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The Yonso Project, A Vermont to Ghana Connection

(by Tom Herzig - July 23, 2008)

The Yonso Project

A Vermont to Connection

By Tom Herzig

      Three recent college grads from Plainfield - Nick and Tony Caccavo and Sonja Good Stefani - have created and are sustaining the Yonso Project, a vibrant, non-profit connection to the community of Yonso, , through which modest amounts of financial and educational resources are having a positive, life-changing impact.

      is situated on the underside of Africa’s western bulge, west of between and . It was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade - first in gold, later in slaves. It was also the first black African nation in the region to achieve independence from a colonial power, in their case, . English is the country’s official language.

       Cocoa exports are an essential part of the economy. is the world’s second-largest producer. Nonetheless, the median income is barely over $1/day. That’s a figure that Yonso, a remote farming village of about 3,000 far removed from the relative economic prosperity of the coastal capital Accra , is hard-pressed to match.

       Having recently returned from a personally financed trip to , Tufts graduates Stefani and Tony Caccavo were asked about their most lasting impressions. They both spoke of the character and demeanor of the villagers of Yonso and the surrounding area. “They are happy, relaxed, content people despite barely surviving on subsistence farms,” Stefani said. “There’s one road into the village, not much commerce and most people live in concrete or mud shacks. A truck comes by to pick up produce, but there are no cars and no phones other than a couple of cell phones.” “Phenomenal” was Tony Caccavo’s term for his experience. “It’s so different once you travel from Accra to Yonso (a 12-hour bus ride on average). There’s astounding poverty and you see malnourishment, but the people seem content with their need to work to live and family very much comes first.”

       Nick Caccavo was the first Plainfielder to experience Yonso directly. While studying abroad, he befriended local classmate Kwabena Danso, who was already active in community help activities. Inspired by Danso’s dedication, Caccavo enrolled Stefani, his brother Tony and fellow UVM graduate Sam Dupre in the work of developing a non-profit effort to provide the sparse shelves of the town library with textbooks, novels, language books and other reading material. “Many of my friends staying in were volunteering at schools,” Nick said at the time. “I saw that there was not a shortage of people and volunteers, but they didn’t have resources and things Ð I decided that was the niche I wanted to fill.”

       Eventually over 7,000 books from 11 Vermont schools were collected and shipped to . Then came the frustration of having the books sit in port for over a year. “In , we learned things get done in a different way”, Stefani said. “There were many ministries and lots of bureaucracies. At one point they wanted to charge us a $5,000 storage rental fee! Now we have made contact with a smarter shipper and can avoid such problems. Nick, Tony and I traveled to at our own expense this June to work things out.”

       Meanwhile, with input from Danso, the Yonso Project created a micro-loan program for adult women and a fledgling scholarship program. Ghanaian children are provided with free public education through junior high school. High school participation requires tuition and also increases the family farming workload for others. In a region where $50 US buys a daily school meal for 10 months and a required school uniform costs $9, the organization is providing need-based scholarships to children that would be unlikely to attend high school otherwise.

       In the summer of 2007, we received over 200 scholarship applications from Yonso and the neighboring towns of Kyekyewere (KY) and Appah,” Stefani reported. “We actually accepted more scholars than we had sponsors committed. That was after giving 11 scholarships at first from 100 applicants. We have a lengthy list of kids I haven’t accepted yet, but would if I could. It costs just $100 US to sponsor a child for a year. Several of the kids have gone on to high school and two kids have really excelled. The poorest of them, an orphan from KY, who has been living with his uncle and eight nephews and nieces, is headed to the top high school and says his goal is to be President of Ghana. He’s capable and we intend to support him all the way,” says Stefani.

       When Nick Caccavo, currently living in Oregon and spending much of his time as a firefighter in California , started the micro-lending program, there were 36 borrowers, each receiving $50 US. “They have to pay $3.75 a week for four months to pay back their loan,” Stefani explained. “In the beginning we had great repayment rates; 90 per cent, then 70 per cent, then it dropped down to 30 per cent for many weeks.  We discovered that this was because the employees we hired were not staying in Yonso, but were living in Kumasi , and weren’t doing their job.  After replacing them, Danso hired some new employees who are a stellar team.  They recovered 100 per cent of the loans with interest.  Now we’re in our second cycle of loans and so far, we’ve had over a 100 per cent repayment rate.  This means that the women are paying more than they are required to each week.  We found out that this is because they want to get a second loan, which is 100 US dollars instead of just 50.  Only two women received an increased amount during our second loan cycle because they paid their first loan back in full on time (without an employee in our office!). The rest of the women, seeing this, also want to repay on time to get the second loan. When we did research about what the women are using the loans for, we found out just how helpful it is for them.

       “One women opened up her own store.” Stefani said. “Another woman was paying 50% on a loan she was taking out, so our 20% interest seemed very low to her.  We were worried that it was too high.  Some of the women asked us if we would start our own bank in Yonso so that they can take out more loans like this because it’s helped them so much.  Many of our women are buying supplies in bulk so they can get a cheaper price. One loan recipient, an older woman with a disability, was very grateful to receive funds to buy two mattresses so as to be able to stop sleeping on the floor. She used the remainder of her loan to buy bars of soap in quantity for barter and resale.”

       Our programs are going well. Nobody in the takes any money, but we do have an accountant at $75/mo and an office manager at $100/mo and a three-person staff in . We’re especially happy with our loan program and we’d like to expand it as much as possible.”

       As with most non-profit humanitarian organizations of modest means, the Yonso Project has to actively pursue funding and donations. “In ‘06, we received a grant from Tufts that got our international pen pal program going,” Tony Caccavo said. This summer woodcarvings from are on display and for sale at Maple Valley Country Store on Route 2 in Plainfield . Sam Dupre is actively pursuing development of an Eco-Tourism component to the Project as a revenue source.

       Yonso Project volunteers plan to have an information booth on