Kathy Stutzman, M.A., M.A. : "Out of Chaos" a Thank You

Kathy Stutzman, M.A., M.A. : "Out of Chaos" a Thank You: How many people does it take? The Rotarian Magazine article is now available... "Out of Chaos. How do you help girls in Ghan...

Street Girls Aid June 2014 Newsletter

Street Girls Aid Goes Barefoot in Recognition of Those Without Shoes

On June 20th, Street Girls Aid participated in #BarefootFriday, an awareness activity sponsored by #StreetChildAfrica here are some of the photos posted by the girls - way to be involved SAid!

To see how Street Girls Aid recognized those without shoes: Street Girls Aid on Facebook

The girls at Street Girls Aid standing barefoot in support and recognition
of their friends and family who do not have shoes

Many of the children we meet have no shoes. Having no shoes means being singled out as a street child and vulnerable to abusers. Without shoes they cannot go to school, their self esteem is lowered and they suffer injuries. For more about the Street Child Africa campaign click here: Barefoot Friday

I couldn't make it to Ghana to show my support,
so I did the next best thing #footsie
standing in solidarity on #BarefootFriday

On Friday, June 26th Street Girls Aid will launch their 20th Anniversary Celebration. Follow this site or "Like" Street Girls Aid on Facebook to stay up on all of the fantastic plans for the year long celebration and plan to put June 2015 on your travel calendar and get your ticket to attend the Grand Celebration in June 2015!

The Shipping Container has Arrived in Ghana!

John, Cathy and Vida size up what
half a container looks like

Vida Asomaning Amoako, Executive Director of Street Girls Aid  reports that the container with the books from Books For Africa books to fill the sponsored Little Free Libraries  (which were also included in the shipment) has arrived and is now being housed at the Ghana Book Trust. Plans are underway to begin sorting the 12,000 books and begin distributing them to the sites where the Little Free Libraries are being installed by Street Girls Aid as part of the capacity building grant that Rotarians and friends just completed in

There's how many books in there????

Ghana.

Many thanks to all of our friends at Books For Africa, Rachel Brady and Patrick Plonski who organized and shepherded the container to Ghana, Ghana Book Trust's Genevieve Eba-Polley, Executive Director and John Acquah who cleared the container through the Tema port and safely got the shipment to the Ghana Book Trust  site, and of course, Todd Bol who initiatied this portion of the grant by requesting that we bring the sponsored Little Free Libraries to Ghana. Todd Bol, the Executive Director of Little Free Library was featured in the latest issue of The Rotarian Magazine   who inspired the  Little Free Libraries portion of this grant by developing a program that sponsors libraries that are assembled, built, installed and maintained by non-profits in other countries as a means of supportive income. More about this program later, as Street Girls Aid provides assessment and feedback about viability and mission-driven fit.

John and Genevieve with Vida and Cathy and the
Burt Award for African Literature Books

While we were visiting the Ghana Book Trust Ghana Book Trust, Genevieve and John told us about the Burt Awards For African Literature. The Burt Award for African Literature is a literary prize that recognizes excellence in young adult fiction from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya. Sponsored by CODE and made possible by the generosity of William Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation, the Award addresses an ongoing shortage of relevant, quality books for young people in Africa, while at the same time promoting a love of reading and learning.

A display at the Ghana Book Trust
of past Burt Award recipients

Vida and Cathy looking through
books at the University bookstore

The Ghana Book Trust is instrumental in distributing the books selected for the Burt Awards to their non-profit and educational partners and added Street Girls Aid to that list during our meeting with them - and the exciting news from that was that Vida was given several full sets of books that had won previous Burt Award to add to the Street

Burt Award Winners

Girls Aid Little Free Libraries. You can imagine how excited we were to find additional copies of previous winners at the University of Ghana Bookstore, where Vida took us to purchase other books by local authors for the grant.

We bought as many books
as we could carry

What a fun day filling our bags with books to fill the Little Free Libraries, knowing that the books were relevant, locally written and filled with colorful pictures and native stories that the girls and their children could see themselves in and relate to - what a great way to boost literacy.

The following week, the team focusing on the Little Free Library portion of the trip returned with Vida to select 1,000 books in anticipation of the container's arrival.

 

Thank you so much Ghana Book Trust for letting our volunteers visit and select books from your vast warehouse as a "loan" against the container which did not arrive in time for us to process those books and libraries. Vida and her staff now get to have a ton of fun sorting through the books that are now safely in Ghana - it makes me want to get back to Accra just to play and interact with all of those beautiful books!!! Alas, we will have to leave that up to our friends on the ground to help Street Girls Aid sort, transport and deliver all of those fantastic books from Books For Africa/ and fill the Little Free Libraries!

Taking it to the Streets

SAID goes to the streets with a
mobile library program

Street Girls Aid goes into the streets with a new mobile library program. The van, books, supplies and staffing are part of an Empowerment of Young Girls and Mothers Living in the Streets project funded in partnership with International Child Solidarity (ICS). Books were purchased from the Ghana Book Trust and also sponsored by a recent Rotary delegation from the United States.

Margie's passion for libraries is
only surpassed by her passion
for people and building relationships

As part of the recent Rotary Foundation District Grant, a team of our volunteers brought resources and tools related to mobile libraries to help build capacity within the Street Girls Aid staff at the earlier request of the Executive Director, Vida. Several of the volunteers spent time building relationships with the SAID staff and then sharing resources. The capacity building related to not only mobile libraries, but library management and our volunteers were passionate about the resources that they shared. Their passion caught fire and the staff were pretty fired up and ready to tackle this new initiative.

This is what capacity building
looks like - Holly sharing resources

Another component of the grant allowed the team and Vida to make some critical connections with both the Ghana Book Trust and the Osu Children's Library Fund about library management resources for NGOs in Ghana as well as access to some fabulous books written by local Ghanaians - the connections were powerful and it will be exciting to see them flourish. Already, two weeks after we are gone - the mobile library is out on the streets, and while we only had a small part of that - it is exciting to see the impact of capacity building, and the power of connections.

One of the hundreds of books purchased locally
by authors from Ghana as part of this project

For more information about supporting literacy and empowerment of girls, children and moms living in the streets contact Vida Amoako, Executive Director at streetgirlsaid@yahoo.com or send a message to our site from the contact us box in the sidebar. Look for an announcement soon about the 20th Year Legacy Celebration festivities! 20 years of Serving Street Children - Impacting Generations


Enjoy these photos from the first day on the streets with the mobile library:

Libraries, Literacy and Lots and Lots of Learning

Checking out the final product of our workshop on
how to tie fabrics - head scarfs, baby carriers and
using fabric to help balance the load on our heads

The new street savings and loan program at Street Girls Aid
This is one of the 8 circles currently in operation

Learning about the slave trade at
Cape Coast Castle

The bustling fishing villiage of Elmina - a town named by
European explorers after the riches found in the mines

The vibrant and colorful streets of Elmina

Mameya and Bless play with some of the new toys
brought by the team and funded by our donors

More interactive and interested toy action

The girls couldn't get enough of the books

Capacity development at its finest - the girls painted this
library...we've come a long way in two weeks

Break time and play time

Although the boats look so peaceful, fishing is hard work here

Watching the fishermen fix their nets is fascinating

A ladder to??? team building in Kakum National Park

After demonstrating and practicing how to carry everything on
top of our heads, often not successfully, the girls show us
how it is done

The student and teacher and teacher and student

Kathy Lillis working her biceps during a cooking class at
Street Girls Aid

The girls demonstrate pounding fufu

The children at Kimbu creche are wondering what we are up to?

A restful night

A colony of birds circle the crocodile pond

We had several birthday celebrations while in Ghana - Barb is
enjoying one of the celebrations at the jazz club +233. Cathy Smith
actually celebrated her birthday while in Ghana.

Holly Callen looks through books at the Ghana Book Trust

Esther was so patient with us as we learn about
new cooking techniques

Power tools are fun in any country

Rose gets in on the power tool action

Unloading books into the Kimbu creche library

The Kimbu Street Library in the 5 year and up classroom

Comfort and Phidelia have fun sorting the books