It is more than just a community…
…it is a connection.
From the beginning of Charity Beyond Borders we knew that community was going to play a part in our work but over time it grew to more than we could have aspired to it becoming. Our focus on community is not just for the work that we can do but more importantly the connections we make between each volunteer and our friends across the world to continue our work while we are not there.
The communities we serve are vastly different from each other and carry unique strengths and areas of improvement. This is why each and every clinic and education opportunity we conduct is tailored to the people we are there to help. We have best found those needs through the simple process of spending time in those communities while engaging with everyone young and old.
Through this active engagement and connection with the communities we can better learn their values, aspirations, needs, and traditions. Whether it is through talking with local elders, cooking along side our hosts in preparation for a celebration, or sparking up games with local children, each activity furthers our knowledge the people and how we can help.
What community means to us…
Check out three of the communities that we connected with below to see for yourself what community means to Charity Beyond Borders.
Larabanga
For over 10 years CBB has been working actively with the northern community of Larabanga to help find areas of improvement and growth for its people.
Marked as one of our longest standing community partnerships it continues to grow each year to larger events and nearby smaller villages. While we focus greatly on community work here, both education and healthcare events have been established to assist in the expansive population who connect with the rest of Ghana through Larabanga.
A recent clinic expansion has also allowed us to reach out to Mole National Park, the largest national park is the country, for education and healthcare opportunities.
Without the help of enthusiastic local officials we would not have been able to complete the work that we have done and been confident that work continued while we were gone. Some of those milestones are:
Numerous clinics for its 8,000 residents
Increased in-clinic birth rate to 100% by using newborn care packages as incentive
Boost in local clinic appointments and checkups that receive hygiene care package
Providing individual and personalized clinic events to nearby villages who can’t travel to Larabanga
With each trip our reach in the Larabanga area grows with our aim to greatly improve healthcare, education, and community assistance in this hub of transportation, commerce, and religion.
Boabeng
Far off the highway and miles away from the nearest paved road sits the village of Boabeng. While the population of this village is small the impact they have on their surrounding wilderness is great. In addition to being a strong and sustainable community this village carries the task of watching over a local animal preserve.
Backing right up to the wall of trees that marks the beginning of the vast surrounding forest and the end of their community borders is the Boabeng/Fema Monkey Sanctuary. For over 100 years this community has placed itself over the care of nearby wilderness and the animals that live inside it.
While we have only been conducting clinics and education here for a few years our connection with this community grew fast with a close partnership with their healthcare outpost. Early on we saw their need for not only resources but clinic assistance. Due to their location as a remote village access to a range of healthcare services is severely restricted.
This is why in our routine clinics we carry a focus on using expert knowledge to assist in basic checkups and wound care that might have otherwise been inaccessible. Additionally, we emphasize proper wound care and hygiene to prevent the need for more serious measures. These lessons are carried on by their local healthcare outpost.
Living near a local animal reserve it is up to this community to oversee the health and wellbeing of nearby wildlife. Our outreach helps this community better focus on their wildlife work and less on their wildlife preserve goals.
Agbogbloshie
Agbogbloshie is a community of strength and resilience in the heart of Ghana’s capital city of Accra. Established as a mechanical and electronic waste processing district it has grown into its own community housing thousands of individuals and families. Workers here face harsh living and working conditions as they are tasked with processing a large percentage of the countries waste in their small corner of the capital.
Burning, melting, crushing, and tearing down are all methods used to process waste and each come with their own hazards. Addressing those hazards is one of the cornerstones of our clinic development in the area. Through a close partnership with local leadership we are able to learn more of the community needs and areas of improvement.
Through that community collaboration we have chosen a range of topics that are tailored to the residents and workers here. Wound treatment, HIV/condom education, and a medical checkup centered around cardio health allows us to closely address relevant concerns.
Clinic care packages in Agbogbloshie aim to address those same topics with each package containing first aid tools, condoms, and information to help
From year to year, for over 8 years, we have been doing what we can to improve the health and wellbeing of this community. Despite the harsh working and living conditions this community never fails to instill a sense of strength and resilience in its people and our team members every time they welcome us.