CYLers Donate to Light for Children

December 10, 2007

Dear CYL Participants and Facilitators,

It is with great pleasure that I write you this update. This past weekend, I visited an organization in Kumasi, Ghana called Light for Children. Light for Children is a not-for-profit organization that provides education about HIV/AIDS as well as providing care and support for HIV positive orphans and vulnerable children.

The profits from your Co-operative Snack Shacks that you, as members, voted for me to donate to an HIV/AIDS cause in Ghana on your behalf is going to help to support one such child for a year ($630 US). I had the privilege of meeting and visiting with three children that are sponsored through Light for Children. I would like to tell you about these encounters.

Yaw Otchere Baffour, Executive Director of Light for Children accepts the donation brought by Sonja Carrière on behalf of the CYL Participants

The first house I visited was Justin’s. Justin is 9 years old and HIV positive. He is a HUGE football (soccer) fan and wants nothing more in the world than a Michael Essien (who plays for Ghana’s Blackstars) football jersey. With a huge smile he spoke of football and decided it would be fun to take my sunglasses off my head, put them on his face, and walk around posing. One cool dude! He was a riot. His grandmother is his caretaker because Justin is an orphan. As Mike Owusu, a Light for Children affiliate, explained, Justin is a burden to his grandmother because she already has a number of children to care for. The cost of his medication and food to ensure he gains the proper nutrition he needs to remain healthy are too expensive for her to afford. If it were not for Justin’s Light for Children sponsor, this young boy would not be receiving the medicine that will ultimately prolong his life.

Left: Justin wearing my shades
Right: Justin and some friends making sure they're in the picture!

The second house I visited was Kwadwo's. Kadwo (pronounced Kwajo) is 6 years old and HIV positive. He is also an orphan. His caretaker is a young woman in her early twenties. She invited us into her yard, provided us seats, and went to collect Kwadwo and his brother's report cards as well as pictures of Kwadwo's a year ago prior to his treatment. The photographs were shocking. You would never guess that a year ago this healthy, active boy was only skin and bones. He had no meat on him at all. Even his buttocks were caved in. It was so sad. Since then, he has been sponsored and his health has improved drastically. He is doing okay in school and is full of energy. It is unreal how this boy's life has turned around in the course of a year.

The third house I visited was Mabel and Mavis'. These two twin 9 year old girls are also HIV positive and orphans. As with Justin, their grandmother is their caretaker. She is a strong woman with 18 grandchildren, of whom I had the privilege of meeting about 12. They excitedly gathered around us as we handed out toffees (candy) and then they proceeded to have a dance party in their grandmother's living room. Seeing such a huge family all living in close quarters, it is evident that there is no way the grandmother could adequately provide these girls with antiretroviral drugs or proper nutrition. Without the help of their Light for Children sponsor, these two girls would not be the vibrant, healthy beings they are today.

The money that you donated from your Snack Shack profits has been donated on your behalf to Light for Children to support a child like those I have told you about above for a year. It will pay for their antiretroviral medication, proper nutrition, and for their school fees. I will soon have the details from the Founder and Executive Director of Light for Children about the child you have sponsored. Once I get it, I will send it your way. But I wanted you to know that you have offered a child a wonderful gift this holiday season: that of a healthy life.

Congratulations. You should be very proud of your donation!
For more information about Light for Children, visit www.lightforchildren.com.

Have a wonderful holiday season full of love, laughter, and cheer.
Warm Fuzzies,

Sonja Carrière
Former CYL Coordinator

How Sports Can Bring a Nation Together

Football, also known as soccer in North America, seems to be the world's sport. Only North America, Australia, and New Zealand have yet to jump on the football fever band wagon. As an ice hockey enthusiast in Canada, I find myself deprived of the exhiliration, camaraderie, and competition that takes over when the hockey season begins. With the warm weather in Ghana and absence of ice, I have decided that I may as well embrace the local sport and fill the sports void in my life.

With the African Nations Cup coming to Ghana in January 2008, there is not a better time to become familiar with this sport! So far, I have been fortunate enough to see a few games on television, but even with the Ghanaians shouting every goal or near goal, nothing compares to the Four Nations Cup game that I got to attend.

November 18th at 5pm, Ghana took on Togo in the tournament. A group of friends bought tickets to attend the event. Tickets were 5 Ghana cedis for the upper deck (roughly 6 Canadian dollars), 10 Ghana cedis for the lower deck, or 50 Ghana cedis for the VIP seats which included entry into the locker rooms to mingle with Ghana's Black Stars players. We opted for the lower deck seats and could not believe how close we were! In row G, we found ourselves 7 rows from the field. Little did we know that the glass protecting fans from the ball would be so difficult to see through with the sun shining! We quickly learned that the seats would not fill up and moved a little higher so that we could see above the glass.

The atmosphere in the stadium was incredible. Ghana colours were proudly displayed in the form of jerseys, flags, hats, body paint, etc.. Fans were chanting the soccer theme with pride and enthusiasm. As I know little about the sport, I learned quickly by following the sounds in the stands when there was a goal, when there was a near miss, and when the crowd were dissatisfied with the referee's call. Ghana's team was evidently superior to Togo's and won the game easily with 2 goals to none.

They went on a few nights later to defeat Benin for first place in the tournament with a 4-0 win. We were staying in a guest house since we were travelling for work and I managed to catch the end of the game with the staff of the guest house. I could certainly sympathize with the zest and enlightenment that accompanied their team's win as I experienced when my team, the Ottawa Senators, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals the previous season. This small tournament gave me a glimpse into what Ghana will be like during the African Cup of Nations. It made me realize that sports worldwide share the same phenomenon: the fans want something to believe in and want to be a part of celebrating a win. What could be more satisfying than that? I cannot wait to see how Ghana does and will certainly be among those decked out in red, yellow, and green. Hopefully celebrating in the streets at the tournaments' end.

Student Empowerment: Successes of Youth Savings Clubs in Ghanaian Schools

Since 1999, the Ghana Co-operative Credit Union Association (CUA) Ltd. has hosted a Youth Savings Programme with the goal of "inculcating the habit of savings into the youth". The credit unions' apex organization saw the need to educate youth about saving, and the credit union system as a whole, to ensure a succession plan was in place for the credit union sector.

CUA Management also saw the need to educate their members and the youth in the credit unions' communities about healthy living so that members were strong and healthy enough to enjoy their savings. They therefore began HIV/AIDS awareness sessions that both educated members and youth alike on this and other sexually transmitted diseases. This education grew to include peer education and awareness training on stigma and discrimination as well as the need for behaviour change to reduce the increasing prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Ghana.

This past month, November 2007, the Youth Savings and HIV/AIDS Department at CUA has been to several of the countries' regions to speak to secondary students about the importance of saving and about current prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS in Ghana and the need to change their behaviour towards this and other STIs as well as towards those living with HIV/AIDS. Each presentation has followed the same format: Ms. Gabianu, the HIV/AIDS Education Co-ordinator at CUA, gives a brief history about the Youth Savings Programme and touches briefly on the reason CUA felt the need to put the programme into place; then I, the Youth Savings Intern, speak about the importance of practicing the habit of savings; finally, Maya Nakajima, the HIV/AIDS Education Intern, gives the students current statistics about the increasing prevelance rate of HIV/AIDS (from 2.7% in 2005 to 3.2% in 2006) in Ghana and the fact that youth aged 15-24 years make up 30% of those infected and those under 35 years of age make up 88%.

Each of our talks seem to be received with great enthusiasm on the part of the students. They cheer when we say our names, which to them are very exotic. They also cheer loudly when we incorporate Twi, the local language, into the presentation. It is all very exciting for the students as well as for us since we are so well received, but for me the most exciting part about these visits is learning about the students who have really made an effort to save the little that they do not need to get by in their day to day lives and have truly made a difference for themselves.

These student success stories come in various forms. There are those who have managed to pay their school fees and eliminated the need for administration to send them home to fetch it from their parents. There are those who have saved up enough to start up a small business during or after their secondary schooling. There are those who have paid for admission forms to post secondary institutions to continue their education. And then there are the few rare cases where students went above and beyond, either due to circumstance or due to a keen eye for a great opportunity.

The beauty of this programme is that it helps students to prepare for the future while putting ownership on them that the future is theirs and no one else's responsibility. In my speech to students about the importance of saving, I tell them about one of the students who used his saving to support his family in an unfortunate circumstance. One day, this student's family home burned to the ground. They had absolutely nothing left, no funds, nothing. It is very different here in Ghana than in North America. People often do not have enough income to warrant depositing their money in the bank or a credit union. Unfortunately, it is not a choice they make as they do not have the minimum savings required to maintain an open bank account. Therefore this family found themselves without any lodging, food, or money. The student used his personal savings to support his family for a week until they could figure things out. Had he not been a part of the youth savings programme, things may have been much more dismal for his family.

Another student set her mother up for success by using her savings to purchase a deep freezer for her. With this deep freezer, her mother managed to start up a small business and therefore generated enough income to pay her daughter's and other children's school fees.

There are many headmasters, headmistresses, teachers, and even students who are skeptical about the Youth Savings Clubs (YSCs) operating within 37 of Ghana's secondary schools and training colleges. They do not understand how individuals who can barely support themselves as it is can manage to save. But by putting away a tiny fraction of their pocket, lunch, or transportation money that they can manage to forget about and do without, students in Ghana are setting up a slush fund for themselves and creating a brighter future while learning about budgeting.