Friday morning I woke to rain. This was not just any rain; this was a
deluge! I have never seen rain quite like this in my life. And I’m from Oregon!! Five gallon buckets were set out to catch the
rain water and they were filled within a couple of minutes. It was pretty amazing. I was tempted to skip 
work because the “floor
was dirty” (I’ve heard people in Ghana refer to what I would call “the ground”
as “the floor”). Since it was my last
day at the House of St. Francis I gathered my courage and trudged to work; a
five minute walk to the road, a 30 minute tro-tro ride, then another 30 minute
walk to the House of St. Francis (HSF).
I walked through shoe-sucking mud and small rivers (that I’m sure
contained raw sewage but I didn’t allow myself to think about that too much). The floor was, indeed, very dirty!!
work because the “floor
was dirty” (I’ve heard people in Ghana refer to what I would call “the ground”
as “the floor”). Since it was my last
day at the House of St. Francis I gathered my courage and trudged to work; a
five minute walk to the road, a 30 minute tro-tro ride, then another 30 minute
walk to the House of St. Francis (HSF).
I walked through shoe-sucking mud and small rivers (that I’m sure
contained raw sewage but I didn’t allow myself to think about that too much). The floor was, indeed, very dirty!!
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| Edwin Presenting a Gift |
The men at the HSF had prepared a going away celebration for me and I was really glad that I hadn't acted on my first impulse and stayed home!! 
This is my second summer in Ghana. I have spent much of my four month total stay
here at the HSF. It would not feel right
if I did not dedicate some of this blog to a place I have come to love. The HSF is a drug and alcohol treatment
center located in Ashaiman, Ghana. It
was established by the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra with a lot of help from
the Hopeful Way Foundation and opened its doors on August 1, 2012. The first client to come through the doors
now has a little over two years clean and sober. He spent a year teaching at the HSF and is now
busy working in his profession again and helping to carry the message in Tamale
(located in Northern Ghana). I was
present for both his and the HSF’s first and second anniversaries.
The HSF uses an evidence-based treatment program, which is based
on the 12 Steps, called Recovery Dynamics.
Recovery Dynamics was developed in 1972 by Joe McQ (of Joe and Charlie
fame) in Nashville, Tennessee. Joe was also the founder of Serenity Park and
the Kelley Foundation. HSF also uses the
therapeutic community concept which aims to create the right conditions for
people to change undesirable behaviors and learn new ways of doing things.
When I came last year the HSF had about 12 residential
clients. This year they have around 23
residents. It is impressive to have
nearly doubled the clients served in just one year. The HSF has physical space
for about 40 residents but they are at near top capacity right now of about 25
residents due to staffing shortages. In
the two years of operation the HSF has had about 90 men go through its
residential treatment program. They have
lost track of about half of them, a few have died from complications of
addiction, but 22 men are verifiably clean and sober; eleven of them are now helping
out at the HSF and/or actively carrying the message of recovery throughout
Ghana. 11 men have relapsed but sought
further treatment as residential clients at the HSF. It is remarkable that a seed had been planted
in these men and they knew where to go when they needed help.
Last year I came with the hope of helping to start a women’s
outpatient treatment center. To date
this has not been accomplished. The
stigma towards alcoholism and drug addiction is very high in Ghana. It is an obstacle to recovery for men but
even more so for women. It is widely
believed that women are not supposed to “overindulge” in alcohol and do not use
illegal drugs unless they are women of loose morals and “ill repute” and/or
prostitutes. This attitude creates a
conspiracy of silence around women who suffer from the disease of
addiction. Housewives, doctors, lawyers,
merchants, school teachers, and women of all walks of life are afraid to come
forward with their addictions because so much is at stake if they do. Women are dying because of stigma, denial, sexism,
marginalization, oppression, and fear.
After much debate, and persistent pleas from the family, the
HSF made a decision to open its doors to one woman as an outpatient. She attended classes on an outpatient basis
and was given the opportunity for transportation to and from AA/NA meetings and
to have her family participate in family education meetings held monthly at the
HSF.. I would like to say that this was a
100% success but the woman has faced many obstacles on her journey to recovery. Yet, she remains steadfastly dedicated to her
desire to quit drinking despite her challenges.
Her family is very supportive.
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| Courage |
I have had the opportunity to work with this woman. She has my admiration and respect. Despite setbacks she keeps coming back in a
culture where just to admit she has a problem could make her a social
outcast. I believe that her courage has
made it possible for the HSF to continuing accepting other women into the
outpatient program. One small step for
recovery in Ghana; one giant step for Ghanaian women!
I also want to say that, even though it has been difficult,
Hopeful Way Foundation has not given up on the idea of starting a women’s treatment
center. Volunteers for this organization
and members of the Archdiocese have been hard at work trying to find an
acceptable facility for women. There is also one Ghanaian woman who has
long-term sobriety who is currently learning Recovery Dynamics as a student at
the HSF so that she will be ready to teach when the facility finally
opens. Oxford House International is
also trying to start a transitional living facility for women in Ghana.
The women’s treatment center already has a name: St. Monica’s.
I find this so fitting as St. Monica is the patron saint of, among other
groups, alcoholics. Her story is
inspiring and well worth some research for those wishing to know more about
this persistent saint (she may very well be the origin of the phase, “Patience
of a saint”)!! Hopefully, establishing a
women’s facility will not require the women of Ghana to wait as long as St.
Monica to find their place.
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| Moses |
I just need to add something about the staff at the
HSF. These men are amazing. They are all volunteers who work for the love
of recovery, some of them room and board, and a small stipend (the largest equivalent
of about $100) each month. There is the house
director (Father Eric), administrative director (Byron), house manager (Edwin),
assistant house manager (George), accountant and educator (John), security
person and house monitor (Moses), and two cooks (Mathew and Paul). The cooks are responsible for preparing three
meals per day, seven days per week, for upwards of 30 people; that’s more than
600 individual meals every week!! There
are also several former residents who come to help out with a variety of things
including assisting in the teaching of Recovery Dynamics to leading exercise classes.
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| George |
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| John |
Fr. Eric is also responsible for his parish, Blessed
Clementina in Ashaiman, and his time at the HSF is limited. I do have to add that he is very dedicated to
the mission of the HSF and has been of invaluable assistance in advancing the
cause. Byron, an ex-pat from the United
States, also volunteers for the Hopeful Way Foundation and Oxford House
International. His involvement at the
HSF is also limited. The running of the
HSF falls mainly on the sturdy shoulders of Edwin, John, and George; from making sure
the toilet paper supply is sufficient, balancing the books, teaching classes, client in-take and release paperwork,
counseling clients, to maintenance of the facility, they do it all. They are available 24/7 AND they do all of
this as volunteers!!!!
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| Edwin, Fr. Eric, and Byron |
Almost from the beginning Hopeful Way Foundation has been
advocating for salaries for these men. Last
year I worked on a template for position descriptions, which is still being
used, in the hopes that they would be used to create paid positions at the
HSF. Fr. Eric is relatively new to the
HSF and, in a short time, has become one of the best advocates for salaried
positions.
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| Father Eric |
Speaking of advocates, we had a social work intern from the
University of Ghana at the HSF for most of the time I was there this
summer. Her name is Darling. She admitted that when she got this
assignment for her internship she was “scared and disgusted”. She shared her culture’s view on
addiction. I insisted that she take an
active role in her time at HSF and she lead a few discussion session during
class time. Her last session was
dedicated to what she had learned while at the HSF. According to Darling, one of her most
valuable lessons was learning that addicts are just like her; they just happen
to “have the disease of addiction” (she actually started referring to addiction
as a disease). She now feels empathy for
addicts and now, whenever she has opportunity, she will point people towards the
HSF. She has become an advocate for reducing
the stigma of addiction in her country.
Change happens one step, one person, at a time.
What have I learned in my time at HSF? A valuable lesson is the reinforcement of something
I was already aware of: addiction is an
equal opportunity disease. Approximately
ten percent of the population of earth (10 % of six billion plus is a great big
number) are afflicted and many, many more lives are affected by the disease. It does not care if you are male or female,
the color of your skin, your religion, your attributes or characteristics, your
ethnicity or culture, it cares only that you are human. I’ve learned that the signs and symptoms of
the disease are exactly the same whether one is Ghanaian or from the United
States. Different addict; same
story!! I’ve also learned that recovery,
through the 12 Steps or any other program that works for the individual, is
equally possible.
What else have I learned?
The family I am staying with while in Ghana is the immediate family of
one of the clients at the HSF. After
several relapses my client attained six weeks of sobriety then relapsed yet
again. I watched the faces of the family
members as the realization that their loved one was drunk once again hit
home. I watched all hope drain from
their faces. I saw the conflicting
emotions of anger, sorrow, worry, agony, guilt, shame, hopelessness, and helplessness
consume them. I witnessed the absolute grief
and deep emotional turmoil and pain wash over them. Every time the phone rings the fear of what
they may hear about the person they love with the disease they don’t understand
is so intense that I can feel it deeply.
My heart goes out to this family.
I have learned just how deeply the disease of addiction affects the
loved ones of those suffering from the disease.
I’ve learned that, indeed, it is a family disease.
What have I been up to while in Ghana? I’ll let Dan O’Laughlin (Founder of Hopeful
Way Foundation, instrumental in establishing the HSF, and my boss here in
Ghana) tell you. He posted the following
on the Recovery Africa Facebook page:
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| Dan |
September 13 2014,
Recovery Africa (RA) and Hopeful
Way Foundation again thank Shelia for spending four months with us in 2013-14
carrying the message of recovery at the House of St. Francis. Thanks to Shelia,
the RA Facebook page has seen lots of pictures of recovery efforts in Ghana and
life in Ghana in general. We have made it clear to her that we would love to
have her back in Ghana again for a few months or longer. With her teaching at
the HSF, her pictures, attendance at meetings, development of curriculum,
creating a RA Fact Sheet, etc. Shelia has become an important part of RA. I
think she needs to continue with her RA involvement by becoming the RA
representative in the Western part of the U.S. Dan
Before closing I want to talk about an experience I had
yesterday. I went with “Auntie” Comfort
and her daughter’s family to her “village” in the Volta Region of Ghana. She wanted me to see her home, she still
thinks of it as home and has a room there at her waiting even though she has
not actually lived there for close to 40 years, and to meet her mother (who is
100 + years old; the exact date of her birth is unknown). I was amazed to find that her “village” was a
family compound with more than 20 houses.
She is related, in some way, to everyone in the village. We would pass a house and she would tell me
it was her uncle’s, cousin’s, brother’s, sister’s, aunt’s, etc… home. She showed me the grave of her grandfather. The land was purchased and the compound
established many generations ago and has remained in the family ever
since.
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| Part of the Large Family Compound |
The entire family, whenever possible
and no matter where they are, gather for important celebrations, funerals,
weddings, and births. That must be a
very impressive sight. I believe this is
fairly typical for many Ghanaians. My
time at the village was very touching. How very different than in my own culture where families tend to
scatter.
While at the village I had the opportunity to take a picture
of four generations of women in Comfort’s family: great-granddaughter, granddaughter, daughter,
and mother. It was a special honor to be
in the presence of these four Ewe women.
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| Four Generations of Ewe Women |
