From material to water - two initiatives, one connection: Ghana
We asked Theresia Kneschke, the initiator of the orphanage Tamale eV, for a guest post for our blog. We were able to run the orphanage with 400 euros from the donations collected by SocialSur+ support. We gave Theresia five questions as a guide, and this great article emerged.
Creation: An idea became a life's work!
6 months of living and working in the orphanage changed my life. I, in Ghana they call myself Theresa, decided after graduating from high school in 2009 to travel to far-off Africa. But just traveling and doing nothing was out of the question for me. So I looked for an organization, was placed in a project and before I knew it I was sitting in my 14m² room, the boys 'dormitory on the left and the girls' dormitory on the right, kitchen, living room - my new home. And that's what it turned out to be. The 18 children took me into their midst, let me help with their homework, do the laundry, pick them up from school and also change diapers from time to time.
Back in Germany, my heart stayed in Ghana - that's where the came from Tamale Orphanage Association. One thing was clear - we had to help. Since then we have been collecting donations in Germany and using them for larger projects. The biggest thing so far has been building a house, a home of our own for our 18 children and thus never increasing rental costs again. Next we donated a school bus and a water pipe is currently being built. We advertised for this water pipe Project at Betterplace.org and True Fabrics became aware of us. In December 2015 we had the money together and were allowed to personally carry out the first construction inspection during our visit to Ghana over Christmas. Meanwhile, the donations, including the donation from True Fabricswho have paid for the excavation work for the aqueduct. Next, the pipes will be laid and soon the water will be able to flow.
How should it go on?
A roof over your head, electricity and running water as well as schooling are on our radar. Running water is our current task. Schooling is also secured, yet!
The children get older and after the basic education, an apprenticeship or a degree should ideally follow, so that a good future is assured for all children. The biggest, Francis (21 years old), is already in high school and has found his own sponsor. We want to strategically pursue this concept for the other children in the future as well. We sit down at regular intervals and communicate with our Ghanaian friends on site which important projects can follow and what we are effectively using our donations for.
6 years of ups and downs - what went well, what went wrong?
A tip for every German who is involved in Ghana - the “calculate everything times 3” rule.
Values like punctuality or reliability are rather foreign words for the Ghanaians. Usually a repair that should be ready in a week is ready in 3 weeks and it is the same with roofing, laying tiles, digging or sending photos of the progress. Then on site, everything becomes clear to you - power outages, heavy rains, bad roads, family deaths, car accidents, illnesses! No wonder that not everything is always as simple as one imagines it from Germany. That's why you become a little more relaxed after 6 years of work.
By and large, however, the positive experiences predominate. We are always enthusiastic about the great interest and commitment in Germany - whole school classes, car dealerships, private individuals, neighbors, friends - everyone pulls together to support these children, most of whom do not even know personally! I know these children personally and I count them as part of my family. Every two years I go privately to Tamale, to the orphanage, to visit the children and see our progress with my own eyes! Collecting donations for 2 years, writing emails, writing Facebook articles, freezing in the cold at Christmas markets, giving an account to the tax office, a lot of administrative work - all of this went by in 1 second - the second I stepped on Ghanaian soil and the Children receive me. Madness - a joie de vivre that they radiate - the greatest happiness for me personally!
Question: A better world, what does it look like?
In a better world there is no longer a single starving child! The fact that someone has more or less money, lives from cultivation of fields or the real estate market, that matters less - you can still be happy. However, everyone should have the right to health, food, a basic education and a life without war and be allowed to live! To get closer to this goal there are people like Colin and Magdalena von True Fabricswho want to take things in hand and change them. There should be a lot more of it!
So, take part: help in the neighborhood, donate clothes, support in the soup kitchen, sew bags out of African fabrics or just walk the 5 minutes to the supermarket instead of driving. Everyone has the chance to make the world a little bit better! Go for it!
