Rotary District Grant Awarded

The team is taking pre-orders for goods
made by the girls at Street Girls Aid

Books will be purchased in Ghana
for the libraries that the
girls and volunteers
 will build

Books will be available in
libraries within the creches
for the girls and their babies

Rochester Rotarians District Governor Elect Karel Weigel and Judy O'Fallon, grant mentor, presented Austin Rotary Club President Scott Anderson with the District 5960 Grant check on October 28, 2013 for $12,000 for The Ghana Street Girls Grant Phase 3.

Kathy Stutzman from the Austin Rotary Club and PDG Cathy Smith from the Fridley/Colunbia Heights Rotary Club will be leading a team of volunteers who will be leaving for Ghana on January 24th 2014. Updates about the team and the on-the-ground work they will be doing in Accra will be posted as they prepare for the experience.

The team will have a planning meeting on November 2nd at 2:00 at Family Means in Stillwater, MN Skype options are available and need to be pre-arranged.

Opportunities for engagement will be discussed at the November 2nd Team  meeting for people and organizations who want to support this effort and yet,

During Phase 2 (the planning phase) the girls were asked
to respond to this question...how would you answer the question?

may not be able to travel to Africa to work with Street Aid and the girls. 

Opportunities include sponsoring libraries, sets of books to stock in the libraries, purchaing goods that the girls make, sponsoring the travel team...the opportunities are endless!  If you are interested in learning more about how you can support this project, send an e-mail or contact one of us through the blog and a team member will connect with you.

Kathy Stutzman, Scott Anderson, Karel Weigel, Judy O'Fallon
present the District 5960 grant of $12,000 to the Austin Rotary Club

Travel with a Purpose

We are getting ready to roll out a service learning opportunity for those of you interested in going to Ghana, creating some connections and doing some work...in other words, traveling with a purpose. There will be multiple opportunities for you to participate, either by traveling to Ghana, supporting the team that is going to Ghana or by helping to support some of the on the ground work here in the US.

Here's some things to be looking forward to:

• Assembling, decorating and installing Little Free Libraries in locations where street girls and their babies will have access to books
• Piloting service learning opportunities - cooking classes, batiking, sewing and hair-dressing with the girls in the vocational school
• Creating a market for the girls' wares, by collecting orders of their goods prior to going to Ghana and delivering them upon return (great holiday giving opportunities)
• Painting and sprucing up the baby nursery where the babies of the street girls are cared for while the girls are in school and vocational training
• Opportunities to hold babies and read to children and engage in some important literacy experiences
• Experiencing and being part of Rotary in action in Africa
• And lots more!

 If you would like to be included on the mailing list to learn more please email us at kastutzm@smig.net or subscribe to this feed and we will keep you updated on the latest news. There will be an information meeting scheduled soon as well as the specifics for the trip as well as the partnership and fundraising opportunities coming SOON!

We do know that the dates that work best for Street Aid and the weather for traveling to Ghana will be around November 22nd to December 8th and that time will come quickly, so stay tuned and we will be in contact soon.

Kathy Stutzman and Cathy Smith 

Little Free Libraries - AP Story

Check out this article about how one Rotarian can impact so many and be an inspiration to us all!

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/wis-mans-little-free-library-copied-worldwide

This is the project that inspired our post "I had a vision":

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5630359238800832077#editor/target=post;postID=8035311357391918799

Thank you Cathy Smith for writing "I had a vision" and for asking Librarian Ericka the right question...

No Condition is Permanent...

Accra, Day 4…is it possible that we have only been here 4 days? But as we have learned from the back of this trotro...no condition is permanent...in Ghana trotros have statements written on the back of each one with insightful, meaningful (even if only to the driver) inspirational sayings.

It seems like we never left from our time in February. Today was a high energy day as we met with the leadership team from Street Girls Aid as a group for the first time since we left 8 months ago, although very much like good friends – it did feel like we had been meeting right along, perhaps because the Street Girls Aid team had accomplished so much since we’ve left. The list of accomplishments shared in our first session this morning spanned pages and at times I found myself impressed and inspired by all of the lessons and accomplishments: Vida, Irene, Phidelia, Sammy and Fred have really made it happen especially considering that they have their regular work, they have recently been awarded a large grant and are balancing family…look for news on the accomplishments later this week.  We all worked hard today, despite the heat and humidity (it was 28 C at 6:00 tonight).

Competing in paper airplane races...

Whose went the farthest???

Yesterday we had the rare opportunity to observe the funeral of Alhai Aliu Mahama, the former Vice-President of Ghana at the Black Star Square in Accra. We learned so much about customs and observances while watching the ceremony on television and talking to people. We have been very curious and people have responded positively. Let us know what you have questions about and we will find someone to ask!

Lunch...yummm, yes that is octopus

 We have added a few of the photos from the many that are now on the camera that show a few of the highlights…enjoy!

We needed air in our tires...