GOOD NEWS! COLORING BOOK IS LAUNCHED!
We received a grant from The Child Health Foundation to specially design a good health promoting coloring book for the children in Ghana, West Africa. Then our supporter, jazz guitarist Drew Davidsen wrote a song to go with it.
Germs and soil-borne worms are the most common problem for children in sub-tropical climates where access to clean water makes personal hygiene and sanitation problematic. Each repeated infection leads to malnutrition, mental retardation, loss of time in the classroom. The cumulative effect robs a child of a piece of his or her future. By 10 years of age a child may have had 36 worm infestations. The damage sustained in childhood can have irreversible effects in adulthood.
We invite you to the next level of participation in this life giving project by helping with funds to print more and more coloring books and travel funds within Ghana to take this song, “The Secret to Being Strong,” and coloring books from school to school in one village after another. We hope you will want to make a donation and to spread the word!
Please watch this to hear the song, see the coloring book and meet the children.
On my first trip to Ghana in 2004, I was so in love with the children. I watched in awe as little girls hardly five years old, carried 8 month old babies on their backs for hours. I can barely carry my backback which is only 7% of my body weight and these girls were carrying a baby who equaled 50% or more of their body weight. My heart and my back ached for these precious children.
Asking around, I realized that most young girls are responsible for the care of their younger siblings. Their moms are busy working or cooking. These little girls stay at home and start school at an older age. Most are 9 or 10 before entering kindergarten. It is not surprising that many drop out of school by grade 3.
That trip changed my life and in turn it has changed the lives of hundreds of children. In 2005 with the help of Marjie Mack and Bruce Neuman, I founded Ghanaian Mothers’ Hope, Inc. We invited the Mother’s Union of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Ghana to join us in finding a village to build a preschool.
Foremost was the safety and health of these defenseless little ones. By providing a place to stay, a good meal, and beginning the education process, we could raise the survival rate for each child. This gives older children, who have been charged with the task of caring for younger siblings, the opportunity to attend primary school. Basic health and hygiene education is provided. Though tribal language is spoken at home, public schools are taught in English. We start teaching conversational English, hoping in the future to provide some adult language education as well. Our hope is to excite children about learning and educate the family on the benefits of continuing the education process.
Children have so much responsibility that they need a chance to just be children. The Westminster Rotary Club enjoyed providing and shipping the supplies to help the dads from Akramaman Village build a first class playground for their children at the new preschool. For these dads it was the first time they had ever seen a swing!
We are also addressing the health of children. Unhealthy children do not learn. We provide health and nutrition training for moms. We also provide expectant mothers with safe motherhood birthing kits. Since most moms give birth at home the kit gives each mom everything she needs for the delivery.
The past seven years have been the hardest and most rewarding of my life. We have changed the lives of more than 300 children and 650 moms. This journey is just beginning and I hope you will join us to change lives forever empowering the future leaders of Africa.
Debi Frock
