Celebrate 20 Years...Impact Generations...The Time Is Now

Street Girls Aid 20th Anniversary Fabric

Dear Friends -

I am writing to you because you supported one of the three prior grants for the Street Girls Aid Ghana project which was featured in the August 2014 “Rotarian” magazine.  Thank you for that support!  The grants helped us achieve far more than we dreamed.  As a direct result of the strategic planning work that we conducted at Street Girls Aid, they are holding a week long 20^th Legacy Celebration in June involving all of their international and local partners.  Contact me or go to SAid’s Facebook page for more information if you are interested in participating.

Today, I am writing to you for a related reason.  During the strategic planning the Street Girls Aid management team identified the need to seek out former street children and interview them in an effort to find ways to improve services, as well as to learn about the impact of their accomplishments.  They spent the past year doing just that and have accumulated some amazing stories of impact.

Street Girls Aid has asked me to help them compile these stories into a book and then publish the book so that these powerful stories can be shared globally.  I have agreed.  But to accomplish this monumental and important task, I need your help!

Our team has launched a Kickstarter to help underwrite the costs associated with the writing, editing, publication and distribution of the book, as well as the funding of the book launch in Ghana as part of the Anniversary celebration. To comply with the Kickstarter rules, I have launched the project in my name as a writer because I have experience and will be spearheading the efforts.

Additionally, I am charging the project for only a small portion of my time and hourly rate as a means of contributing to the project and keeping expenses down.  (Kickstarter rules do not allow me to back my own project financially - so reducing my charges is a way I can contribute indirectly.)  I have cleared my calendar and am not taking any new work for the next two months while this producing the book.

The most important thing about this Kickstarter project is that the proceeds from the book will benefit Street Girls Aid.  The book will be sold on Amazon and some of the benefits of bringing this book to the publisher unencumbered are a greater opportunity for global distribution and an increased revenue stream and visibility for Street Girls Aid.

Kickstarter may be new and unfamiliar to you.  It does not run fundraisers; rather, it connects backers and participants with artistic and innovative projects like publishing “Stories from the Streets.”  Its web page is easy to use.  Pledges are not redeemed unless the project is fully funded and time is extremely limited.  The Kickstarter for “Stories from the Streets” ends on May 10^th and I am writing to ask you to participate in getting this important book into print and available on Amazon.

You can follow this link -  http://kck.st/1It8o36 - or go to the Kickstarter home page and put my name, Kathy Stutzman, into the search and you will find a site loaded with info about the project including videos and photos.

Please contact me if you need more information or have questions. This opportunity is important and will provide Street Girls Aid with increased engagement, visibility and funding. Thank you for becoming a backer of “Stories from the Street!”

Thank you – Kathy Stutzman

Stories From The Streets Kickstarter is Live!

Betty, Ophelia, Comfort these three women join the ranks of many who have something to teach us

Street girls waiting to fill their
bowls with items to sell 

about living on the streets of Accra, Ghana. They have stories of impact, not only of resilience and perseverance, but of survival and success. These three women have something in common, former street children: from the open air bath houses where they slept, to the commercial sex trade which afforded their babies food – these women have all overcome untold challenges and have become professional hairdressers, bakers and seamstresses; employing others, providing for their children and becoming productive members of their communities.

Theirs are just a few of the many stories you will read about, see captured in photos and learn about the realities of living, working and sleeping on the streets in the capital city of Ghana in the heart of West Africa. What drives children to the streets, what do they eat where do they sleep and how do they get off the streets? All of those questions will be answered in the book “Stories From The Streets…and Beyond.” An intimate look at the street children in Accra.

Join Stories From The Streets Kickstarter Today 

This kickstarter will produce, publish and distribute the stories of Betty, Ophelia and Comfort and so many more storytellers as we give voice and lift up their stories of success. Follow Betty’s journey that started when her teacher impregnated her at 16, her family shunned her after the baby was born and she was forced to seek work on the streets of Ghana. Hers is a story of hard work and impacting interventions by social workers from Street Girls Aid which supported and assisted her in her struggles to build a new life for herself and her daughter.

The railways of Accra, Ghana

These women’s stories need to be shared globally, theirs are stories of hope and inspiration and in

times of the global community seeking methods of eradicating poverty, of searching solutions for homelessness – who better to learn from than those who were there and triumphed over the immense challenges they faced. This kickstarter will produce, publish and distribute these stories and others in a collection of works called Stories from the streets and beyond

To get these stories to publication means you joining this kickstarter. The timeline is crazy urgent, but doable with the support and participation of everyone joining in. The book launch is already scheduled for June 30^th of this year in Ghana.

The book launch coincides with Street Girls Aid Ghana’s grand finale of their 20^th anniversary legacy celebrations and will in turn, kickstart their next 20 years of serving street children…impacting generations. Learn about what that means in this book. The former street children, (the storytellers) and their families have been invited to attend the book launch and we can’t disappoint.

To get the books published and delivered to Ghana by June 30^th, the book need to get to publication by June 1^st – still doable, and will require your participation. This kickstarter is going to make that happen!

Learn about the symbols chosen for the Street Girls Aid
20th Anniversary Legacy Fabric in the book
and on the Stories From The Streets Kickstarter page 

A team of people have been collecting the success stories from the storytellers for over a year and they have been gathered, all that is left to be done is to produce the pages, design the layout, edit, write connecting articles as well as some new content and compile the photos, stories, essays and add the list of the community who join in on this kickstarter.

The budget has been set at $8,350 and that will cover the costs described for the production, publication and distribution of books at the book launch on June 30^th. After the book has been launched, the book will be available on Amazon and sent to those of you who have selected the book as one of your many fun rewards for joining us in this effort. Any money raised over the budget that amount will purchase more books to be distributed during the anniversary celebration event.

I’ve cleared my calendar until this gets done, it is doable, but it is going to take all of you participating. Check out Stories from the streets and beyond kickstarter page for more information

about how you can make a difference and help lift these stories.

Join Stories From The Streets Kickstarter Today

Maya Angelou said that there is no greater agony than a story inside you that goes untold. These brave and courageous women, former street children have told their story, now it is up to you and me to share those stories globally. We can do it, but the time is now and it is urgent. This kickstarter is less than 3 weeks long, because we need to get into production immediately, so we’re not fooling around – we need to do this.

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!