Lucy Dawu, our main coordinator in Ghana, does it all.
She takes ten-minute walks to remote schools walking down steep, rocky paths in three-inch-heels without missing a step, a feat that sums up how she approaches life. She is skilled interviewer, accountant, liaison, grant administrator, organizer, tech person, speaker, and ambassador for Yo Ghana! and never seems to get rattled. This trip she has been teaching people how to use complex smart phones, speaking to groups of up to seven hundred, making sure that we cover the nuances of our several programs, representing us to academics, administrators, teachers, and countless students, all while enduring a demanding schedule of travel and looking meticulous while she does it.
Lucy has worked at the Aya Centre for Intercultural
Awareness and Development for several years, and one of our board members, Dr.
Michael Williams, the Centre’s Director, recommended her as our first
Ghana coordinator earlier this year.
Having gone to several schools with Lucy over the years, I was delighted
when she agreed to help us. She had already grasped what Yo Ghana! is all about and excels at explaining to
students how we differ from old-fashioned penpal programs in which students
from Ghana would seek out a friend in a wealthier country who might eventually
send them a present. Lucy explains that
our relationships are mediated by schools and teachers and that the currency is knowledge, a
currency in which the Ghanaian partners are at least as wealthy as their U.S.
counterparts. And she certainly carries herself that way.
Yo Ghana! is so very fortunate to have her in the middle of
our team.
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