Compassion International- Visiting Precious

I have waited a long time to figure out how to write about Compassion and how visiting their projects impacted me. I had long heard awesome things people had told me about the organization. I had never been involved with Compassion before I went on this trip to Ghana. I had just heard lots of things about it through my community of blog friends and in real life friends who sponsor children. 

Honestly, I had been skeptical of many of the claims made by people about how perfect and honest and transparent CI was. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised by my visits to 3 compassion project sites in Ghana, West Africa. 

The trip to visit Precious impacted me the most. We could make arguments as to why, certainly. But I think it is because Michelle trusted me to share her love with this little girl. We were utterly exhausted the day we visited Ato Sam and I really don't remember it in much detail beyond what I penned in my journal. And I loved visiting George and George because it was part of JD and Tia's beautiful friendship together. But Precious and the kids sponsored through this woman who lives 5000 miles away from them is what really stuck with me.

We got to see everything about Precious' project. The meticulously kept records, the curricula used to teach the children basic education. I will even admit to feeling a huge sigh of relief as JD passed to me a book that explains good touch, bad touch and how an adult should never touch their body in ways that make them uncomfortable. I knew what they were teaching would help these kids. 

Some of the curricula used by Compassion International

The project directors had a very neat office and every single photo of every single child enrolled into the program displayed on a bulletin board. It was neat to know they knew them all by name. Knew their neighborhoods, their families, their needs. We asked about children who had been sponsored because of Precious and they pulled out a list of names and pointed them out to us.

Pictures of the Compassion children. They did not even have to look for a child when we asked about one, they knew the faces and where they were by heart

When we asked about Michelle, their faces broke into smiles. Ear to ear. They had Precious' file waiting for us and showed us every single letter Michelle and her family had sent to this little girl and every letter she had sent to them. They had record of every cent spent on her and how it was spent, records of her being enrolled into the medical program, records of her schooling successes and her family life, illnesses... you name it, it was in this file.

Us pouring over Precious' file

 It was very amazing to find out that this particular project won the award for best project in Ghana the previous year. And they were so excited to tell us about it.

Samuel (on the right) was out gracious host for the visits to the compassion centers. It was a pleasure and joy to get to know him a bit. Next to him is his best friend.

 When we got to Precious' school we were greeted by so many beautiful, happy, sweet children.

Eventually we found one of the most beautiful kids I had ever seen with her little black backpack on her back bouncing around with her friends.

Be Still, My Heart- Photo Credit: JD Richardson

 We got to meet Precious and 3 other children who have been sponsored through the Precious connection.

Prince, Precious, Kenneth (all sponsored through the Precious Connection)

We also got to see where Precious goes to school and meet her lovely family.

Precious and her family- Photo Credit: JD Richardson

I got the very awesome and humbling honor to present Precious and her family with many of the gifts that Michelle chose for her and her family. JD did most of the talking because well, I don't really like to lead the talking and she is pretty flawless at it. But I did get to stroke sweet faces and hand out prized possessions to their family. Precious LOVED the doll that her American sister picked out for her. And Precious' little brother, Prince, was jumping out of his shoes with anticipation over the soccer ball that awaited him.

Prince receiving his soccer ball. Photo credit: JD Richardson.

. There were a few children who hadn't yet been sponsored in Precious' project. 8 to be exact. Well, 7... because we brought news that someone had sponsored Emmanuel. The project did not even know yet that he'd been sponsor and we already had gifts for him and a message from his sponsor that he was very loved. We asked where he was when we visited the offices and they told us that he was in the hospital with malaria and that we could go see him if we wanted. We did and it was very good to see him doing well, he was even released to go home and we dropped him off in his neighborhood. But what is so awesome about Compassion is that when you are enrolled into the program, you get all the benefits of a sponsored child. Emmanuel hadn't been sponsored yet but he DID have national health insurance since he was enrolled in the program. And was able to get the medical care he needed when he was quite sick.

It was an awesome experience to visit the compassion projects! I can wholeheartedly say that Compassion is transparent and honest in how they run their organization. I can say the children who are in the program are healthy and enrolled in school and doing well. I can say that a sponsorship doesn't just help a child but it helps the entire community. I can tell you that if you sponsor a child you will gain a new family that you will love and connect with (if you put the work into building those relationships of course). You will be alerted to the childs successes and their communities successes. You will be invested in a life and in a community and it is a beautiful thing to witness.

So please, if you have ever thought about sponsoring a child go to Compassion's website and look for a child who speaks to your heart. If you want to be a part of The Precious Connection, get in touch with Michelle and she can help you find a child in project GH220 who needs a sponsor.

And trust me when I say that I have seen it with my own eyes and it isn't just about one child. As if that weren't enough (because we all know it is) but it is about equipping communities.

Unexpected Lessons

I saw the mailman's shadow pass by my window today after lunch. The boys were already well into dreamland and the mail was quite a bit earlier than normal. I gimped over to the door, unlocked it and then got the mail and saw a letter from the local hospital. I knew right then it would be my statement from surgery. I slowly opened it up wondering how much my surgery cost after all was said and done. I had no clue how to even estimate the cost. I knew my MRI was nearly $5000 so I figured it would be rather expensive. But when I opened the envelope, I was blown away. $35,056. SHOCK. Not because I have to pay it. Thankfully I have insurance and this was a statement and not a bill. SHOCK at how this surgery costs more than my husband makes in a year (no drs visits, pt, xrays, mris figured in).

But more than that, pure and total SHOCK that repairing my knee costs more than building a school in Ghana. Putting metal and cadaver and stitches in my knee to help me have several more years of an active lifestyle is worth more in the US than education in Ghana. I am spoiled. I had a $35,000 surgery simply to improve the quality of my life. And I am now thinking about how it makes me even more determined to raise the $30,000 needed to build a new classroom unit at The Village of Life. It has impact. My surgery lasts as long as I last. It helps only me but I can be part of something much bigger. Something that has far greater impact on the world. And WE can help educate lots of children who will turn into future teachers, and doctors, and nurses, and advocates, and leaders of their communities. We can take kids OUT of slavery and put them into a loving home where they receive family and education. This $30,000 that we raise... no one will be able to look at the statement and wonder why on earth money was wasted on something so temporary. No one will feel like money was squandered away out of selfishness. We can look at that school and know that our money is turning into something beautiful... strong, independent, educated and loved children and teens who turn into amazing adults who are empowered to succeed.

For less than my ACL revision, we can build a school and help rescue more children from child trafficking... it just increases the value for me of what we are doing. God is using everything to teach me lately... hard truths sometimes but motivating too.

Why go to Ghana?

I think everyone is interested in the intentions of someone they are helping with prayer, money, time or supplies so that is the first thing I want to do... share my intentions.

A couple of months ago I started praying fervently for God to ignite a passion in me. I was so... soul sad. I don't know how else to explain it. I had hurt my knee and felt pretty depressed and upset about it. I felt like there was no part of me that wasn't somehow attached to my kids or husband. And I just felt like the world was bigger than what I was experiencing. There was more that I could do to make an impact on the world. More that I felt God wanted me to do. So I prayed and prayed for God to give me an idea of what my passion is. I had long known I had a passion for children. I had a passion for abused and abandoned children. I had a passion for ending human rights violations. I had LONG known that. But what I didn't know was how I was being called to use those passions. So over years of just doing my thing with my family I started to feel lost. Like a big part of the me that I liked was buried. The passionate, motivated parts. The flame of those passions had definitely started to burn dimly. The things that make me unique were being buried by family and responsibilities. And I didn't want to feel like I was just floating through life any longer. I wanted to look back when my kids were grown and see that I made an impact on more than just my immediate family. And I definitely wanted to be an example to my children of a woman who loves God first and loves others passionately. And I prayed. "God, what is it that I need to be doing right now? What is it that is waiting for me to be absolutely passionate about? I need to see it and experience it." And for a while the still small voice seemed even quieter than normal.

Until... I saw JD's post about going to Kete-Krachi. When I read it, I immediately knew that this was what God wanted me to be passionate about. These children were who I needed to see and experience and write about. The demons from my past and my background with children... they had all prepared me for what was being revealed to me. I am not sure how else to explain it really. I often struggle with knowing what exactly God wants us to be doing. But I felt SO drawn to it. But I of course hesitated and thought of the 900 ways I would be forced out of this opportunity. So I asked my husband about it a couple days after I read the entry JD posted and he said... I could go. What? Wait a minute, he was supposed to be difficult to convince. Then I went to my counselor and asked her about it and she said... "I think its a great idea. It will be difficult on you in many ways but you should go". Huh? I thought for sure she would tell me I wasn't ready for it. She didn't, he didn't. I was going. And I have been running full speed with that passion ever since. The passion to love children and comfort them. The passion to free children from slavery. The passion to share Jesus with them so they can fully experience redemption.

So that in a nut shell is why I am going. God answered my prayer with Ghana. And I am going to follow that passion full speed and full heart.

~Debra

An Introduction: The Trip

This is the initial blog post written by my dear friend JD that compelled me to join their efforts. This is a basic run down of what we will be doing but I am not the author of this post.

We're going to Africa in November of 2011.

And we're not going alone. We’d like you to join us. 

Yes, you.

All of you.

You -- the one who has always wanted to go to Africa. We need you.
And you -- feeling as though you can't afford to come to Africa. There's also room for you.

Or you -- the one who has never wanted to go to Africa. We need you too.

Why are we bringing you with us?

To introduce to you a beautiful story of hope rising out of Africa, a story that you are being invited into and won’t want to miss.

Welcome to Lake Volta, located in eastern Ghana, West Africa.

Hope begins on Lake Volta, but at first glance, the hope is hard to see. Lake Volta is home to a very lucrative fishing industry, but the fishing industry has a very dark and dangerous side.

There are no employees in the Lake Volta fishing industry. 

Only slave masters, and slaves.

Child slaves.

With false promises of an education and a future, something so many families feel no hope of reaching in Ghana, children as young as 3 or 4 years old are unwittingly sold by their parents to cunning slave masters, and then forced to work under cruel and inhumane conditions.

Imagine poverty so desperate that selling your child might be the only choice you feel you have? 

Which of your children would you sell in hopes of giving them a future?

The boys are used as slaves in the fishing industry, their childhood vanishing as they spend
their days trapped on the lake, endlessly fishing, hauling and mending nets, and diving to the bottom of the lake when nets become tangled. If they refuse, the slave masters may chose not to beat them, but instead force the other child slaves to beat them into submission. 

The visible scars they bear are horrific; one can barely fathom the seemingly invisible scars that shred the heart of these precious children. It only takes a look into their eyes, and the scars on their souls can be seen.

The days are long and dangerous. Working up to 18 hours a day, sometimes getting one meal, sometimes not… these young boys are not only facing cruelty, hunger and exhaustion, but environmental dangers such as drowning, crocodiles and electric eels. Children who die are buried by their fellow child slaves on the shores of the Lake Volta islands.

Even though it’s the young boys who are kept as child slaves in the fishing industry, young girls aren’t spared. The girls are initially used as slave servants for the slave masters’ families.The slave master’s own children go to school while the slave children are denied an education as they are made to do all the domestic labor as well as cleaning and preparing the fish caught that day. The work is literally endless. 

As they get older, the girls’ future becomes even more desperate. The girls are eventually used as sex slaves, often ending up pregnant before reaching their teenage years.

Escapes are rare. These islands are isolated, with few opportunities for the children to flee. Fear and terror is enough to keep them from attempting an escape.

While it would seem as though these children have lost all hope, God knows each of them by name, and so does the man God has sent to rescue them.

His name is George Achibra Sr, a modern day Moses living on the shores of Lake Volta in Ghana. George has dedicated his life to negotiating for the release of these child slaves and has rescued several hundred of these children from slavery on Lake Volta. One by one.

George demonstrates a capacity to love that is rare, refreshing, and breathtakingly beautiful. I see evidence of Jesus in his heart not only in how he devotes his life to these children, but also in the way he has compassion and concern for the slave masters.It’s not enough to rescue the children peacefully and respectfully, George loves God enough to provide alternate means for the slave masters to earn incomes that do not rely on these children. His goal is not only to give the children a better future; he strives to do the same for the men who enslave them.He builds a relationship with them, treats them with respect, and works hard to change their future and their hearts.

Does that not have the fingerprints of God all over it?

Our trip to Africa will be in support of George and his team atPACODEP. We will serve alongside of him while he visits the child slaves on the islands of Lake Volta. This will allow us to gain a better understanding of their situation, which will help us as we work with the rescued children on the mainland and share/write their stories. God willing, we will also witness first hand the rescue of any children released while we are in Ghana.

On the mainland, we will work alongside of George and his team at the Village of Life, the campus built to accommodate the children who have been rescued. Love will be poured onto these children as they adjust to their new freedom and learn to read and write, learn the basics of hygiene, get proper nutrition and care… even as they learn to play. 

There is no need too small to fill,

and one need larger than the others.

George’s success in rescuing these precious children poses a challenge. The current three-classroom unit is at max capacity, and without more space, George’s team cannot accommodate and rehabilitate more rescued children. They currently have 51 children living at the Village of Life, and the construction of a new classroom unit would enable them to bring in more children from the islands of Lake Volta.

Education is crucial at the Village of Life. The children’s rehabilitation and future depend on it… breaking the cycle of poverty and hopelessness depends on it…

...and George’s success depends on us.

In America, it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a school. In Ghana, it’s considerably less. The cost of a three-classroom unit for the Village of Life is $30,000.

$30,000 that George does not have.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have $30,000. It's likely the neither of us have $30,000. So, to you and I, building the school may seem like an insurmountable challenge. What matters is that we serve a God for Whom nothing is impossible, a God who has gathered us together to make a difference for these children.

Alone, we can't. Together, we can.

We will be spending the next 7 months working hard to raise the necessary funds for our trip expenses, the school construction, as well as collecting school and educational supplies, malaria nets, toys and treats for the children. Every penny counts, every bake sale and yard sale important, every donation precious and life changing. It may seem overwhelming through the world’s eyes, but if enough of us gather generously in His name, we CAN succeed in providing this gift to the children of Lake Volta.

We need people like George, who stand in the gap for these children… and George and these children need us to stand in the gap too.

Will you be the answer to this child's prayers?

Your prayers and your support are greatly needed and appreciated.

To support this project, click here:

For more information please contactAfrica@BeyondMeasure.me

Stay tuned for information on the "Paint Tia Pink Project" fundraiser...

For more information on George’s team, visit PACODEP’s website http://pacodep.com/index.php

NY Times articles on the Lake Volta slavery:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/africa/29ghana.html?_r=1

Unforgettable video of the children of Lake Volta and the work that George and his team have devoted their lives to:http://www.touchalifekids.org/lake-volta-video