Ghana mothers focus of Rotary service project
by Kelly Feser Eells

Kay Bliss was in Ghana, West Africa, last year as a Rotary International PolioPlus - the service organization's worldwide polio eradication program - volunteer when she got an intimate look at the good works being done by another, though vastly smaller, non-governmental service organization.
"I started thinking, 'This would be a great project'" for Rotary Club of Ojai to support.
The project is S. Aid (Street Aid for Girls/Street Girls Aid), a comprehensive social service agency based in Accra, Ghana's capital, where, for some 15,000 homeless teenagers, each day is a struggle for survival. And, for the half of these impoverished children who are girls, sexual predators and widespread incidence of rape make the struggle all the more difficult.
"You just get blown away by what it's like" for them, said Bliss, marveling at the almost-serene way with which even the most exploited girls, the ones bearing and living with their babies in the open air, face adversity.
"It's not a drug or delinquent culture; they're not hardened." She explains that, like many of Ghana's impoverished adults, young people come to Accra in search of work. Though some of the city's street children also have histories of domestic abuse, all of them come from economically deprived backgrounds. "Many of these girls were deprived of an education," (the illiteracy rate is 80 percent) as well, because their families can't afford the mandatory public school uniforms, books, or any other materials.
In addition to providing pregnant teenagers up to four months' of safe housing; parenting education, practical living skills courses, and prenatal, post-partum and neonatal health care service,; S. Aid offers daily "street corner" literacy classes. Coupled with its on-site vocational training, S. Aid's literary classes underscore the 8-year-old organization's commitment towards effecting permanent, positive change in the lives of Accra's teenage mothers.
Bliss's African hosts, who, she points out, were not only fun to "hang around with," but, like "all the people we deal with in Accra, are real movers and shakers," were equally excited by the prospect of supporting S. Aid through Rotary Club. And their enthusiasm was contagious; beginning with fellow PolioPlus program participants Alice Chesley, Gil Lowry, and Bob Davis, it wasn't long before every Ojai Rotarian, and several local citizens, as well, began rallying behind the project - a partnership between the Rotary Club of Ojai and the Rotary Club of Accra.
Local artist Kate Hoffman joked that, while she isn't "Officially in Rotary ... and I haven't yet been initiated," a lot of her friends are Rotarians. "It's an organization of people who really do get together to do good things.
Kay came back from Ghana will all these pictures of girls and their babies (taken by Montecito club member Lucinda Enderby) really pumped up to do something with them. Something, she added, that would help Rotary Club of Ojai's "Ghanaian Street Girls Committee," made up of Bliss, Davis, Anne Helson, John Higbie, and Judy Gabriel, generate some significant and much-needed revenue for S. Aid.
Hoffman describes how that 'something' resulted in her "doing 12 or 13 paintings" from the pictures over four months' time, eight of which have been reproduced as elegantly-wrought note cards available for sale at Mail Boxes, Etc., and Helson's Down Home Furnishings in the Arcade. "Anne's doing a huge amount for the project," said Hoffman, adding with characteristic modesty that she appreciates Helson's "hanging the paintings" in her shop (where they will be on display through June).
"She's also hosting a reception on May 11, from 5 to 8 p.m."
Hoffman emphasizes the fact that contributing to the project was "an all around pleasure. It was fun for me. I wouldn't have (created) this whole body of work if I hadn't been moved to do it. When you look at the photographs, these girls and their babies are so beautiful. Now I'd like to be able to go to Ghana and take my own pictures."
Forty percent of each painting's proceeds will be donated to the project. Also, $12 of every $20 dollar box of cards sold will go towards assuring the continuance, and ultimate expansion of, such vital program components as the S. Aid "grannies," who provide child care to some 600 babies and toddlers at "crèches" - day care centers - while their young mothers work.
"The grannies are really only about 35 years old on average," Bliss smiles. "It works out really well for everyone. The girls trust their babies with these women, form a bond with them. In Ghana, it's traditional for 'older' women to help the younger ones with the kids. Plus, it gives them, the 'older' women, an income."
But, as great an impact as S. Aid is making on many a Ghanaian street child's life, both its staff and its Rotary Club sponsors know that there are thousands of girls desperate for rescue. "And they only have one place, or, 'House of Refuge,' to shelter them. We'd like to raise $30-40 thousand dollars for this project. That's our goal."
Bliss reminds residents that the May 11 Ghanaian Street Girls' Committee reception is "just in time for Mother's Day."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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