A few months ago in October we had received word that our plans to remodel a few building structures in Asikuma and turn them into a children’s haven (foster home) were facing a road block – literally. You can catch up to speed by reading this post.
We were left wondering if God was perhaps steering us in a different location for our children’s haven, or if He was orchestrating different timing for the project. Enter Jake’s recent December trip to Ghana in which he got to visit the makings of Kwahu Orphanage (you can view that post here). Kofi, our in-country social worker, had gradually been building this orphanage from his personal earnings and donations from adoptive families. At the point of Jake’s visit, the project was at a stand-still as Kofi waited to raise more funds.
Immediately after Jake’s day spent at Kwahu he called me and said we needed to strongly consider backing Kofi’s all ready started project. It just made more sense rather than trying to re-invent the wheel when Kofi had such a good thing going and just needed some help to finish it off. Jake and I first connected with Kofi in 2009 when we accepted Justice’s referral and Kofi became our social worker. Justice's was the first-ever adoption case that Kofi worked on and processed. At about the same time that Jake scheduled the December team’s trip to Kwahu, Kofi also took over as the case worker for our current adoption. Anyone that knows Kofi knows that his heart for orphans is HUGE. His own background in growing up as an orphan himself certainly plays into that. Over these past few years, and especially on Jake’s recent trip to Ghana, we have been able to see Kofi’s commitment to caring for these children - Kofi’s whole life is now his social work, and his newlywed wife is right there along with him.
In the days following Jake’s trip we began sketching together a vision of how we could partner with Kofi and make his orphanage a reality that wasn’t years away, but just months away. Since our church had an interest in backing our children’s haven project, we again went to them to ask for help with the funding. We proposed a one-time gift to benefit the remaining construction items for Kwahu Orphanage, and about 2 weeks ago the elders of our church approved our proposal. Here is what the donation will go towards – completion of:
-the roof and ceiling
-all windows and doors
-bathrooms
-security fencing
-tiling of the floors
-the water borehole
-all electricity
-painting
-purchase of beds, dressers, and appliances
-purchase of mosquito nets in all the rooms
Once completed the home will accommodate an average of 12-16 orphans. The orphanage will have a total of 4 bedrooms complete with their own bathroom. Three of the bedrooms will be designated for the orphans – one room for the boys, one room for the girls, and one room for toddlers and infants. The fourth bedroom will be for the hired house mothers. In addition, Kofi and his wife will also have a room at the orphanage in which they will live and care for the children. The Kwahu Orphanage will also have a full operating kitchen, one main bathroom, a laundry room, study room, and a sitting room. There will be a minimum of two full-time house mothers employed and one assistant. One full-time security guard will also be employed to help control the movement of children and visitors.
The children will attend public school in town during the first year of completion and operation of the home. Once the orphanage is complete, Kofi envisions starting construction on a Christian boarding school that will sit on the same land as the orphanage. He would have the children in the orphanage attend the boarding school, but would also open it to the general public. It would not be a free school as the governmental schools are, but instead it would be a private Christian school where individuals would be required to pay to attend. However, he would plan to have a sponsorship program for the more needy children whose parents have a desire for them to attend a Christian school. His vision is to have phase II completed by December 2013.
Kofi has also laid the initial foundation for the construction of a 96 unit apartment building that will sit on the same 32 plots of land just north of the orphanage. The apartment units will be used for the boarding school so that children from neighboring communities could attend the school and have proper housing provided and included in the school fees. The apartment units will also be used for mission groups that arrive in Ghana as well as for families who are traveling to Kwahu for the adoption of their child. His vision for phase III and the development of this housing complex would be completed in December 2014.
WOWZA – what a vision, huh? It’s clear to see that Kofi is in this for the long-run, and his personal investment into the project shows his commitment and heart for the orphan.
The best part of all this, is that with our church’s donation, Kofi is aiming to finish out the remaining construction on the home over the next 4 weeks. He hopes to be able to have the grand-opening of Kwahu Orphanage while our team is there in mid-March. It would be so great to get to experience the inauguration and to get to celebrate the opening of this safe haven for Ghana’s orphans.
We’ll see what God has in store!
Showing posts with label Isaiah 1:17 Children's Haven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isaiah 1:17 Children's Haven. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Monday, October 10, 2011
Children's Haven Update
My most recent post detailing the hearts of Jake and I to start up a children’s haven in Asikuma, Ghana can be found here.
In that post I talked about how we could feel God leading us to start construction on the children’s haven project as soon as possible, but we weren’t sure where the funds were going to come from. We decided to add the remodel of one of the buildings onto the tasks for our August trip anyways....knowing that doing so would cost above the $25,000 needed for the medical clinic and library/classroom alone. As you all know, we weren’t able to get started on the remodel for the children’s homes at all during August so we pushed it back to the December trip coming up. Well, something COOL has happened in the mean time. God just seems to have a way of funding things that are top priority in His mind. :)
Since we got home from our August trip our church, Cornerstone Church of Ames, told us that they wanted to help support us in our endeavors in Ghana. Our church has a large global ministry and they said that we should feel comfortable reaching out to them for help….that we don’t need to ‘go it alone’ so to say. Jake and I had many conversations about this, and in the end decided to put forth a proposal to ask our church to help us with the funding we need for the beginning construction/remodel of the children’s haven! We got to meet with a few of the ‘big wigs’ a few weeks ago and they have decided on giving us a one-time financial gift that will cover the remodel of 2 of the children’s homes, as well as furnishings, and an outside fence/gate to enclose the property. Can I get a WHOOOOP WHOOOOP?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!! Jake and I were SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! Once we get these first two homes up and running we hope to eventually remodel the other two buildings as well, but this will be a great start. Here are the items our construction team will be tackling on the homes this December:
-Patchwork/repairs to building structures and rooftops
-New window screens
-Enclosing porches
-Modernizing bathrooms
-New coat of exterior paint
-Pipe polytank water supply from medical clinic to children’s homes
-Fence/gate installed around perimeter grounds
Construction of furnishings:
-Bunk beds
-Cubbies/dressers
-Table & chairs for eating/homework
We are SO THANKFUL that our church ROCKS and will be supporting us with this project! We are also SO THANKFUL for all of you, who paved the way for our projects in Asikuma by donating to the first-fruits of our work in August. Because of the urgency of getting the children’s haven up and running, finishing off the library has been put on hold until our spring break trip in March. As for the medical clinic we left behind funds to have Nana hire out the remaining jobs to be finished. According to Nana, the clinic opened up about a month ago, and treated 43 patients in its first week open! We hope to get a much more extensive/detailed update to share when we are back to check on how it’s running in December.
Long-term, our Isaiah 1:17 Foundation will be responsible for covering the salaries of the house mothers hired to work at the children’s haven. At full capacity, each home would likely have 6-10 kids with 2 house mothers each. Our foundation will also cover the day-to-day operational costs for electricity, water, and building upkeep. Adoption Advocates International will cover the care fees for any child on the adoption track within their program including food, education, sanitary needs, and medical costs. The majority of the kids who will reside at our children’s haven will be in-process for adoption. :)
That brings me to a list of tangible items that are currently needed for our partnering NGO in Ghana – The Ripley Foundation. The Ripley Foundation works with many schools and orphanages who are in bad shape and could really use some donations. Our children’s haven will also need to stock up on these items as well, so we will be making room for as many of the following donations as possible for our December trip:
- Thermometers
- Blood Pressure cuffs
- Children’s play games (any that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
- Toys (Frisbees, nerf balls, wand bubbles, dolls, trucks – anything that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
-Shoes (Sizes 1yr to 15yrs) I am crossing this one out because we already have PLENTY of shoe donations
- Boys Clothes (all sizes)
- Girls Clothes (all sizes) Anyone up for sewing more pillow case dresses? :)
- Bed Sheets (twin mattress size)
- Cups & Plates
- Kitchen cooking utensils for stovetop cooking (spoons, dippers, tongs, slotted spoons - preferrably metal)
- Diapers
- Baby Formula
- Socks
- School Items (educational items, crayons, coloring books, etc)
- Children’s picture Bibles
I think that about covers it for now! Can you picture it folks?!?!?!?!? Can you!?!?!?!?!?! Ahhhhhhh…..I can’t wait to see how God will bring this all to fruition and use these homes for His purposes!
In that post I talked about how we could feel God leading us to start construction on the children’s haven project as soon as possible, but we weren’t sure where the funds were going to come from. We decided to add the remodel of one of the buildings onto the tasks for our August trip anyways....knowing that doing so would cost above the $25,000 needed for the medical clinic and library/classroom alone. As you all know, we weren’t able to get started on the remodel for the children’s homes at all during August so we pushed it back to the December trip coming up. Well, something COOL has happened in the mean time. God just seems to have a way of funding things that are top priority in His mind. :)
Since we got home from our August trip our church, Cornerstone Church of Ames, told us that they wanted to help support us in our endeavors in Ghana. Our church has a large global ministry and they said that we should feel comfortable reaching out to them for help….that we don’t need to ‘go it alone’ so to say. Jake and I had many conversations about this, and in the end decided to put forth a proposal to ask our church to help us with the funding we need for the beginning construction/remodel of the children’s haven! We got to meet with a few of the ‘big wigs’ a few weeks ago and they have decided on giving us a one-time financial gift that will cover the remodel of 2 of the children’s homes, as well as furnishings, and an outside fence/gate to enclose the property. Can I get a WHOOOOP WHOOOOP?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!! Jake and I were SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! Once we get these first two homes up and running we hope to eventually remodel the other two buildings as well, but this will be a great start. Here are the items our construction team will be tackling on the homes this December:
-Patchwork/repairs to building structures and rooftops
-New window screens
-Enclosing porches
-Modernizing bathrooms
-New coat of exterior paint
-Pipe polytank water supply from medical clinic to children’s homes
-Fence/gate installed around perimeter grounds
Construction of furnishings:
-Bunk beds
-Cubbies/dressers
-Table & chairs for eating/homework
We are SO THANKFUL that our church ROCKS and will be supporting us with this project! We are also SO THANKFUL for all of you, who paved the way for our projects in Asikuma by donating to the first-fruits of our work in August. Because of the urgency of getting the children’s haven up and running, finishing off the library has been put on hold until our spring break trip in March. As for the medical clinic we left behind funds to have Nana hire out the remaining jobs to be finished. According to Nana, the clinic opened up about a month ago, and treated 43 patients in its first week open! We hope to get a much more extensive/detailed update to share when we are back to check on how it’s running in December.
Long-term, our Isaiah 1:17 Foundation will be responsible for covering the salaries of the house mothers hired to work at the children’s haven. At full capacity, each home would likely have 6-10 kids with 2 house mothers each. Our foundation will also cover the day-to-day operational costs for electricity, water, and building upkeep. Adoption Advocates International will cover the care fees for any child on the adoption track within their program including food, education, sanitary needs, and medical costs. The majority of the kids who will reside at our children’s haven will be in-process for adoption. :)
That brings me to a list of tangible items that are currently needed for our partnering NGO in Ghana – The Ripley Foundation. The Ripley Foundation works with many schools and orphanages who are in bad shape and could really use some donations. Our children’s haven will also need to stock up on these items as well, so we will be making room for as many of the following donations as possible for our December trip:
- Thermometers
- Blood Pressure cuffs
- Children’s play games (any that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
- Toys (Frisbees, nerf balls, wand bubbles, dolls, trucks – anything that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
-
- Boys Clothes (all sizes)
- Girls Clothes (all sizes) Anyone up for sewing more pillow case dresses? :)
- Bed Sheets (twin mattress size)
- Cups & Plates
- Kitchen cooking utensils for stovetop cooking (spoons, dippers, tongs, slotted spoons - preferrably metal)
- Diapers
- Baby Formula
- Socks
- School Items (educational items, crayons, coloring books, etc)
- Children’s picture Bibles
I think that about covers it for now! Can you picture it folks?!?!?!?!? Can you!?!?!?!?!?! Ahhhhhhh…..I can’t wait to see how God will bring this all to fruition and use these homes for His purposes!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Urgency
As we’ve begun preparing for our December trip to Ghana, the urgency of getting the children’s haven up and running has been brought back into focus this week. We know the need for having a safe, loving environment for orphans as well as children in-process for adoption in Ghana is high, but emails like this will keep you up at night….from the Ghana coordinator of Adoption Advocates International earlier this week:
This is one of those days that I so wish the Children's Haven was up and running. There is such a HUGE need Janel! We've got one kiddo in a government orphanage who desperately needs to be where she can receive love and attention. We have another kid who, without great intervention, will probably die (at the same orphanage). I'm just sick to my stomach. =-(
And in a later email:
I am counting down the days until the Children's Haven can take in children! I know your ministry will make a life-changing difference to many children. I'm already praying for the Lord to prepare a "spot" for each child that is in the most need to be there!
An email like that first one above will also send my husband into a tailspin of action. Literally. Within a matter of seconds he practically had himself a plane ticket booked to Ghana and was ready to go and save the day! :) However, it’s also not an easy thing to get these children ‘released’ from the orphanage either. You have to have a ‘working/favorable’ relationship with them, as they hold the authority over kids who are abandoned at their facility.
The NGO that we have partnered with in Ghana, The Ripley Foundation, mostly utilizes private foster care homes for children in their programs. Recently they started advocating for the special needs children residing in this government-run orphanage….if an adoptive family is found for the children they can be released into other care….like a private foster home or group foster home like our children’s haven will be. Right now, however, all the private foster homes are full and our partners are running out of options. Getting this email yesterday was like a swift kick into reality. What a reminder that we are literally dealing with the difference between LIFE and DEATH here.
Thankfully, Jake knows a lot of people who know a lot of people who are literally waiting to pounce on a situation just like this and help out. After a few quick emails, we had a family ready and willing to pay the costs for “Baby O” to be released from the orphanage and admitted into a hospital where she can receive the medical attention and evaluation that she so desperately needs. It is likely that “Baby O” has microcephaly and could have a hospital stay of several weeks. For a family to step up and cover these costs of a child they have never met, never even held in their arms is SO WOW to me! Talk about turning compassion into action….sheesh…..another great example of that! Not only that, but Jake got Ezekiel in on the mix, and Ezekiel found a great foster family for “Baby O” all set up for once she is out of the hospital. You can read more about sweet “Baby O” here, although some of the details of her story have since changed….namely, there is a good chance that a forever family has been found for her!
One of the staff members from The Ripley Foundation also decided to care for the other child in the orphanage (a 2-3 year old girl with cerebal palsy) in her own personal home until her adoption is complete. This child can be released from the orphanage because she has already been matched with a forever family who just passed Ghana court a few days ago.
There are many families who are able to meet the needs of a special needs child and commit to developing their full potential. Some families are not able, and that’s ok! I did want to advocate today for some sweeter than sweet little brothers in Ghana who are currently waiting for their forever family to be found. I can’t share their picture on here, but I can share their info:
Beautiful brothers around 2 and 4 years in Ghana are in need of a forever family! We have an opportunity for these precious ones to go to court very quickly if we have a family that is able to move forward at lightening speed with all of the paperwork and fees required. Fees will be reduced! These boys are special needs, with significant hypotonia (unknown cause). Please email anita@adoptionadvocates.org for more information! Please spread the word!
To see pictures of these boys, as well as many other waiting children in all of AAI’s international adoption programs, visit: http://aainews.blogspot.com/2011/09/password-protected-waiting-child-page.html in which you will receive the contact info for obtaining the password.
By the way, I hope you have been keeping up with Miss Lucy’s progress over at our friend’s blog: Step Up Sister! Another great example of a sweet child with great needs that can develop and even thrive in a family filled with love, encouragement, and individualized help. Lucy’s story is one that will take your breath away!
This is one of those days that I so wish the Children's Haven was up and running. There is such a HUGE need Janel! We've got one kiddo in a government orphanage who desperately needs to be where she can receive love and attention. We have another kid who, without great intervention, will probably die (at the same orphanage). I'm just sick to my stomach. =-(
And in a later email:
I am counting down the days until the Children's Haven can take in children! I know your ministry will make a life-changing difference to many children. I'm already praying for the Lord to prepare a "spot" for each child that is in the most need to be there!
An email like that first one above will also send my husband into a tailspin of action. Literally. Within a matter of seconds he practically had himself a plane ticket booked to Ghana and was ready to go and save the day! :) However, it’s also not an easy thing to get these children ‘released’ from the orphanage either. You have to have a ‘working/favorable’ relationship with them, as they hold the authority over kids who are abandoned at their facility.
The NGO that we have partnered with in Ghana, The Ripley Foundation, mostly utilizes private foster care homes for children in their programs. Recently they started advocating for the special needs children residing in this government-run orphanage….if an adoptive family is found for the children they can be released into other care….like a private foster home or group foster home like our children’s haven will be. Right now, however, all the private foster homes are full and our partners are running out of options. Getting this email yesterday was like a swift kick into reality. What a reminder that we are literally dealing with the difference between LIFE and DEATH here.
Thankfully, Jake knows a lot of people who know a lot of people who are literally waiting to pounce on a situation just like this and help out. After a few quick emails, we had a family ready and willing to pay the costs for “Baby O” to be released from the orphanage and admitted into a hospital where she can receive the medical attention and evaluation that she so desperately needs. It is likely that “Baby O” has microcephaly and could have a hospital stay of several weeks. For a family to step up and cover these costs of a child they have never met, never even held in their arms is SO WOW to me! Talk about turning compassion into action….sheesh…..another great example of that! Not only that, but Jake got Ezekiel in on the mix, and Ezekiel found a great foster family for “Baby O” all set up for once she is out of the hospital. You can read more about sweet “Baby O” here, although some of the details of her story have since changed….namely, there is a good chance that a forever family has been found for her!
One of the staff members from The Ripley Foundation also decided to care for the other child in the orphanage (a 2-3 year old girl with cerebal palsy) in her own personal home until her adoption is complete. This child can be released from the orphanage because she has already been matched with a forever family who just passed Ghana court a few days ago.
There are many families who are able to meet the needs of a special needs child and commit to developing their full potential. Some families are not able, and that’s ok! I did want to advocate today for some sweeter than sweet little brothers in Ghana who are currently waiting for their forever family to be found. I can’t share their picture on here, but I can share their info:
Beautiful brothers around 2 and 4 years in Ghana are in need of a forever family! We have an opportunity for these precious ones to go to court very quickly if we have a family that is able to move forward at lightening speed with all of the paperwork and fees required. Fees will be reduced! These boys are special needs, with significant hypotonia (unknown cause). Please email anita@adoptionadvocates.org for more information! Please spread the word!
To see pictures of these boys, as well as many other waiting children in all of AAI’s international adoption programs, visit: http://aainews.blogspot.com/2011/09/password-protected-waiting-child-page.html in which you will receive the contact info for obtaining the password.
By the way, I hope you have been keeping up with Miss Lucy’s progress over at our friend’s blog: Step Up Sister! Another great example of a sweet child with great needs that can develop and even thrive in a family filled with love, encouragement, and individualized help. Lucy’s story is one that will take your breath away!
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