I think the asset-based community development model is extremely relevant to my experience within Global Brigade. The whole point of the article was to show how if each person took his or her “gifts” and combine them with everyone else’s in the community, great things could be achieved. It not only creates material things but can also help to develop personal relationships within the culture. In Ghana, relationships were constantly seen.

            While in Ghana it wasn’t hard to notice that there was not much the people had, materially. The homes of people were huts to us, with dirt floors and tin roofs. But what the community members of Techiman did do a lot of was trading: “If you and the other neighbors know of each other's gifts, new community possibilities emerge” (McKnight, 5). They used their skills to their advantage and then traded things with other community members. If someone was good at farming then he may trade his crops with the woman across the village who was good at weaving a basket. They combined and exchanged their gifts to produce the best outcome for themselves. Also something that was also exchanged was language. Mostly only some of the children were able to speak English. Many of the adults had never learned it.

            This was a true gift of the bilingual. It created many possibilities for the community. If an English person came in trying to help them, without the children nothing could be accomplished. Also when we came into the community, the children proved to be a useful tool for us. They acted as translators for us. They taught us how to speak some of their language but they also told us crucial information that we needed to know during the clinic. This allowed us to be more efficient in what we were doing.

Something that really resonated with me while reading the article was when McKnight talked about “The Power of Our Gifts.” He mentioned the materialistic things but also talked about those that money couldn’t buy: “We see that you can't buy more safety, health, wisdom or wealth. But together we can create them” (McKnight, 6). This is something that I really saw within Ghana. They worked together all the time. They had such a strong sense of community. There was never crime in the community because they all treated each other like family.

A sense of community and trust is the most important things that a village could have to make it successful. With having complete trust of everything there is never any doubt in trading or odd feelings about a person. This gets rid of a lot of stress that is usually seen within United States.  One thing that McKnight mentioned in his article was that people were generally isolated and their gifts were not connected to each other (McKnight, 7). I did not find this to be true within Ghana. I thought that everyone was connected because they had no choice. There was no way someone could be isolated.

Everything was in the open in Ghana. There was no privacy and no technology to run to for security. Everyone had his own specific gift or talent and shared it within the community. They referred to everyone as their family and everyone knew each other. The children took care of the younger children. They also took care of the adults. There was no isolation seen.

Overall, I think that McKnight made very good points in his article. I liked his asset-based community theory. I think that it is important to identify what you have and then think of how that can help another person and in return how his gift can help you. It is important to build culture and participate in it. Isolation is for the weak and unproductive. There is always the saying “two heads are better than one” and I think this really holds true.

As far as organizations go within Ghana, I think that was irrelevant. There are some organization, per say, such as the school and the community center. But I think it is unrealistic for anything else to be there. It is also unnecessary because the community members live very simply, which works for them. I don’t think this is an aspect that needs to be addressed because if organizations were formed I think that it would take away from the “family” style. The churches are good organizations for the community members to participate in. Because the two dominant religions are Islam and Christianity, it allows diversity but acceptance. Projects are a better aim for the community because it can allow improvement, but not necessarily change.

In Ghana the needs of the people were always apparent. Hunger, thirst, money, health- these were common issues. So everyone contributed what he or she could to eliminate or at least minimize these problems. The farmer contributed crops, the women found water, the men created shelter, and everyone nursed everyone back to health. It is a collaborative way of living and even though it may appear to people in the United States as ineffective, if you were to ask anyone in the community their thoughts, they would think differently. They are genuinely happy with their lives and the way that they live because of this style of living. Community and culture are very important to them and in regards to McKnight’s text they do very well with an asset-community lifestyle.