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!

Little Free Libraries and Deechas Getting Ready to Travel to Ghana...in 7 Days

The Little Free Libraries & Deechas take a stop in New Hope, Minnesota to be repackaged for their plane flight to Ghana

An initiative within the 3rd phase of the Street Girls Aid project, the volunteer team (click here to learn more about the volunteer team )will be working on a multi-dimensional project including:

• literacy,
• vocational training and,
• library stewardship.

The literacy portion of the project includes purchasing/picking-up/bringing and delivering local culturally inclusive books in Accra from the Osu Children's Library Fund and the Ghana Book Trust in partnership with Books For Africa, Little Free Library ,our many donors and sponsors and using them to fill the libraries, providing access to books and literacy initiatives to the girls and their babies who live, work and sleep on the streets of Accra;

Teamwork in action

The vocational training opportunities include building, manufacturing, decorating, assembling and installing Little Free Libraries Little Free Libraries and strategizing about additional vocational opportunities for the girls related to the construction aspect of the project;

The library stewardship part of the project includes workshops and shared learning opportunities with the Street Girls Aid Staff and the team traveling to Ghana in coordination and partnership with a number of on the ground librarians - can't wait to see what comes from these shared learning opportunities.

The birth of the traveling library - Hudson, Wisconsin USA

To successfully accomplish the build, assemble and construct part of the project, the team will be bringing 5 libraries with us as checked baggage and will seek partners on the ground to design and draw plans for libraries...and you will be able to follow this particular library which Kathy Stutzman built in Hudson, Wisconsin and the journey starts here...

The next part of the trip for this library is to shipping to get dressed and ready for the trip, pictures will be posted when it is ready to travel, until then - follow the links included in this post to learn more about the various partners we will be working with in Accra...7 days and counting.

Thank you all for your support and well-wishes!

Libraries, Deechas and Children's Books - Preparing to Leave for Ghana

Kathy Margie & Holly work on building a Little Free Library

Deechas, books and libraries abound as we prepare to leave for Ghana in 5 weeks. In preparation for the upcoming trip our team worked on their construction and teamwork skills to prepare to train the trainers and work with Street Girls Aid staff as part of the literacy and library components of this project.

Donations continue to come in to support the purchase of the Little Free Libraries which will be built, decorated and installed in a variety of locations in Ghana – classrooms, villages, crèches, and other  locations identified by Street Girls Aid and the girls…can’t wait to see where we will be installing them! Some of the library kits are already on their way in a Books For Africa container, we will be carrying several with us in our checked baggage and we have the plans ready to go to build with local supplies once we get on the ground.

Margie, Barb, Kathy & Holly

We will be bringing some books with us but will be purchasing culturally appropriate and inclusive books while on the ground in Ghana from the Osu Children's Library Fund – they are great books and will be wonderful for moms to be reading with their children. For more information on how you can support the purchase of these books click here: How you can have an impact

Street Girls Aid offers vocation training and opportunities for street

girls and sewing is one of their vocational specialties. If you would like to support Street Girls Aid and provide an opportunity for the girls to make something for you and your friends, now is the time to order your goodies so that we can bring your items back when we return. For more information click here: Street Girls Aid Fabric Items Order Form

We are honored to be bringing boxes of Deechas with us to share with the girls and to put in the classrooms. We are honoring the creator of the Deecha’s, the late Dianne Meixner, who was one of the founding members of Team Ghana which has worked for many years on creating opportunities for literacy and increased international relationships through a variety of initiatives, one of which involves these adorable creatures which originated from children’s imaginations. For more information about Team Ghana and the Deecha story click here: Team Ghana - Deecha Story 

Books and Deechas are all ready to go to Ghana

The partnerships continue to evolve and we really need to thank The Rotary Foundation all of the Rotary Clubs of District 5960  that have supported this effort and continue to show an outpouring of generosity. Friends and family, coworkers and other service organizations are sharing their support of this project and our team and this would not be possible without the involvement of everyone – so thank you all! Stay tuned as we continue to update the blog with our progress, preparation and on-going adventures.