Back to School

As the air cools and leaves begin to change their color in the US, the sun begins to burn brighter here in Ghana. Similar to the US, September not only begins a change in weather, it also signifies the reopening of a new school year. During the summer months, AACT had about 15 students who regularly attended the center with just about one caregiver for every child. Many of the other students traveled with their families or stayed home with other siblings on vacation. Over the past few weeks, all of these students have returned. Now a typical day at AACT has about 25 students, being taught by 12 caregivers, 3 directors, and a few volunteers. Not including the daily visitors, there are over 40 moving bodies in the center on a regular basis, at least half of whom have autism.



Due to increased attendance, it became necessary to find more effective ways to keep groups of students engaged. With support from Auntie Baaba and help from two new volunteers, we put together a more structured morning routine for the middle classroom. We choose this room to focus on first, because they typically have the most students with the least amount of caregivers. The routine involves the students identifying “who is here today” by moving pictures of themselves to the appropriate area, going through the day of the week, month, year, and then identifying the weather. So far, it seems to be working well!



There has been a lot of other excitement over the past few weeks. On September 8th, a television series called Impact Africa came to film an episode at AACT. This included footage of the students activities and interviews with Auntie Serwah and I. Last week, the Rotary Club came to present a donation to the center. There were over 25 members who came for the ceremony. It was a great opportunity for them to learn more about children with autism and the services provided at AACT.



On top of all of this, I have been continuing correspondence with a variety of others. Caroline Pongo, the creator of a local educational puppet theater, came to the center last Thursday. Her and I discussed getting the students involved with a puppet making workshop, as well as planning a performance at the center. Stacey Reynolds, an Occupational Therapy professor at Virginia Commonwealth University has agreed to include AACT on their annual service trip next May. This is especially exciting because there are currently no Occupational Therapists in Ghana. This coming Monday, I have a meeting with Nana Ocran, the Director of Education at the Ghana National Museum, to begin setting up educational programs at the museum modified for children with autism.

In regards to administrative tasks, I have been involved with developing job descriptions and creating an employee code of conduct. These will be compiled into an employee handbook and be available in the future for new employees. As volunteers come and go, we have been asking for their feedback as well, in order to continuously improve the current volunteer handbook. The point of all of this is documentation. Keeping records, putting job rules and regulations on paper, tracking the number of volunteers in a given time period, etc. It all helps to strengthen an organization’s permanence.


Last but not least, the Caregiver Challenge, a fundraiser started about a week and a half ago, has already raise 130GHc (about equal to about $90 US Dollars)! Auntie Serwah has created a bank account that is specifically for donations. The goal is to not touch this money until there is enough to build, buy, or rent an additional, desperately needed, facility.

All in all, things are progressing! And as much as I miss the beautiful fall weather, the warm sun doesn’t feel too bad. Thanks again for reading.

Until next time,
Casey

Dear Readers,

It has been a great couple weeks at AACT!

Back during the first week of the service project, Brad and Lori took baseline data on functional communication opportunities. Their data was taken during snack time on 15 separate students. According to the observations and despite dedicated staff, the baseline showed minimal to no spontaneous communication. After three weeks of training, making communication aids, and modeling effective techniques, we found their spontaneous communication rose to an average of about 6 opportunities during a 5 minute period. Over the past weeks, I have taken follow-up data. In most cases, the students’ opportunities to functionally communicate had stayed consistent, while a couple others actually increased. This was great news! The caregivers are continuing to use their acquired skills and resources and the students are learning meaningful communication, slowly but surely.


Along these lines, back in July the Global Autism Project volunteers made many new PECS pictures available in each classroom. These are proving to be very useful, especially within the youngest classroom. In addition to this and after a meeting with Auntie Baaba & Auntie Serwah, we found it necessary to being creating visual schedules for each student. With the help from one student, one caregiver and Auntie Baaba, we made 14 individual schedules along with an extra sheets of various motivational pictures. Providing the caregivers use the time tables effectively and the students positively respond, a new PECS organizational system has been put into place to make it easier to create more of these in the future.

On Friday, July 21st Auntie Serwah and I presented to 31 New York University study abroad students about volunteering at AACT. It was organized by their academic director and included many other Ghanaian schools, NGOs, and businesses looking for volunteers. Personally, this was a remarkable opportunity. Just five years ago, I was that same study abroad student being first introduced to the beautiful country of Ghana.


Last week, I began to focus on fund raising ideas. With families in and out of this center every day looking for services and one serious traffic problem in Accra, there is a true need for a second facility. Keeping every day needs in mind, I anticipate raising enough money to fund an entire new center will be a long process. With that said, we decided to start fund raising ASAP. The first fundraiser, the Caregiver Challenge, will begin this Friday. The objective behind this is to have the staff compete to see who can raise the most amount of money in one month. There will be a chart displayed publicly that tracks each caregivers progress and an overall total. As incentive the person who raises the most will earn 20% of the grand total, with second and third places also receiving a portion and certificates of accomplishment.

Other planned fundraisers include professional days at the center, monthly benefit dinners, and a Walk for Autism Awareness in April. The key behind all of these is that they rely on a local population. Everything that I have been doing here is done with the idea of sustainability first. Always asking: Will the center be able to maintain the work the volunteers have been doing in the future? Will they use these resources, trainings, and fund raising ideas to continuously enhance the services provided? For now the answer is yes. According to our data, although only officially on communication opportunities, there has been a heightening of motivation to work more effectively as a center.


As for me, life in Ghana is exciting as always. Over the past two months, I have already learned more both personally and professionally than I anticipated for my entire stay here (including a tolerance for geckos in my bedroom and a serious love for plantains in any form).

Take care,
Casey