders and ensure the items meet the quality standards before being exported. It is a complex process involving over 50 independent producers who must work together to complete the order on time (without email or normal forms of business communication!). It is amazing to think that just 5 years ago there were only 6 producers and a very small office. Now, WIP provides a source of income directly to 300 men and women and indirectly to over 1,000 more locals.

Our mission in Cape Coast is to ensure the wages are fair and to educate the women on distribution processes and costs of doing business. Over time, the producer’s morale has become a big issue for WIP. Many women feel they are not being paid fairly because they sell their goods for more money at the local tourist shops than WIP pays them to produce for export. They are also used to getting handouts from other organizations as a result of the foreign aid in Ghana. It has been intriguing to hear the women complain about WIP when we found they are making 4x’s the minimum wage. We figured the women would be happy about the growth of Global Mamas (and many are), but others feel like they should get a cut of the growth and don’t understand that there is very little profit for WIP. All of these morale problems directly impacts production delivery and quality, not to mention the WIP staff relations.

To educate the women on this issue, we’ve designed a presentation and role-playing game to illustrate WIP’s operational expenses and the difference between retail and wholesale prices. Ghanaian women are typically reserved, but become animated like Nigerian film stars when role-playing so we’re looking forward to some good entertainment. In the end, we hope that the education will improve morale and prevent women from leaving the program. The alternatives for supporting their families are few and a solid partnership is vital for WIP to continue to grow and reinvest in Ghana.

Here's a link to our pictures from our volunteer house and our time with the member's from Iowa's Lutheran Church of Hope!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883529@N02/sets/72157606857568827/