Meet Ophelia

Street Girls Aid Social Workers Walk The Railway

When Ophelia was interviewed for the book “Stories From The Streets” she shared about her life as a commercial sex worker. At sixteen with an infant to feed there were few options available for her after being kicked out of her home. Her family blamed her for her pregnancy although she was impregnated by her teacher, dejected, she and her baby and some other girls slept in the open air bath houses, she’d given up any hope of a future for her child; she’d almost given up on herself.

After regular interactions with Street Girls Aid social workers in the railway, she turned to them for help. It wasn't easy. Following rules and adjusting to a routine which included educational and vocational programs required a lot of adjustment. Her health complications from the sex trade created additional difficulties.

Through the counseling she received, she opened up and made the decision to take action on her life, for the future of baby and for her future.

Several years later Ophelia works in a hairdressing salon earns a regular income and is able to take care of her child. She is getting ready to open her own salon from the money she has saved and she has successfully influenced two of her friends who were also commercial sex workers to learn skills and a trade. They are both working in their new vocations.

When asked what has changed for her as a result of Street Girls Aid and their programs, Ophelia has this to say, “I have acquired a skill which puts me in the best position to take care of my child. I feel more respected and I am privileged and happy. I have big dreams.”

Ophelia’s dreams and other important lessons from Ophelia are included in the book “Stories From The Streets” Help support the publishing of this book so that Ophelia and others can share their inspirational experiences.  http://kck.st/1It8o36

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!

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

Rotary and Ghana in the news

Check out this news story about the upcoming trip to Ghana


The story and inspiration behind the upcoming work in Ghana

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 

Street Girls Aid Newsletter December 2012

Dear Partners and Friends,

As we enter the Christmas season we want to use this opportunity to thank you all. Please enjoy reading our newsletter. Next year we will be approaching you for comments to help us improve upon our newsletter.

looking forward to better times in the coming year. Merry Christmas to You all. Thank you for being part of the vision of S.Aid - Serving Street Children and Impacting Generations.

Warm greetings of the season to you all. KIND WISHES

Vida Asomaning Amoako

Director 

Dear Partners and Friends,

As we enter the Christmas season we want to use this opportunity to thank you all. Please enjoy reading our newsletter. Next year we will be approaching you for comments to help us improve upon our newsletter.

looking forward to better times in the coming year.Merry Christmas to You all. Thank you for being part of the vision of S.Aid - Serving Street Children and Impacting Generations.Warm greetings of the season to you all.

KIND WISHES

Vida Asomaning Amoako

Director 

The senses are alive....

Wow...our first full day in Accra.

I'm still savoring the flight yesterday from Amsterdam to Accra.  We flew during daylight this time and I spent   a bit over 90 minutes staring out the window at the Sahara desert below.  It was amazing to watch the dunes, even from as high as we were, and the occasional road trying to wind through them.  As the sun set and sent it's colors and shadows over the landscape I begged Kathy to let me get on out the wing where I might photograph to share the beauty with all.  She said no...

We  also got our first peek at the Harmadan winds kicking up.  They pick up the sand and dust from the Sahara and drop it in other parts of Africa...specifically Accra!  Wish each of you might have the experience of seeing one part of the world picked up and dropped somewhere else at some time in your life.  Proof that our Mother Earth is still under development.

Both last night and today we got to start sharing hellos and hugs with dear friends again.  Last night our friend and fellow Rotarian Theresa greeted us and helped speed us through the airport and on to our hotel, though she had been busy all day and was exhausted herself.  And, we spent a great hour with Vida, Director of Street Aid, who took time on her day off to come out and welcome us, and get the planning for our week started.  We ran errands and did prep work and enjoyed the sights and smells and sounds of Accra....starting to feel like a second home!

Today also found us shopping at the wonderful Woodin fabric shop, savoring the patterns and colors of Africa on cloth.  Alas, we could not bring EVERYTHING home, but we are having some things made and look forward to sharing with you on our return.

Our driver John is pretty great, today he spent time while we were buying our cell phone looking through all of the phone number options and selected a very special number for us...since then, we have been told on a number of occasions that we have a "really nice" number...hope to learn more about that while we are absorbing everything. Another full day planned tomorrow - can't wait!

All our bags are packed

All our bags are packed and we're ready to go...almost. Our flight leaves tomorrow and will get us into Accra, Ghana on Friday night where we are looking forward to some of our Rotary and Ghanaian friends waiting to pick us up and get us settled in. Big day ahead on Saturday as we work through the list of things to do to get ready for Monday when we begin working with the Leadership Team at Street Girls Aid.

For information about Street Girls Aid follow this link:

http://www.said-ghana.com/

Thank you to all of you who supported this project, we will use this blog as a means of keeping everyone up to date pending electricity and internet - so stay tuned and we will keep you posted -

Medasi

Cathy Smith and Kathy Stutzman