Barbara Gilday - African Projects

Address:
Reverend Barbara Gilday
2300 I St.
Bellingham, WA 98225

Phone:
(360) 676-0765

Cell Phone:
(360) 927-6627

Operating Hours:
please call for an appointment

Education and Credentials:
- BA Psychology,

- Master of Divinity,

- Ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister,

- Chaplain Specialist, CAPPE.,

- Heart Centered Therapy, Certification.

Other:
- Toastmasters International Area Competition Winner

African Projects

2007 Journey to Ghana

Western Heritage Children's Home & Community Center.

In September, 2007 Global Citizen Journey alumni and 2 newbies returned to Ghana. We dedicated the Children's Home in Axim, on Sept. 17th. 28 Children have moved into the facility, and it will eventually take 35. The children have formed an extended family - they call themselves the Western Heritage Home Scholars. It is not unusual for children in Ghana to grow up in several homes and the older children quickly take responsibility for the younger ones. It is quite possible that some of them will be there for awhile and then when some of the children of one of their biological extended families moves on, they might move in with that family. Our new non-profit, Ghana Together, will also support children in their homes where families are unable to do so, and pay their school expenses - at least for a few years until the WHH Orphanage and Community Centre becomes self-sustaining. The purpose for the Community Center on the top floor, is to provide training for women and others in the community, and to open an IT training and internet center. It has a separate entrance and may be rented for local functions. For updated information on the Orphanage and Community Center, click on this link. www.ghanatogether.org

Appreciative Inquiry: Canadian, Jim Taylor and I taught Appreciative Inquiry techniques - a strengths based methodology to find an individual or community's resourcefulness and empower them to create their own visions of their possible futures. It is used extensively in development work. Jim had to come home early, so I continued the AI processes on my own, eventually teaching over 1100 students, teachers, business owners and board and community members. I've been asked to return next year to work with small communities, other schools and Chambers of Commerce.

Story Project: A major focus in my work in 2007 was collecting human interest stories. Hagar Hajara Yakubu seen here has an inspirational story of her vision and the challenges growing up and getting an education. She is now the Director of the Community Development Vocational Institute. As a successful career woman, she has helped many others to manifest their dreams. My focus in the interviews was to help the interviewees see that their lives are important and to highlight their strenths and values. These stories are informing my presentations and will likely become the basis for a book. I am convinced that when we come to know our neighbors, we will become aware of their wisdom, be inspired by them, be thoughtful about some of the lessons we can learn from them, and become better global citizens ourselves.

Konongo Odumase Secondary School Library:
Finally, I visited Konongo Odumase Secondary School where I taught and was librarian as a Canadian Volunteer from 1966-1968. Konongo Odumasi Secondary School (KOSS) is a government boarding school serving 1600 students in the Ashanti region. It was built in 1953 as a part of the new democracy of Ghana under its first president, Kwame Nkrumah. Recently the government began implementing a policy of improving the infrastructure of senior secondary schools, and KOSS has been designated as one of the schools to be upgraded to take pressure off some of the larger and better known schools. Many alumni from KOSS have become leaders in business, communities and government in Ghana. We would like to see a new generation of leaders emerge from KOSS.

Accordingly, in 2006, I made a committment to raise funds to purchase books for the library. With other former volunteers and a former student, we completed our goal of fundraising in order to buy $20,000 of new books for the 1600 students there. Students and staff were elated at the opening.

One comment made to the Headmaster: "Do we get to read these books?" Easy reading books and good literature would be welcome additions.

At Konongo, I also trained 1000 students and 35 teachers in Appreciative Inquiry for their lives and work.

The head of the science department has requested help for their labs. Anyone interested in adopting a lab with friends and family and making it a first rate teaching environment? All their teachers are university trained.

The school would also like help purchasing 60 new computers for the students to begin to learn on the web.

Back in North America, I am traveling and doing educational and engaging presentations and workshops in schools, churches and communities to inform and transform our ways of thinking about the world.

2006 Journey to Ghana

In 2006, 15 North Americans were paired with 14 Ghanaians, for projects in the small fishing village of Axim on the southwest coast of Ghana near Ivory Coast. For most of the year before, we communicated with the Western Christian Heritage Home - the name for the orphanage and community center that we were supporting- to discover their local needs and what sort of delegates would be useful. A Town Hall meeting helped residents identify what they loved about their town, what they would like to change, what resources they have internally and around them, and offered the opportunity to take first steps. People were very excited to have their voices heard. We had a variety of smaller, and in some cases, ongoing projects: HIV/AIDS education, an engineering study to prepare a waste water proposal to Engineers Without Borders, a women's business education day and information on micro-lending, the beginnings of the first internet cafe in the southwest region, paired schools that have ongoing connections and others. Delegates found the experience quite transformational, and many of the North Americans plan to return.

2005 Journey to the Niger Delta

In 2005, 18 NorthAmericans went with Global Citizen Journey to Nigeria, and eventually to the village of Oporoza to build a library with the intention of bringing education and a vehicle for reconciliation to 2 clans that had been at odds for some 13 years. We were paired with 21 Nigerians from all over the country. We completed the library, and came to know and care for the Nigerian delegates in relationships that have persisted for many. This photo shows the 2 girls who were assigned to assist us by carrying water, doing our washing, etc. We came to know something of the conditions that women live in, through their's and others stories. We also came face to face with the complexities of the social disintegration caused by the oil industry and resulting pollution, a societal pattern of money intended for particular purposes being siphoned off by various layers of officials, and oil companies that began by making the most money possible for their shareholders, resulting in environmental degradation and social consequences.

I came home wanting to use my car less - I ride my bicycle or walk as much as possible - for I have seen what our insatiable appetite for black gold is doing to the poor in the region.

You may read more about Global Citizen Journey and our projects at: www.globalcitizenjourney.org