"Surname: STRATAS, Given Name: ROBIN REBECCA... Occupation: ___________?"

As a group of Canadians (all Africa Program Staff from Ghana) travelled across the Ghana/Burkina Faso border, in addition to pathetic attempts at bilingualism, we filled out the necessary forms. Mostly straightforward... I filled in my name, my passport number and expiration date, my current mailing address, and the reason for my visit to Burkina.. but then, just when I thought I had it covered, just when I thought I was almost finished this mind-numbing activity, I became stumped: "Occupation:_________". My immediate reaction was to peak on my colleague's sheet, as I had done for some other parts of the form, to see what they had written: "ENGINEER". Well okay, my engineering colleagues have it a bit easier. That won't work for me though. So I sat and thought: okay, how can I summarize and describe what I do in about 20 letters?
I settled on the most general, vague, indistinct title I could: "Development Worker".
Upon further thought, I realized that just in the same way I found it difficult to tell a border official- who doesn't care at all- what I do, I haven't been able to effectively communicate to Canadians about my work here.
I know that blog posts like these can become long, boring, confusing, so I will do my very best to be concise. If you have further questions- please ask me. I really appreciate all comments and questions on this blog.

So for simplicity's sake let's say that my work is focused in 3 general areas:
1) Working at MADU- a Ministry of Food and Agric (MoFA) District office. Here I have primarily been training Field Staff (a core group of 10) on implementing a curriculum with farmer groups, that EWB developed called Agriculture as a Business. Main goals of this practical curriculum are to 1) strengthen existing farmer groups, and 2) develop farmers' agribusiness skills and abilities to increase profits. Here, I've also been generally building the capacity of the staff: trainings and workshops on "Quality Extension", and Goal setting, individual etc. Here is where I have made some amazing friends with incredibly dedicated, underpaid field staff, and had the chance to interact face to face, on fields and under mango trees, with the farmers I am ultimately working on behalf of. The first part of my placement was mostly focused here, at MADU. I am now transitioning out of this position.

2) Working in Agricultural Colleges- This work was previously being undertaken by Carissa Vados, incredible volunteer who is now back in Canada. I am following up with her work at the Vet College (AHPC) on developing a course outline for a new class on entrepreneurship- designed to address the current challenge of unemployment in graduates, and to provide overall inspiration for students to be innovative. Further, I am now also working at Kwadaso Agric College (these are likely the 2 best Agric colleges of the 5 in the country), also pushing an Entrepreneurship course which already exists, and also enhancing the Extension curriculum to be more farmer-first, participatory approach, innovative, and inclusive of agribusiness skills. At this school I am also piloting an Entrepreneur Competition which, depending on success, could be scaled up to all colleges next year. I am super excited about this initiative, because after personally spending time at a district, and hearing of all my colleagues frustrations at various districts, I am excited about addressing one of the root causes by improving the quality of education, so graduates already have the key knowledge, skills and attitudes before they enter the workforce.

3) Finally, I work for EWB to support our staff here on team MoFA: this means that I am responsible for the Junior Fellowship Program in Ghana (this summer we will receive 8-14 University students who will spend 4 months in Ghana), as well as training new Africa Program Staff, coaching and supporting staff, facilitating workshops at team meetings, tracking health and safety, coaching and managing our (Ghanaian) National Service Volunteer, Adam etc.
You can see that the work I do is rich in diversity but there is still quite a bit of overlap. All involves people, and some form of education. All that I do is ultimately driven by a desire to improve the lives of Ghanaian farmers.. I believe that through building the capacity of field staff, agric students, and the Canadian staff who engage with Ghanaians, we can make a lasting difference for Dorothy. All of my work is also driven by a love and desire to work with people and help them grow from where they are to a better place; my desire is to help people become more joyous, fulfilled, and enriched; and to help them become better human beings overall. My blog is called Addicted to Impact because, like any addiction, I can't get enough. There will never be a day I say, "Okay, my work is done. The world is now perfect". I believe there will always be ways, in every single day, that I can be used to make an impact in someone's life.

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."- John Wesley.