Andrea Gonzalez

Andrea and Nana Ofori, one of the businesses owners, in Donkorkrom, Ghana

Country: Ghana

Placement: Kumasi Institute of Technology, Energy and Environment

During my Junior Fellowship placement I was partnered with the Kumasi Institute of Technology, Energy and Environment (KITE) in Ghana. KITE works on areas of rural energy, policy and enterprise development. The project I worked in aims to promote access to Information and Communication Technologies by providing entrepreneurs with a package of equipment to start a small business.  These businesses provide services such as phone calling, typing and printing of documents, photocopying, and more recently, the Internet.
 
My role was to help KITE conduct monitoring and evaluation activities in a number of businesses throughout the country.  I visited some of the entrepreneurs and through interacting with them I gained a lot of insight into the obstacles that were preventing their businesses from reaching their full potential. Back at the office, a group of interns and I used our experiences from the field to make sound recommendations to KITE for the next phase of their project.
 
My experience in Ghana was rewarding and invaluable. I had a taste of what working in a development organization might look like and continually challenged myself to learn new skills. Because of the nature of my placement, I was lucky to see many parts of Ghana and interact with a variety of people.  This provided me with exciting learning opportunities and experiences that I can now share with my family, friends and chapter members.