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VIU prof and students going to Ghana

NANAIMO – Long-term partnership formed between a Vancouver Island University professor and the town.
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Brianne Labute

A conversation under a large tree in the middle of a town in north western Ghana has led to a long-term partnership between a Vancouver Island University professor and the town.

Aggie Weighill, in the recreation and tourism department, is leading a field school in Ghana this year.

The long-term objective of the field school is to help the town of Larabanga develop tourism enterprises that benefit individuals and the community. The goal this year – Weighill has committed to bringing students to Larabanga each year for as long as they are of use – is to help the community develop a shared vision of what tourism could look like in the town.

"It's not us going in with the expert opinion," said Weighill. "They have to decide what they want. The worst thing we could do is think we have all the answers for them."

This is the second year of Weighill's partnership with Larabanga and her fourth trip to Ghana in as many years.

She had a chance to develop a connection with community members after participating in VIU's five-year Ghana Canada Partnership for Environmental Education, a collaboration between VIU and two Sunyani-area institutions funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

The project, which wrapped up in 2011, focused on ecotourism development, reducing poverty and developing environmentally sustainable practices in the Sunyani area.

Two summers ago, Weighill was in Larabanga talking with a group of women under a large tree in front of one of the town's mosques.

The town is on the way to Mole National Park, where tourists can go to see elephants, baboons and warthogs, and she was asking the women how they feel about the local tourism industry.

"They felt isolated from the opportunities to be involved because they didn't speak English," said Weighill. "It was like somebody had turned a light switch on in the faces of these women. They were excited that we were talking to them."

The women brought up concerns about their children skipping school to beg for money from tourists or working as unofficial guides instead of on the family farm.

Moved by her conversation with the women, Weighill later made a personal commitment to bring tourism students to Larabanga each year.

"It could be 20 years, it could be three years," she said. "It comes down to do they want us there, are we achieving something."

Weighill said many people in Larabanga live below the poverty line, in houses made out of mud and sticks, and are subsistence farmers whose fields are vulnerable to drought, changing weather patterns and crop raiders.

"An elephant can go through and destroy an entire plantation in a day," she said. "They're always hanging on the edge."

Last year, Weighill and her students identified activities already going on in the community that are potential tourism enterprises, such as the local weaver who makes a traditional cloth, and shea butter production, widely used as a moisturizer, salve or lotion.

This year, the group will study gender roles in the community and she hopes to give her students some opportunities to run skills workshops for the locals on such topics as tour guiding, food sanitation and greeting tourists.

One major problem Weighill identified is the way tourists are handled by locals – she said a female tourist will get out of a car and be instantly surrounded by 20 young men, pulling at her or putting their arms around her in what they feel is a friendly manner.

"For us, it's threatening," she said.

Students pay their own way and have been fundraising to help cover costs, as well as take a bit extra to the community in supplies or tourism equipment such as water sterilization jugs. Weighill leaves Saturday (April 7) and stays until mid-July, with the six participating students meeting her at different times.

 

 

 

 

Vancouver Island University's five-year partnership with two post-secondary institutions in Sunyani, Ghana, has led to a number of spinoff collaborations between the Nanaimo community and communities in the west African nation.

Ken Hammer, co-leader of VIU's five-year Ghana Canada Partnership for Environmental Education and a tourism and recreation professor, said besides tourism professor Aggie Weighill's partnership with Larabanga, VIU nursing students are going to Ghana for a six-week practice placement.

A research centre with offices in Sunyani and Nanaimo has been established so that the institutions can continue to work together wherever possible, he said, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University has gotten involved.

Hammer, a member of the Nanaimo Daybreak Rotary Club, said various Island Rotary Clubs have helped establish a club in Sunyani and the Island groups have raised more than $150,000 to date for various projects. The Island Rotary groups have also sent two delegations in the past three years to Sunyani to inspect Island-funded projects and identify new projects, he added.

"They're sending a team here this June," said Hammer. "It's a bit of a cultural exchange."

VIU has also started a research partnership with institutions in Sunyani and Tanzania that strives to understand the impacts of living near a protected area, said Hammer, and First Nations communities near Tofino are involved.

Harry Janzen, dean of education at VIU, said two education faculty members also went to Ghana last summer to investigate opportunities for future field schools.