Tuesday 15 June 2010

Good Work in Ghana


This week, we thought we would share with you some crafty charitable news.

Crafty Capers were approached before Christmas by Andrea Ku, who was going to Ghana for a month over Christmas to help in a children's orphanage. She wanted to take some crafty items with her for the kids to make.

We were delighted to supply crown making supplies (even if they were worn upside down!) and gingerbread men bookmark kits for the kids to make and we understand from Andrea that these were a huge success and very popular with the kids.

The orphanage is in Bawjiase, the Central Region of Ghana. It was founded by a local Pastor and his wife who live there with the children. There are, on average, 35 children at the orphanage.

They are there for various reasons, such as their families are unable to support them, parents are very ill or have passed away or the children themselves were found in villages when they were very young.

The orphanage has no running water and the children sleep in 2 very crowded rooms which is not good if one of them is ill. Currently, the lease is about to expire on the land the orphanage is based so money is being raised to continue with a new building. This is almost half way through construction and is looking good so far!

Giving up her home comforts for Christmas and sponsoring herself to get there once wasn't enough for Andrea. She is just about to return to the same orphanage for another period to help again. This time though, Andrea is chaperoning four girls from a school in Liverpool who also want to help in the orphanage. They will be teaching the kids English and mathematics as well as creating and making things on a World Cup theme - there's no getting away from it!

How could we refuse a request to help again?

This time the kids will all be making a World Cup five a side football team in our crafty bugs, all in the colours of the Ghana team strip. Andrea's hoping to source (i.e. have donated!) some portable radios, so that the kids can listen to some of the matches, hoping that Ghana will still be in the tournament then. If you know anyone that could help with this before she leaves at the beginning of July, please email her at andreaku@hotmail.com

Obviously, they can't just have one team, so they will each also be making a five a side football team in the England colours as well!


In addition to the craft goods that we are donating, Andrea would also be delighted to receive any additional craft kits and supplies as they are going to endeavour to set up a craft station in the orphanage for future use. If you would like to help you can either contact us at info@craftycapers.co.uk or Andrea at the email address above.

We hope that you will agree that this is a really worthwhile venture and a really direct way to make a difference to the quality of these kids lives.


· Orphanage website: http://www.ghanaorphanage.org/
· Contact: Andrea Ku andreaku@hotmail.com
· Blog: www.offexploring.com/andreaku (it has the details of Andrea's trip from last year)

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