Mehr Licht für das Kids‘ Corner

Our Children hat über die Onlinespendenplattform „Betterplace“ 200 Euro für eine Straßenlaterne vor dem Kids‘ Corner gesammelt. Mit der Installation der Laterne leisten wir einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Sicherheit im Projekt. In Ghana setzt die Dämmerung das ganze Jahr über gegen sechs Uhr ein. Die neue Laterne wird dafür sorgen, dass sich die Kinder beim Verlassen des Gebäudes sicherer fühlen und von Autofahrern auf der anliegenden Straße schon aus der Ferne erkannt werden. Projektmitarbeiterin Comfort wird die Installation der Laterne in Auftrag geben. „Die Laterne wird sich automatisch abends um sechs Uhr einschalten und morgens um sechs Uhr erlöschen, sodass wir nun rund um die Uhr genug Licht am Kids‘ Corner haben“,  berichtet Comfort.

Dank der großen Spendenbereitschaft  kam das benötigte Geld in kürzester Zeit zusammen, sodass schon bald die neue Laterne vor dem Kids‘ Corner leuchten wird.

 

Our Children bedankt sich bei allen SpenderInnen für ihre schnelle und großzügige Hilfe!

Our Children Report - Santrokofi-Bume 21.9. - 21.10.2012

After a long absence from Santrokofi, due to ill-health, I was curious to see how Comfort Opuku and her staff had been managing Kids' Corner.

I am pleased to report that Kids' Corner is thriving, with a high attendance rate that speaks for the good work our people have been doing. I was greeted on my first afternoon back by more than 80 happy and enthusiastic children.

Comfort's daughter, Priscilla, has been helping out in the gap before her Senior School studies begin. I was so impressed by her quiet self-confidence - surely a good teacher in the making.

I met the two new members of staff, Millicent and Hilda, both of whom made a good impression on me.

Although my stay in Ghana was only four weeks this time, a lot was accomplished in a relatively short period.

September/October is always the busiest and most expensive time for Our Children, as the new school year begins, and those who are being supported by Our Children move to a new class, or a new school. We have continued to support all but one of them. Unfortunately, a young man we started to help through Senior School, attended for only half the lessons last term, so regrettably he has been removed from the support plan. With the co-operation of the community (the provision of some hardwood planks and workmanship) we renovated the playground. This was essential, as it had become dangerous, due partly to termite damage (The carpenter said we had used softwood in our original construction). It was also apparent that some planks had been taken away for firewood, so Chief Otitiako III immediately called a community meeting to express his great disappointment.

With community help, we rebuilt the damaged/removed parts and treated the wood against termites, before repainting the whole playground. It now looks like new. 

We undertook some construction work on the Kids' Corner building. Rain had been entering under the two back doors of the building, so we organised for a carpenter and builder to arrive simultaniously (not the easiest task) so the doors could be removed and the resulting gaps bricked up. The doors were then mounted in a redundant school room, so that the Kindergarten Group 1 can move out of Kids' Corner (which they have been using in the mornings) and into their own space. We also donated two door locks and some window catches to secure the room for Kindergarten use.

The community toilets are in the final phase. The Chief has promised me that the roof will be in place by the end of this month.

I spent some time in the hospital, accompanying some of our children with their families, following accidents, or due to illness. Unfortunately, I also had my first experience of the HIV/Aids facilities in Hohoe as one of our Kids' Corner children was positively diagnosed. It was a surprisingly positive experience in the circumstances. Patients with Health Insurance are eligible to free medicine, and there is a weekly AIDS clinic, which gives good advice and support to the sick and their families. I have made special arrangements for the grandma of this child (whose parents have both died) to be supported with a weekly food parcel. We kept the village carpenter very busy while I was in Sanko. After helping with the renovation of the playground, we gave him the job of making a second table tennis table - this time at a height of 50 cm for the smaller children. It has always been difficult to persuade the older children to allow the smaller ones their fair share of the table tennis table. Now the problem has been solved. Everyone is delighted.

We made a donation to the school of some stationery, coloured and lead pencils, buckets and a drinking water dispenser.

All in all, it was a very successful visit, and I cannot describe how happy I was to see the way things are developing in the hands of Comfort and her team.

Here are a few examples of the uncountable smiles that Our Children have helped to put on the faces of 'our children' in the past few weeks.

If any of us should ever have the least doubt about the value of the work Our Children is doing, we just need to remember these smiles.

Thanks so much for your support.

Liz Busch - 1. Vorsitzende

Aktuelle Situation in Hohoe (Ghana)

In June, 2012, in the middle of the day, violent unrest developed suddenly between two factions of the populations of the areas of Bla and Zongo. This resulted in several deaths (to this day, the exact number has not be disclosed) many injuries and a large amount of destruction to local businesses, including the market area. Hundreds of Muslim families streamed out of Hohoe, passing through Santrokofi, in an effort to reach safety.

On my arrival in Hohoe, three months later, it was strange and quite unsettling to find the town still being patrolled by soldiers armoured tanks, and a curfew, from midnight to 5 a.m. still in place. Muslim traders were banned from trading at Hohoe market after the fighting - no one can quite explain the logic of this - and they now congregate around Sanko station, to sell their wares. I met an acquaintance, Ali, a muslim shop-owner,sitting dejectedly in fron of his gutted clothes store, opposite Barclays Bank. He was lucky to have been in the bank as the mob stormed through the town, and had to watch from the safety of the locked-down bank, as the business he had built up over 20 years was burned to the ground. I later heard from a Barclays employee, who had helped to restrain Ali from bursting out of the bank and try to save his business, and who probably saved his life.

I visited the home of Smilah, the Sanko taxi driver who won the 'Our Children Safest Driver - 2011' award, and was shot in the hand and leg by the police, as he reached in his pocket for his phone. He is still attending the hospital, in great pain, and hasn't been able to work since that terrible day.

In spite of all this, I don't feel that anyone visiting the Hohoe/Sanko area now should have any cause for concern about their personal safety. Life continues in Hohoe as usual, although somewhat quieter and more subdued, under the watchful eye of the military.

Liz Busch

Our Children e.V. erhält Spende auf der we.CONECT Konferenz

we.CONECT ist ein internationaler Konferenz- und Seminarveranstalter. Auf der jüngsten Veranstaltung, die am 17. September 2012 im Pullmann Hotel in Berlin stattfand, wurden internationale Computer-Experten für eine Software Asset Management Strategies Conference zusammengebracht. Spezialisten aus ganz Europa waren versammelt, um die Effizienz und Zusammenarbeit in Software-Management-Systemen zu verbessern. Die drei innovativsten Unternehmen mit den größten Fortschritten in diesem Bereich wurden mit Awards ausgezeichnet. An Vertreter von Siemens, Adidas und der Deutsche Bahn wurden Auszeichnungen durch den Geschäftsführer der Aspera GmbH, Bernhard Böhler, übergeben.
Anstatt den Geldpreis anzunehmen, haben sich die Unternehmen gemeinsam mit we.CONECT dazu entschieden, ihre Preise für eine gemeinnützige Organisation zu spenden.
Sie wählten Our Children e.V. aus und luden Liz Busch, die Vorsitzende von Our Children e.V. ein, die Spende auf einer Gala entgegenzunehmen. Dort präsentierte Liz im Rahmen eines Vortrages die Arbeit von Our Children e.V. und erhielt im Anschluss die großzügige Spende von 2.000€.
Großer Dank gebührt Christian Schneider von we.CONECT, der den Event professionell organisiert hat. Mit seinem großen Einsatz für Our Children e.V. auf der Konferenz hat er dazu beigetragen, das Projekt und unser Anliegen, einem großen und anspruchsvollem Publikum näher zu bringen und für unsere Idee zu begeistern.