Education and WaPreG

This past week Allie started school.  That is why this post is so late and we do apologize for that.  I do, however, want to link this change in my routine to Waste Prevention Group.  If you look to the side, you will see that the WaPreG goal is to prevent further waste in Ghana.  The plan is to do this through religious bodies, schools and the general public.  By working through these means, how do we prevent waste?  What we need to do is educate.  Now, education is not enough if the population does not want change, however many have expressed an interest in fixing this problem.  If you pay attention in Ghana, you can even catch people scolding others for contributing to this same problem.  That means people want to change and they know how.  As a group, WaPreG concentrates on why and how to prevent waste.  By concentrating on these two aspects, prevention will happen on its own.

Now, education is most obviously found in schools, which is one reason we did choose schools.  Those attending schools have great ideas, but may not realize how much power they have to effect change.  They learn something and believe in it, bring it home to their peers – friends, family, others in their communities – those peers who also believe in it make the change, bringing it to their own peers and it spreads.  What we must keep in mind, however, is that even if we eventually reach out to every school in Ghana, there is a large portion of the school-age population not attending school for various reasons and an even larger portion no longer attends school.  Because of that, we realized that a great place to go that will reach the large majority of the Ghanaian population, both school-age and beyond, is religious bodies.  Religion is very important to a great majority of Ghanaians.  Many religious leaders feel that we must not abuse the earth given to us by the creator.  Despite these two great institutions, we must recall that there are still portions of the population we have not yet reached, so we also work with the general public to be sure to reach as many people as possible.

Now when we hear the word “education”, we think of formal institutions with books and exams and paid teachers.  The kind of education related to WaPreG is about communal learning.  The expression “preaching to the choir” comes to mind, but in a good way.  Sometimes, to start the change, you need to bring together like-minded people to share their knowledge, so they can spread the word and that is part of the goal of WaPreG.  We will work with people who believe the problem can be remedied.  We want everyone to bring their knowledge and ideas to the table, so everyone can be on the same page.  We want to come up with ideas as a group.  WaPreG is not about WaPreG members telling non-members what to do.  Instead, the aim is to bring everyone together to come up with a solution that everyone will be pleased with and that will have a positive effect on the majority.  Sure, having started WaPreG, Alfred and Allie have many ideas, but we are only two people.  Ghana’s last census estimated a population of 24,7 million, or 103,4 people per square kilometer (dense compared to Canada’s 3,5 people per square kilometer, yet sparse compared to India’s 368,1).  We have faith that the 24,7 million in Ghana have plenty of ideas, if only they are given the chance to share these ideas.

Quote of the week, by Imelda Marcos:

People say I'm extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?