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A somewhat sour (and premature) leaving note - Part II

25^th July 2006
When I left the Philippines, the NGO I was involved in pulled out of my placement area. It was a sour way to end my involvement. One of the main reasons they pulled out was the pettiness of the municipal government. I had a fine how's-your-father with the local mayor the day that I left.

Now, as I leave Ghana, it is happening again. The parallels with my Philippines experiences are uncanny. I am the curse of NGOs everywhere.

I almost feel obliged to write to the Ugandan program and warn them that the antithesis of NGOs everywhere is about to arrive...

But, I get ahead of myself. Lemme give you a bit of history first, then I'll talk about the shouting match I had with an African Big Man.

A Step Back In Time
We were fortunate enough to have a young lady called Kate Morrison staying with us. Kate volunteered on camp about a year ago and enjoyed it so much that she came back for a second helping. She is very popular on camp and knows just about everybody.

While Kate was on camp for the first time, the volunteers worked very hard to - among other things - give the local staff a much needed stipend increase. The had worked hard and raised a lot of money.

CBW went out of their way to deceive the volunteers and one day a car arrived on camp bedecked with CBW logos. The car was purchased with the stipend increase money and volunteer fees. The volunteers were pissed off to say the least. Many shouting matches and walk outs ensued.

Colin Salisbury - the founder of head of GVN - came out to try and sort out the mess. GVN pulling out of CBW was a real possibility. In the end, the volunteers voted to continue the program. It was thought that too many people would lose out due to this one foolish and selfish act.

Measures were put in place to make sure that something similar would not happen again. The biggest change was the appointment of a GVN representative. The GVN rep would live on camp and basically keep an eye on CBW.

The CBW employees have still not received a stipend increase by the way.

Children Better Way
Before I move onto Act II of this tragedy, I'm going to talk a little bit about CBW and what I think of their business practices.

CBW was founded by a gentleman called Semeh Roberts in Liberia. When Semeh came to Ghana, so did CBW. GVN got involved in CBW a number of years ago and CBW has gone from strength to strength. CBW runs the following programs on camp:

A pre-primary school
A primary school
A water and sanitation program
An HIV/AIDS outreach program
A microloan program
An IT training center

That's the good news.

I'm going to piss off a lot of people for saying what the bad news is, but I'm going to say it anyway.

The bad news is that CBW is as corrupt as the day is long. All of this corruption winds its way back to the man in charge, Semeh Roberts. For all practical purposes, CBW = Semeh Roberts. Nothing gets done without his say-so.

Semeh will lie, cheat and deceive people if it means he gets more money in his back pocket. CBW might have been found on great principals, but they have since been lost to the wind.

Let me give you just one example.

The school recently had its final exams. The teachers prepared the exam well ahead of time. They presented the exams to CBW admin to get photocopied. The bullshit stories they were given were unbelievable. The exams never got photocopied and the teachers had to copy the exam onto the board for the children to copy. The chalk also ran out on the exam day to add insult to injury. Getting a few measly cedi to buy chalk would of been nigh on impossible so I purchased some chalk.

This is just one of many stories. The CBW staff are pissed off at Semeh, but can't do a damn thing to stop him. Some of them have threatened to leave CBW, but Semeh will point out that they should feel lucky to have a job. A little money is better than no money, so the staff generally stay on despite only earning $US 0.50 a day.

The financial statements are suppose to be transparent. They are not. I think they are not transparent because Semeh (and possibly others) are using the money given in good faith by the volunteers for their own selfish needs.

Semeh Roberts is profiting from the misery of his own people.

*Deep Breath* This sort of things make me so angry. We are suppose to be here to help out the Liberian people. All we are effectively doing is propping up a very corrupt organisation. A little bit of corruption is to be expected in Africa. CBW takes the corruption way to far.

Part II of the Tragedy
Erin was the most recent GVN rep. She left about a month ago. Despite the best intentions of GVN, a replacement GVN rep was not found.

The relationship between Semeh and Erin was not good. He refused to even meet with Erin for the last five weeks of her stay. I suspect former GVN reps had similar problems.

Erin had been gone for about two weeks when, low and behold, another CBW vehicle rolled into camp. Not just any vehicle either, but a god damn 4WD Landrover.

I do not think it was coincidence that the Landrover arrived just after Erin left.

Their justification for buying the Landrover was that it was the most economical way to explore Liberia and suss out the options of setting up a branch of CBW there. I'll let you decide whether or not it was a prudent decision considering that:

That staff are still underpaid
Promised water only sometimes arrives at the school
The peanut program to feed hungry school children has mysteriously vanished
It is nigh on impossible to get any sort of petty cash from CBW. The exam story above is a classic example.

The car was bought in preference to feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty and paying people a fair and equitable rate.

I was pissed off. I was angry. I was not the only one. Once news got out, GVN was barraged by angry letters by many former international volunteers. Many of them thought that GVN should cut ties with CBW.

I called a meeting with all the IVs and had Kate explain the story of the first car. We discussed what to do about it. We thought we would try and give Semeh the benefit of the doubt and explain why he had purchased the car in preference to other areas where money is desperately needed.

We casually bought up the topic at a meet and greet. Bullshit stories followed that I eventually lost interest in.

I told the international volunteers that I wanted to express my anger and disappointment at Semeh. Just about all of them were in favor of me doing so. The aforementioned Kate Morrison came along as well.

Another day, another shouting match with an influential figure
Kate and I had the meeting with Semeh. We both expressed our anger and disappointment with the purchase. I told Semeh how his foolish and selfish act had put the whole of CBW at risk as it was a very real option for GVN to pull out.

He plied his bullshit thickly. I got sucked in a couple of times to his games, but managed to break it down for him. I drew a little diagram like this for him:

CBW Purchases Car One ==> International Volunteers Get Pissed Off ==> Colin Salisbury Arrives on Camp ==> GVN almost pulls out ==> Measures are put in place to prevent it happening again

CBW Purchases Car Two ==> International Volunteers Get Pissed Off ==> what do you think will happen next?

Anybody with half a brain can see that GVN pulling out is a very real possibility.

In a strange perverse way I enjoyed arguing with Semeh. It felt good to stand up to an African Big Man and speak out for the people he is shitting on. My favorite quotes from the argument include:

You are profiting from the misery of your own people. Shame on you!
How dare you purchase that car. You're paying your own employees fifty fucken' cents a day. That's half what the UN says is the poverty level. Shame!

I don't really know if the poverty level is $US1 a day. Sounded good anyway.

At one point Semeh said that he was only acting in his own best interests. Kate and I threw up our hands and said, "Finally! Something we agree on!" Semeh responded by saying that we all act in our own best interests. I came up with:

No way buddy. The Bible states that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. So, no, I am not acting in my own best interest, but in my neighbors best interest.

Quoting the Bible back to a supposedly religious man was a sweet moment.

In the end though, nothing much was accomplished. I don't think Semeh will change his position on the car. I certainly wont change mine.

Wrap Up
I personally think it is time for GVN to cut ties with CBW. A gradual pull out will be best.

The big loser in all of this is the local employees and the people who indirectly benefit from CBW.

But, the money that is currently being fed into CBW can be fed somewhere else. Hopefully some organisation that is a lot less corrupt than CBW. The people we know and love on camp will lose out, but somewhere else people will get paid what the deserve, children will be fed and given water and the volunteers money will go towards helping the people. That can't be a bad thing.

It will be interesting to see how GVN responds to all of this.

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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