As of January 10th, 2017:
62% of the funds needed to complete the library have been provided!! If you would like to help us reach our goal, please join us -- details below!
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When we began sponsoring Ato Sam through Compassion International in 2010, we would never have imagined how much impact he would have on our lives.
Ato Sam, although he was barely 10 years old at the time, compelled us through the many, many letters he wrote to us to consider helping his people in Ghana beyond the impact we were already making through sponsorship.
Through our love for him and through his encouragement and strong leadership, we embarked on a journey in 2011 to partner with humanitarian organizations that had a holistic and sustainable approach to rescuing children from modern day slavery in the Lake Volta region of Ghana.
By the time we traveled to Ghana in November of 2011, God had provided $30,000 towards long term rehabilitation and care for rescued child slaves.
While in Ghana, we not only met Ato Sam and his family, along with 3 other children from his area that we sponsored and children sponsored by friends as well, but we also witnessed the unforgettable rescue of two children from slavery. To this day, 57 children reside in the facilities we helped provide for in Kumasi, Ghana.
We have since shifted our focus to Ato Sam's own community needs, by providing for a community kitchen at his local church in 2012, as well as some instruments for the children to learn and use as an income generating activity in 2013.
In Ato Sam's letters over the years since 2010, the lack of access to books and literacy resources in his community was a recurring theme. Through discussions with his community leaders, we knew we had to make this a priority, not only for Ato Sam and his family, but for the entire region.
That is how the dream of a Community Literacy Center was born, a center where the entire community can gather to gain access to books, literacy skills, a computer skills and research lab, and more.
The construction of the Community Literacy Center began in the spring of 2015, and is nearing completion. This has very much been a community effort both here in North America, and in Enyan Abaasa. The people of Enyan Abaasa have inspired this project and have designed the center to fit the needs of their community. Having witnessed the entire community working together on the construction efforts has been amazing.
Everyone in Enyan Abaasa. yound and old, has contributed to it, making it entirely their own. Even the village chief has given it his blessing, declaring that all the tall trees in close proximity to the literacy center should be cut to protect the literacy center from falling trees in the event of a severe storm.
We are in the final construction fundraising phase before we begin to fill the library with books, with computer equipment, and before it is filled with joy, laughter and wonderful Ghanaians eager to benefit from this resource center.
We are in the final construction fundraising phase before we begin to fill the library with books, with computer equipment, and before it is filled with joy, laughter and wonderful Ghanaians eager to benefit from this resource center.
To help us complete the literacy center,
donations can be made
in person, by mail, or online
(Paypal or EMT).
Your support, prayers and encouragement are welcomed and appreciated!
For more information, or to be added to our FB group, please don't hesitate to email me at Ghana@beyondmeasure.me
