Photo: Sewing project - one of the projects taking place at the Youth Home, where girls are trained by professional tailors for two years before getting a certificate and a sewing machine to continue their work, independently.
At the end of our stay in Tamale and after we had been working with the Youth Home for 6 months, we came to the decision, together with the user groups of the Youth Home, that the best way forward was to establish a fund - The Youth Home Fund. We are happy for this decision as we can see great prospective in how this can benefit the Youth Home. We are convinced that The Youth Home Fund not only can strengthen the place, but also the relation and cooperation between the different user groups.
The Youth Home in Tamale is a resourceful place that has the potential of reaching many youngsters as it offers a room where youth can share dreams, thoughts and experiences. It provides a space where the youth can observe, strengthen each other, they can take part of different activities, be part of a community, and meet other youngsters who are in the same period of life. A period of life that for many can be difficult, as it can be hard to decide which steps one shall take in making a prosperous future. A life that is expected to be beneficial not only for one’s own family, but also friends, community, one’s region, as well as the whole nation. As youth often are looked at as agents of change, they can feel insecure and have doubts about their own identity and capabilities when moving forward and trying to create development within society. Thus this again underlines our opinion that a Youth Home, as this in Tamale, is important as it provides a room where youth can share thoughts and grow.
Youth in Tamale are facing many challenges, as this capital of the Northern Region in Ghana has become one of West Africa’s fastest growing cities. The clash between modernity and tradition is more present than ever before, and the concepts of identity and roots are daily questioned. Whilst chieftaincies, religious and tribal practices are a part of daily life, the ‘MTV World’ has slowly taken a dominant role, which affect how youth see themselves, perceives the world and prioritise. Though many youngsters express how they are respecting, appreciating and living in accordance with their historical and cultural values, they also feel the need and urge for modernising their society. It has been emphasised that tradition and modernisation should be combined to ensure a sound development within the country, and we feel that the youth is taking an active role in merging these.
The Youth Home in Tamale, as mentioned before, consists of various user groups with a leader representing each of them. We soon realised, after arrival that only little cooperation had existed previously between these groups and HeartRebels felt that more collaboration and communication between them would help in strengthening the Youth Home. We saw how more crosscutting projects could benefit the unification of the house as more thoughts, dreams, creativity and activities could be shared. Initially, before HeartRebels’ arrival in Tamale and before we knew how big a surplus we would raise from TrailerPark Festival 08, the thought was that different artists would be invited to the Youth Home to share their skills and make workshops that would help capacity build the youth in northern Ghana. Unfortunately, the surplus was less than hoped for and in retrospect we felt that instead of spending most of the money on flying artists to Tamale, we would rather establish a fund that not only could develop the place further, but also help in connecting the user groups. This, nonetheless, does not incline that an exchange of artist coming to the Youth Home is not still in our favour, however, the project might have to be postponed.
The Youth Home Fund will be uniting the user groups as a committee has been established, which consists of one leader and one youth representative from each of the groups. Suggestions regarding projects that could take place at the Youth Home will be discussed in the committee, and before applying for initiating a certain project there shall be consensus. When the committee has decided upon a project an application shall be written to HeartRebels that includes a description of the aim, purpose, organisation, structure, timeline and budget. Thereafter, HeartRebels will transfer the money needed for the project to proceed to The Youth Home Fund bank account, which was signed by the leader representatives of the committee. This structure will allow the user groups to be creative and feel ownership of the projects, which they find to be most prosperous for strengthening the place and create possibilities for youngsters in Northern Ghana. Furthermore, as money is not infinite the committee will need to prioritise between projects. This priority practise is good since it will introduce the youth involved to a cost benefit analysis of behaviour, choices and responsibilities. In addition, by having to write applications they will improve their written skills and overview of reasoning. HeartRebels hope that The Youth Home Fund can assist in improving the Youth Home and thereby help in providing a platform from where youth can feel free to develop in which direction they favour.