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April 30, 2007
Photos courtesty of the students in EMSC470W
The students of EMSC470W pose for a picture |
Ghana is not your typical winter break locale. Most Penn State students do not spend their breaks doing field research in Western Africa. Then again, most students stay away from work all together during their time off. However, there are exceptions to every rule. In December, the class of Earth and Mineral Sciences 470W (EMSC470W) traveled to Ghana with their instructors to conduct research in the areas of environmental service provision, forest protection and rural poverty, telecommunications, and gold mining.
The Earth and Mineral Science course taught by Assistant Professor Chris Benner and Assistant Professor Petra Tschakert explores how globalization has shaped sub-Saharan Africa. Students study social, economic, and political facets of change. They have become familiar with participatory research methods while examining the environment and technology.
Before the class traveled to Ghana over winter break, they spent the fall semester preparing for the upcoming trip. Students learned about the country, discussed what they would be seeing over the course of the trip and prepared their research questions and materials. Each student was paired with a Ghanaian student from the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana. To prepare, they sent emails back and forth getting to know each other before their meeting in December. During the fall semester, guest speakers like Dr. Fran Osseo-Asare (food and culture), Dr. Yaw Agyeman (Ghanaian author), and Dr. Francis Dodoo (demographics) visited with students to discuss Ghanaian society culture. Dr. Tschakert, specifically, found it essential to prepare the students for a place that is quite different from State College, PA.
"The most important thing was to get the students out of their tiny little world here in central Pennsylvania and to get a sense of larger issues that impact people's lives in a completely different place," Petra said. "Just to get a sense of how differently people live, what it means to be poor, what it means to be in a developing country, what it means to not have easy access to everything and then what it means to be a privileged, educated American with the possibility and knowledge to do something and actively contribute to change the conditions they would see."
Children in Ghana are excited to be photographed by a student |
Both Chris and Petra are not strangers to Africa. Petra has worked in Western Africa for 16 years, and the last two, specifically, in Ghana. Her contacts at the University of Ghana allowed for Penn State students to share their three-week journey with 14 Ghanaian students. Petra's research focuses on climate change adaptation and small-scale gold mining, which the students critically studied. Chris travels to Africa at least once a year. During his undergraduate studies in the 1980s, Chris went to Kenya and said it changed his life. He wanted to share that experience with the students of EMSC470W. Chris' focus is on job outsourcing to Africa, in the form of call centers. The students visited call centers on their trip and researched the job opportunities outsourcing offers. Before the students explored the air-conditioned world of Accra's call centers, they spent time with farming and mining communities and studied the opportunities that globalization had to offer at the rural level.
During the first week in Ghana, the topic of study was environmental service provision. The students asked themselves how rural communities in Ghana can preserve their forests and land and engage more actively in agroforestry practices while regulating bush hunting and possibly initiating an ecotourism project. They traveled to rural areas, inquiring about the daily lives of the people and asked them what they would like to see happen in their communities.
The students used participatory research methods like community mapping to gain a better perspective on the rural Ghanaian opportunities and constraints for enhancing livelihoods and well-being. Generally, ecotourism focuses on the integration of local culture, conservation, biodiversity, and economic benefits. The students stayed mindful of the community objectives and possible disadvantages of allowing tourists into their villages.
Ron Feingold, a geography student on the trip, expressed his views concerning development in these rural areas. "You can't just go into a community and tell the people there what to do," he said. "You need to see what their needs are and adapt to them as best as possible."
Some of the students on the trip were assigned to the task of publishing a brochure that summarizes community assets for possible environmental service provision projects. They will send the brochure back to the community, hoping that it will help the villagers to better promote their areas. Ultimately, a boost in agroforestry certification or ecotourism could equate to a boost in Ghana's economy. Other countries, like Nepal, Kenya, and Costa Rica derive a main portion of their gross domestic product from ecotourism, yet remain environmentally responsible.
Participatory mapping in Ghana |
"It's about understanding different perspectives and Ghanaian culture and seeing what could be attractive to a tourist," said Jennifer Carr, another Geography student on the trip.
When looking at Ghanaian culture, it is impossible to ignore the tradition of mining that exists in Ghana and West Africa as a whole. During the second week of the trip, the students traveled to large-scale and small-scale mining operations. The objective was to learn the relationship between the large-scale and small-scale operations and to gain a better understanding of how small-scale miners operate in Ghana.
There are over 30 major mining companies in Ghana and they control the majority of the mining sites. Many small-scale miners operate illegally because obtaining a license is difficult; licenses are expensive and the bureaucratic process is extremely lengthy. The Ghanaians who do mine on a small-scale, without a license, do so because they have no other way to gain income. Many have limited formal education and there are few alternative jobs in rural areas. As a result, many miners have no other way of making a living, except what they know through centuries of tradition: mining.
"They continue to work because that's what they know how to do," says Petra Tschakert. "It's nearly impossible for them to get a license, but they continue to do it because that's their livelihood. They know it's illegal, but they need to make a living."
After visiting the small-scale operations the need for safety education was evident. Because the smaller operations are technically illegal, the miners have no access to government assistance. There is no way they can gain education on safety. There are no health services available on or off the sites either. As a result, some are victims of foot-rot, from standing in dirty, shallow water all day. Others handle mercury with their bare hands. Not to mention the fact that all day long, they stand under the hot, blazing sun.
Some of the students are currently working on an educational safety manual for the miners. Petra says the manual will have a lot of visuals to make it easier for the miners to understand. There is also a new form of health insurance in Ghana and a section of the manual will be devoted to educating the miners on such opportunity and how to obtain it. Aside from education, another purpose of this portion of the trip was to show the students the meaning behind mining and how it is essential to Ghanaians.
A small-scale miner mines for gold |
"The goal was to let the students see that these people are not criminals. They do it because they need a form of income." Petra says. "They know they're encroaching on concession land, but as long as the government doesn't provide any financial and technical support, what else are they supposed to do?"
Up until this point in their journey, students visited mostly rural communities and researched human-environment relations. The third week of the trip, however, students traveled to a different world within Ghana - one with air-conditioning!
Dr. Chris Benner took the students to call centers in Accra, the capital city. Call centers are the product of job outsourcing, which is a practice many American and international companies have adopted. Globalization and the development of the internet have made the world increasingly smaller, making it possible for countries like Ghana to exchange information and conduct business on an international scale.
"They [Ghanaians] have these resources like gold and diamonds, but they're stuck because they can't establish manufacturing companies," Chris says. "So I ask the question: Does the development of the internet create new opportunities for these African countries in the area of services and advanced technologies?"
The call centers are a way for larger international companies to do data processing and customer service from a remote location. This practice is widely known in India and is just starting to gain momentum in West Africa. The benefit of outsourcing jobs for companies is evident. It is cost effective and more useful on a worldwide scale of technology and capital. However, the advantages of call centers for Ghanaians are great as well. The centers provide employment opportunities for the people of countries where the availability of quality employment and education is slim. There has been an emergence of the West African call center industry, with new companies setting up call center facilities and expanding their workforces.
ExZeed has been around for about two years. They specialize in email, web chat, campaign management, order taking, surveys, and customer service. Their clients include Ghana Telecommunications Co. Ltd. and are partners with E-Services Africa. Another company, ACS (Affiliated Computer Services), is a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed and claims to be a premier provider of diversified business process outsourcing and information technology outsourcing. It is based in Dallas as a Fortune 500 company, but outsources to Ghana amongst other countries. In 2000, it initially employed about 60 people but currently employs more than 2,000. It is the largest Information Technology Services (ITS) employer in Ghana. Another company the students visited was Rising Data Solutions.
Rising Data epitomizes how these call centers can change lives for the people of Ghana. It is an up-and-coming major employer in the country. The company was started by Sambou Makalou and Karim Morsli. Another Ghanaian, Kwame Bonsu, General Manager of Operations, previously worked for IBM and brought his business knowledge and technology training to the company. The company did minor work like medical transcription, data entry, and police tickets and only employed about 25-30 people initially. Then the company hooked up with an American named Cory Johnson who worked for Microsoft. Johnson brought the business and managerial information the company needed in order to expand their horizons. When the students visited the center, Rising Data was in the process of doubling its staff and was planning to ramp up their employee roster by adding about 30 people each month.
Companies like ExZeed, ACS, and Rising Data Solutions offer employment opportunity, health benefits and the opportunity for advancement in society. Companies like these offer salaries of around $150 a month, in a country where the average yearly income is around $400. This is a stark difference from the mines where the students witnessed sub-par working conditions and next-to-nothing wages.
Students travel to a call center--ExZ eed |
Students like Ron Feingold noticed this difference when he compared the second half of the trip with the first. He said the change was extreme; just the week before they were in a mine, watching hard labor, now they were in the same country, but in an air-conditioned office with computers. Chris Benner also commented on the change, saying that when the students left the air conditioned offices at the end of each day of research to return to the tropical heat of Accra, they would comment, "Okay, here we go, back to Ghana."
For Penn State Students, who most likely have a computer and furthermore, have probably had technical issues with it, are forced to phone into a call center for assistance. Many people have negative ideas about the work that call center employees do. The truth, however, is that these people are on the computer and the phone all day working hard and that work can be stressful. They must know how to do all types of data entry, assist in bill payment issues and understand a myriad of technical issues.
As part of the research, the students surveyed the workers in the call centers. Survey questions were based on demographics, previous employment, current job satisfaction, skills, training and development, as well as other opinions such as aspirations and work environment. They wanted to know what kind of people work there, what skills they have gained and what future goals they aspire to. Ultimately, the question is whether or not bringing in more call centers is beneficial to the Ghanaians.
The students discovered that the types of people working in the "air-conditioned bubble" of a call center are not elites. They are regular people; however, they do have bachelor's degrees and some have graduate degrees as well. Most of the people interviewed said that in a few years they hope to own their own business. Chris says he believes that Ghana is a place that the world will be hearing a lot about in the future and that the number of call centers there will rise.
Before returning home, the students said goodbye to Ghana and their new Ghanaian friends. The students of EMSC470W spent every day with the Ghanaian students and were drenched in the colorful Ghanaian culture of music, food and dance. The students agree they learned things they could never find in books or here at Penn State sitting in a class room; saying goodbye was not easy.
"They took us in like we were family and to think the trip was coming to an end was difficult," said Ron Feingold. Collectively, the students on the trip said the people in Ghana were some of the friendliest people they had ever met. The Ghanaians were always there to help and teach the Penn State students. The trip taught them a lot about their limits. Many of them, especially those afraid of heights, never thought they could walk the canopy of a tropical forest in Kakum National Park or try new and different foods, which they ate with their hands, customary to Ghanaians. The trip also allowed students to step outside their comfort zone and gain a new perspective on life. Jennifer Carr shared her most memorable experience on the trip.
"There was this one lady in one of the villages. She thought our noses looked similar and she said, 'Our skin is different, but we're sisters still.' So even though we're from totally different worlds, we're still the same," Jennifer said.
Different worlds. Different backgrounds. Different faces. The students were able to embrace these differences and discover similarities, all while doing research and interact with communities. Currently, the students are in the process of putting their research down on paper. Ultimately, the Penn State students, in cooperation with the Ghanaian students, will produce various products that they hope will be useful to the communities they worked with. This includes a health and safety manual for small-scale miners, brochures for two agricultural communities to be used to potentially attract environmental service provision projects, and a report on call centers that will be submitted to the Ghanaian government.
While the Penn State students involved in this research experience gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding, they also gained a great deal of cultural awareness because of their active engagement with their Ghanaian peers, who were excited and willing to share their culture with them. The class expects its final research reports and community products will include some constructive and useful suggestions for their Ghanaian colleagues in terms of improving skills, education, and development. Hopefully, the class of Earth and Mineral Sciences 470W, will have a modest but meaningful contribution to make.
On April 16, 2007, the students of EMSC470W and their instructors hosted a symposium on their research and experiences. The final research projects were not presented; however, findings from each group were communicated to the audience. The students suggested that, in order to reduce rural poverty, bush hunting and agroforestry methods may have to be improved, The students advocated a carefully designed addition of cultural and eco tourism in the communities to assist in reducing rural poverty. The group that dedicated their research to gold mining discovered that miners are more educated than most people think. However, their operations are extremely unsafe and can lead to health problems. The students believe that the key to researching these issues is from a social perspective on a linked micro-macro level. As for the call centers, the students discovered a direct correlation between employment length and job satisfaction, as well as a great presence of aspirations among the employees.
At the symposium, every student in the class spoke and provided his or her own personal recollection of the trip. Some students said the trip made them realize what really matters in life. Many of them expressed aspirations of working on development and research in Africa as future career goals. Many, if not all of the students hope to travel outside the country again and return to Africa. Most importantly, every student said the trip was life changing: mission accomplished.
Further information concerning the course, research or presentation may be directed to Petra Tschakert (petra@psu.edu) and Chris Benner (cbenner@psu.edu)
