2019 Update for Hope Child Education Center

Hope Child News 2018

 

We have had a great couple of years at Hope Child Education Center!  The school continues to grow.  We currently have 52 students, 3 teachers and a principal.  Two cooks, including our friend Dorcas, prepare a protein rich meal three days a week.  Clean water, farm animals and health education have been provided.

Water:

In 2017, thanks to some generous donors, we were able to dig our first borehole (water well) for the village.  We found water but not enough for the school and the village.  We were somewhat disappointed because we had hoped to supply enough for the village itself.  The borehole company promised to dig another well for half price.  Again, with donations and savings, we were able to dig a second borehole in early 2018, which was much more successful, 200 gallons an hour!  I have shared before just how precious water is to the people of Northern Ghana.  Women and children walk a mile or more to collect a bucket of water from the river.  Now the village has clean water! We can not even imagine the difference this has made in lives.

Visit and Well Dedication:

In June, Gary, Jim Dopkus and I traveled to Ghana to see the school and to dedicate the wells.  Our first stop was in Tamale where we were able to see John Inusah graduate from Seminary.  Now he is a pastor as well as the director of Hope Child and a police sergeant.  Next we traveled to Yendi to see the school.  We were very pleased with the progress of the school.  New paint, new landscaping, textbooks and happy children.  The village turned out for the Borehole dedication including the village chief, a local pastor, parents and friends.  The students and the women from the village performed dances to the drumming.  To our surprise we were honored with the titles Chief of Happiness and Queen of Development.  This was a huge honor coming from the chief and the people of the village!  The picture above shows in our new attire dedicating one of the wells.

From our Visit and Meeting with Teachers:

• The teachers and the principal report that many more children want to attend school.  The students that move on the the government school are much more advanced than their peers.  The principal would like to see us add grades 4-6.
• They dream of computer labs, more classrooms and more teaching supplies.
• Students are supplied new uniforms when they start school but many of their uniforms are worn thin from the daily wear.  
• Playground equipment

John, our friend Williams, and we discussed how the people of the village can begin to take on more of the responsibilities and help finance the school.  Ideas generated were:

• Creating a water committee to take care of the wells, including collecting very small fees from the villagers to help pay for future maintenance and repairs.
• A "piggery", that is the raising of farm animals by the parents of the school children to help pay fees.
• Since the well water is of such high quality, making water sachets to sale.  These small water bags are very popular in Ghana as they are an inexpensive way for people to have clean water.
• Making and selling shea butter products.

Our ultimate goal is to encourage the community to develop the skills, means and confidence to take over the control and support for the school, water systems and projects, thereby fostering independence and self-reliance.

Since our visit donors have supplied the village with four goats to get them started raising animals to support themselves and the school.  On February 22 our first baby goat was born. This fall  playground equipment was installed.

How you can help:

Visit us at hopeforyendi.org and click on "join us" to make a paypal payment
Checks can be written to Hope Child Education Center and given to us directly or mailed to:
     27548 6th St
     Junction City, OR 97448

Follow us on Face Book !

Jim's new Wife

     I, Brenda, met John Inusah when I lived and taught school in Yendi in 2009-2010.  John shared his testimony in 2012, after meeting Gary and Jim.  He was raised Muslim, but in his teens became  Christian.  His parents disowned him and would not let him live with them.  He went to Nalerigu, Ghana to live with his grandfather and uncle, who were Christians.  They worked for the Baptist Medical Center, which at that time was run by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.  John gives a wonderful story about living with his grandfather, meeting the doctors and missionaries and the encouragement they gave for him to continue his education.  He finished Senior Secondary School in Nalerigu and went on to become a police officer.  He tells of the pride he felt when he went to visit his father in his police uniform and of reuniting with his family.
     In 2009, when I met John, he was married to Dorcas, a fabric dyer and seamstress and had a baby daughter, Elpis.  Dorcas helped my roommate and I navigate the market and "dressed" us in beautiful clothes.  I got to know both John and Dorcas over the year and they became dear friends.  There was the time the wheel fell off the car in which Dorcas and I were riding - at 60 miles an hour; and the time that Dorcas prepared groundnut soup, okra soup, banku and rice for the teachers and me on my last night in Yendi.
     Fast forward, the fall of 2016.  I picked up On Mission magazine in my churches foyer.  There, towards the back was an article about the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu. The Medical Center is now managed by the Ghana Baptist Convention, but has a surgeon sent by the International Mission Board.  Heidi Haun, her husband William and two children live and work in Nalerigu with the Mamprusi people.
     Fast forward again to 2018.  By now John, Gary and I have built and started a school and community center in a village near Yendi.  Along with friends and family support, we have built the school, pay teachers and cooks, feed the children a hot meal with protein and dug two boreholes in the community.  Jim has been a major supporter as well as helping John with his own school fees for Bible College and purchasing Bibles for the community and the police officers.  As Jim, Gary and I begin preparing for our trip to visit the school and to attend John's graduation, Jim mentioned that he wants to see the Baptist Medical Center on this trip. I decided to take the magazine so John can look at the pictures and read the article.
    June 2018 - We are sitting at John and Dorcas's dining table. Their three girls and a nephew are playing in the living room.John is looking at the magazine and mentions that Dorcas is also from Nalerigu, although they did not know each other when they lived there.  He shows Dorcas the picture of the chief and the missionaries.  He turns the page and there is a full page picture of an older woman.  The caption reads, "A senior Mamprusi woman leads songs at a courtyard pounding in Nalerigu, Ghana".  Dorcas gasps and puts both hands over her face.  She peeks again, turns around and is speechless.  I'm thinking something terrible has happened.  Then she says, "That is my Auntie Tani!  She helped raise me."   I am not sure if Dorcas ever understood exactly how her auntie got in a magazine that I brought from the United States.     

     The next day John, Gary, Jim and I traveled over muddy and washed out roads, a short cut, to Nalerigu.  We were not able to meet the Hauns as she was in surgery (we didn't call ahead of course) but we toured the hospital.  We then visited with John's uncle and grandfather and Dorcas's uncle.  When we visited Dorca's brother, he showed us where we could find the "old woman".  We drove a short distance, John interpreted and they called her out of her house.  There she was.  Using interpreters and John we explained who we were and showed her the magazine.  She thought is was wonderfully funny.  Yes, she remembered the photographers, but had never seen the picture.  She was fascinated.  We chatted awhile and then prepared to take our leave.  Ghanaians have a great sense of humor so I said, "Jim saw your picture in the magazine.  You are so beautiful that he has traveled across the world to ask you to marry him"  She laughed and laughed and replied, "Yes, I will follow you to the United States and marry you!"  Well, Jim, what will Barb think?    

Malaria

Today is World Malaria Day.  I don't know all the statistics, nor do I understand how it can be wiped out or even all the government issues.  But I do know what it is.  I will try to describe it from first hand experience and observation.
My son, Charlie/Chuck, went with me to Ghana in 2004. Towards the end of our trip, we had returned to the capital and a hotel with hot running water and air conditioning, Charlie woke up and said his legs hurt.  He took a shower, then said he hurt all over.  I knew enough to know what it was.  Within one hour we were at a hospital waiting in line to see a doctor.  For $6, total, we had paid the bill and bought medicine.  He spent the next 48 hours in bed with what he describes as " 10 times worse than any flu."
In 2009 I was teaching school in Ghana.  My roommate came down with malaria.  Head ache, fever, diarrhea , vomiting, chills... She also began taking medicine within an hour of waking with it.  Three days later she was still in bed with an IV hooked to our laundry drying rack.
A couple of months after this I woke in the middle of the night.  Fever, headache and vomiting.  My roommate went to the pharmacy with $3 and got my medicine.  I was able to shower, drink water, take ibuprofen and lie in bed under a ceiling fan.  I slept all day.  Weird dreams, chills, then hot, and EXTREMELY tired.  But, for me, it only lasted one day... Probably due to already being on doxycycline to fight it.
Adamu, my little "foster" daughter had it several times in the year I lived  there.  One night, in particular, I showered her three times to reduce the 106 degree temperature.  Kids in African get malaria many, many times!  Several times at the school I would feel the head of a child who was too tired to hold up their head.  I had the only thermometer in town.  Kids would have 104, 105 or 106 temperatures and be at school!  They shake all over and the pain is excruciating.  An insurance card in Ghana is 5 cedi, almost a weeks wages for some.  Medicine is $3 - $5.  Children die from the fever, dehydration or other complications.  Children lose their hearing or suffer brain damage.  But even without these complications,  imagine 104 temperature, diarrhea and vomiting in a hut with no water or electricity, when the temperature outside matches your body temp.
This is a way of life in Ghana (and many countries around the world).  Parents know the risk.  They have had friends and family die from the disease.  It is as common as colds here in America, but with each episode their children are at risk of death.  It is preventable and I have heard it said that if American children were at risk we would eradicate malaria.  I don't want to get political, I don't even understand it all.  But there are warriors out there fighting this disease.  Please, for more information about what we can do go to http://malarianomore.org/.  There's tons of information there as well as many ways to help.

Hope Child Education Center

Hope Child Education Center

Hope Child Education Center was founded by friends John and Dorcas Inusah and Gary and myself, after years of discussion and false starts in response to the very real and desperate needs of the children in Yendi, Ghana.  While I was teaching school there I noticed the many street children who hung around my building, the market and even the church I attended.  Many of these children cannot attend school as they are needed to help around the house or on the family farm.  Some cannot afford the school uniforms or small fees.  Many don't have shoes. Hunger is evident and most children have one meal a day consisting of yams or beans.  
In discussing plans for the school, John and I wanted to make it accessible and functional for those children who could not attend other schools in the area.  Classes are held three mornings a week so that the students can help at home. School uniforms are not required and there are no fees.  A healthy lunch is served each day to all the students. The very basics are taught; reading, writing and math, basic health care, cleanliness and Christian education.  Teachers are being trained in teaching students in their local language, in preparation to learning English, as this has been found to be a much more efficient way to teach reading and writing.  Older students will be instructed in vocational skills by local artisans, mechanics and skilled laborers. Recently a sponsor purchased Bibles for every student in their own language.  
John Inusah opened the school in a village that has never had a school.  None of the students, who range from age 4 to age 19, have ever been to school.  The entire village is excited and eager for the school to grow.  We have started with 30 children and meet in a church, that has graciously been given us to use until we can build a school.   
 John recently held a meeting in the village to discuss the growth and future of the school.  He reports that the parents gave a unanimous affirmation to the objectives of the school.  The parents testified that the children were already developing good interpersonal relationships, are learning to speak English with their peers and greet the parents, are better behaved, display a general sense of being more calm and peaceful with less fighting and are in better health. 
One of the biggest surprises was when John called  me and asked if we could take 15 to 19 year old students as many had shown up and really wanted to learn.  I said of course, we could teach some basic skills and vocational training.  Imagine these teens excitement when they learned they could attend school for the first time and learn the basic skills along side their peers.
Our dream is to build a three room school very soon.  This would cost around $3500.  This is in addition to the $600 a month it costs to run the school (teacher's and cook's pay, food and materials).  We already have the money set aside for a water system once the school is built.  At this time there are many more children who want to attend, but we just do not have the room or the resources.  Please pray with us that Hope Child Education Center will grow and change the lives of the individual students and the whole village.  As children earn a basic education and learn skills to help them advance, they can share these skills and resources with the rest of the village.  It is a tremendous opportunity to change one life and give HOPE to an entire community.  Please see our website; hopeforyendi.org to see how you can help, to read more about the school and see plenty more pictures.  

Thankfulness

     Like many people on Facebook, I intended to write, each day in November, about something for which I was thankful .  My first post stated that I would be giving thanks for those things that I or my friends had lived  without during my year in Ghana.  First there was water, then electricity.  My Ghanaian friend Prince commented that we should not be thankful for other's misfortune.  I quickly replied that we should always be thankful for what God has given us and be willing to share with others.  But then I had this nagging feeling.  Maybe  Prince had a point.  Do we console ourselves with the idea that thankfulness entitles us to excess materialism?  How much is too much and how much do we need to share with others to call it good?
     It is such a cliche to say if you haven't seen the poverty in a place like Africa, then you cannot understand.  It is a further cliche to say, "and yet they are so happy and thankful!".  But it is a cliche that is so very true.  How does one describe the poverty when we have been inundated with images of starving children and have become immune?  I knew women personally who carried water from a nearby well to their homes.  They were my friends, real people.  I had students who, if they could have anything in the world for their birthday, wanted chicken and rice.  I knew the children I caught going through my garbage for vegetable scraps and the students who begged to take my apple core to the garbage so they could eat it on the way.  There were students who became ecstatic when they were given slightly used pocket folders.  But my worst day in Ghana was the day I noticed a young girl, about 9 or 10, holding her starving and sick little sister.  I just happened to turn my head and see her as I was walking to the church.  I asked if I could hold the baby and she was handed to me.  Many times I had felt that fever in a child there!  Hot to the touch, malaria.  But it was not just malaria. The child was almost lifeless, thin and rigid.  I went to the door of the church and asked for the doctor.  We sent the older sister to get the mother, took them to the pharmacist and purchased medicine.  A week later I learned that the baby had died the next day.  A way of life.  In fact,  it is tradition not to name a baby till the parents know that the child "will be staying".
     In light of all this, is it arrogant to thank God for water and electricity?  I have done absolutely nothing to deserve what I have been given.  I was born in America to parents who loved and cared for me.  I went to good schools, for free, because I lived in good neighborhoods.  I have eaten every day of my life. This was all before I even had the chance be deserving or not.  Why me Lord?  What makes me different from that young girl, born in northern Ghana, who probably cannot attend school, who may not get even one meal a day; who, on that Sunday morning, stood in my pathway to church holding her dying sister.  I wondered often if she missed her sister.  What did she feel that day and in the days after?  What did the mother feel?  And why did God put me here and them there?
     I have struggled with these questions in the three years since I left Ghana.  At times I can honestly say it has been a weight bearing down on me.  After three years I still don't have the answers, just these thoughts:
1. To be "on our knees" humbly grateful for the love, the opportunities and the many, many blessings we have been given.
2. To enjoy and delight in what we have been given; to taste, feel, see and experience it.
3. To get off this crazy merry-go-round of materialism, of having more and more of the biggest and best.
4. And lastly, to give from our abundance to others who have less.
     Freely you have received, freely give.  Whether you believe in a God who gives, in Karma, or that life is one big dice game, most of us will have to admit that we have been given an abundance undeservedly.  At this time of thanksgiving and the Christmas season to come I want to keep these four things in mind.  Maybe I should post them  the bathroom mirror or in my car to read every day for I quickly forget in this crazy whirlwind of life, then a face from Ghana comes back to remind me and the questions start again.