A Chapter Closes: Thank You JHR

It has been twelve days since I lifted off from Accra and landed in London. While the UK has been great, and I am excited about heading to Toronto, I miss Ghana.

In early July, 2006, I attended a week long training with the rest of the JHR group that was headed to Ghana. At some point over those five days it became clear to me that I would be gaining more than I could give, receiving more than I could share, and I would be taught more than I could ever teach.

Now that my eight month placement has come to a close, my reflections on that life changing opportunity continually confirm that premonition. I have been filled with an inner treasure, and I have been shaped and nurtured in ways that just would not have happened had I not been to Ghana.

I think of staying with Razak, the GM of Radio Justice, and him insisting I sleep in his bed. The work with Layata, the growth and the challenges. Somed’s enthusiasm for advancing a career still makes me smile – he definitely kept me on my toes. And Ramadan…he truly is a storyteller.

Not only did I get the chance to work at Radio Justice in Tamale, but I also had a few months to break the ice, as the first placement at the University of Ghana, Radio Universe.

Being in the volunteer-led, student-run environment brought twists and turns that I had not experienced in Tamale.

I think of Franklyn and our first stories together, Elvis and trying to arrange workshops, Ophelia, Mina, Priscilla, Isaac and so many personalities that became familiar faces.

All that said, I face one very critical issue of the accomplishment of ideals and goals of JHR. When read on paper, they make sense. This is the mission statement:

In the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is dedicated to increasing the quality and quantity of human rights reporting in the African media. As a result of this work, the African public will be made more aware of their rights, improving peace and security and strengthening the democratisation process. By limiting JHR's presence in any one country to five years, it hopes to have a sustainable and enduring impact without creating dependency.

That is why I applied. I have not ever been interested in the business of NGO’s, which can build careers on dependency – that’s why the goal that JHR exit countries after five years appealed to me.

I won’t outline all of the responsibilities that I had, nor will I list the accomplishments and challenges. If you read the posts that I have put up, or the posts that everyone else has written, you can see those in greater depth than could be offered here.

Instead, I will share are two things: what I learned was needed for my JHR placement to work, and the key ingredient that was present when it did work.
To answer the first point, about what it took to make things work, I can summarize it in one statement – “find a way”. Persistence (‘find a way’), flexibility (‘find a way’), and creativity (‘find a way’).

The second point, about when it did work, was when we got to the human side of it. Terms like democratisation, human rights, media accountability, freedom and justice are all dependent on one thing: people caring about people.

Whether it was getting stories done, encouraging staff in their commitment to the issues, or holding successful workshops, I always saw success when one person saw past the work, and got to that place of simply caring about someone else. That’s why the marriage of human rights and journalism holds such immense potential; when stories are told that connect the heart of the listener to issues that may or may not be a part of their own reality, and that story is broadcast to thousands, people begin to care more. It’s only when people care, when they become personally invested, that the idealistic concepts previously listed become reality.

While Ghana was good to me, and I feel like I have been given so much, I can say that I also had an impact. There are moments that I can see in my heart where we got past the routines, and connected to something deeper, stirring change. There are people and places that are no longer the same. While the goals of JHR are mountainous in proportion, we only get to the summit one step at a time; I am grateful to have taken a few of those steps.