Dear friends, supporters and interested people,
In July 2009 we have finally been fully recognized by the Social Welfare Department of the government of Ghana and since can occur and act officially as a non-governmental organization (NGO). This was the necessary step towards independence from the Salesians of Don Bosco under whose umbrella we have been operating so far (worked since 1997). The name of our “new” Ghanaian organization is Rays of Hope Centre (derived from the name of our German partner organization “Aktion Lichtblicke”).This has been a long process through various levels of the Ghanaian bureaucracy, but we succeeded!
Our next major challenge is still the acquisition of a suitable site outside Ashaiman where we want to establish our work anew – with and for socially marginalized, needy and poor children and young people from Ashaiman. Since about one year we are preparing for the purchase and registration of a certain plot, but also the land acquisition in Ghana is a bureaucratic and legal challenge, which explains the long duration. We hope being able to announce successful land acquisition in our next progress report and to be able to begin construction work. Currently, however, we must be patient with the authorities. Also the financial aspect of this project is a great challenge and we count on generous support by our benefactors.
In the meantime, we have renovated and repainted the “First Contact Place”, our current main building. This was a long overdue measure. Even if we may only be able to use the “First Contact Place” for another 1.5 years, it is still the current “home” of many young people and we aim to meet their needs as well as the requirements and standards of the Ghanaian authorities.
Our daily work continues during these and other special challenges related to the foundation and well structuring of “Rays of Hope Centre”.
Currently 35 male adolescents live in “First Contact Place” and 6 females in the “Girls House”. This number of beneficiaries is complemented by numerous additional supervised boys and girls or young women and men, who stay with relatives, friends or foster parents. Some of the young people who continue their education in distant places reside in boarding schools or school dormitories.
Below you find a breif overview of figures about our current school enrolments and completions in the recent past:
|
Educational Institution |
Current pupils / students |
Recent completions |
||
|
Basic Schools: Primary, Junior High Schools (JHS) |
6 females 20 males |
26 |
5 males |
5 |
|
Technical High Schools (THS), Senior High Schools (SHS) |
1 females 7 males |
8 |
1 females 5 males |
6 |
|
Polytechnic, University |
2 males |
2 |
2 males |
2 |
In recent months 5 young people completed JHS, of which one was even able to continue immediately with SHS. The other four candidates have not yet decided whether to learn a trade or continue education in a different way. Another 6 candidates finished Senior High School education, and eagerly await their results. Recently Christian completed his university studies with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and Joseph also finished his mechanical engineering studies with a Master’s degree in Germany.
Currently two of our boys are doing vocational apprenticeships learn welding and car mechanic. After completion of vocational training Rejoice has been supported by us establishing her own, well running tailoring shop. Since a few weeks now Jonathan has been trying to imitate her in the field of agriculture, wherefore we have also given him a start-up capital (he will pay back half of it within a few years).
Including three school drop-outs this year and the low-threshold supported children and young people on the street, we currently care for a total of almost 150 young people in Ashaiman, using a variety of approaches and intensities of support.
This brings along many positive and enjoyable experiences, developments and successes in working with these young people as well as in their lives. It concerns mainly the areas of health, hygiene, education, increasingly socially adapted and rule compliant behaviour, and punctuality. The young people in our care continuously participate with increased responsibility in the shaping of community life such as in the planning and arrangement of menus, assignments, house rules and the penalties for violations hereof.
But also sad and shocking experiences and apparent setbacks, such as school drop-outs, violent disputes and thefts, remain part of our experiences with the beneficiaries. In addition, this year we lost two of our older adolescents: Bright died unexpectedly of a medical condition and just recently Ebenezer lost his life in a fatal car accident. May God call their souls into heaven!
Generally we orientate our social work more and more towards the establishment and maintenance of contacts to relatives, with the medium-term aim to promote and encourage our beneficiaries not only to reintegrate into society but in particular also into their families – at least where ever possible and appropriate. Also our increasingly close cooperation with the schools is proving to be extremely positive for the promotion of intellectual, academic and social development of our young people.
Since the last generation of volunteers returned back to Germany in July, we started establishing a partly new team and with new tasks and responsibilities:
- Bonney (Ghanaian initiator of the whole project in 1996/1997) is now the director and officially responsible for the work as a whole;
- Evans (Ghanaian care worker for our children and young people since long) is now mainly responsible for the field of education and at the same time deputy director;
- Tobias “TOZ” (German social worker and former volunteer 2000/01) is supporting the management team for a few years as a Catholic development worker sent by the AGEH, he is responsible for the areas of finance, pedagogic advise and accompany of volunteers;
- Diana (Ghanaian social worker) joined Rays of Hope Centre this September and hence is in charge of the female beneficiaries in our “Girls House”;
- Maggie continues to support the project work as a cook.
Further staff will follow to promote the children’s and youth’s education and development and to protect them from the risks of living on the street and in the slum. In particular, an appropriate social workers for the “boys home”: First Contact Place is urgently needed. Despite high unemployment, it is extremely difficult to find qualified staff that is willing to work with our beneficiaries in the neighbourhood of Ashaiman. Furthermore, we are limited by our scarce finances in paying well qualified professionals.
The coming months we will not be supported by volunteers from Germany, much more we are improving the structures for their use and care in the meantime. From summer 2010 we will be pleased to welcome once again young German volunteers in our team in Ghana. The volunteers service will in future take place within the “weltwärts”-program of the German government and be accordingly subsidized.
We wish all of you a blessed Advent, a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!
And we pray and hope for your continuous generous support during the new year.
Many thanks on behalf of the children and adolescents,
Your Rays of Hope Centre-Team in Ghana
In the picture you can see our new team together with some of our young people who attend schools within Ashaiman.