cape coast, ghana Fundraising 2010
Donate to the Jah Own Foundation now!
So I am going to Ghana in July....
....And this is another webpage asking you to empty your pockets. Rather bad timing given the global financial situation AND pretty cheeky given that the little youth organisation in Cape Coast, Ghana so close to my heart is not official enough to merit a Justgiving page.
So I have this one instead. And it looks cooler. A quick synopsis of this page is: 1) I am going to Ghana in July to visit the youths in Cape Coast I have helped over the last few years; 2) I have lots of things I want to do; 3) I am not a banker, nor a civil servant; 4) Therefore I need a bit of help raising dollars; 5) Your dollars; 6) I am running the Race for Life on 10th July in Hammersmith as a token of my advanced gratitude; 7) You can help us very easily - please click on the Donate icon!
My target is to have raised £500 over the next 5 weeks. That's about 150 Starbucks lattes. Will you help?
The story so far.....
As lots of you will know, I attended university in Ghana thanks to the support of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Fund.Inevitably I got quite involved in the local scene, and did lots of work with a group of the youths in downtown Cape Coast. Our activities came in a number of guises (the Future for the Youth music competition, and HIV/AIDS education events, the May Day Environmental Jam, numerous beach and town clean-ups). Some of you may have donated your ££ to one of these events. In this time we formed the Jah Own Foundation, comprised of and run by over 30 youths in the town (and me, token obronyi) in order to provide a support base for members and also encourage other young people to take responsibility for making Cape Coast a 'nice' environment. The idea is pretty simple: do work within your community, be nice to one another, try and make a living. This is not 'religion', nor is it 'development'. It is me, some people I care about, and helping them build a decent future. These guys do not have an official website, a myspace page, a Facebook page. Nor do we Twitter. We do have a couple of roadside shack-shops, which I would love to support a bit more than I currently do. I would like to help the youths running the shop to earn a predictable, decent wage so that they can make financial plans for the shops and look at where they can invest. I would like to provide them with some basic accountancy training with students at the University of Cape Coast. I would also like to help the youths put in place a system for the Jah Own Foundation to help even younger people, who will probably find it hard to find any kind of job, to train in woodwork, arts and crafts, and in the growing of basic crops.
We also have a gym, kindly donated by David Dennison at Africa Trust Networks. I would like to find a permanent (covered) space for the gym, so that it can be used communally for a small contribution which would then be re-invested.
I hope that is a bit clear and not too fuzzy. I know people like giving their hard-earned cash to official charities with large bureaucracies. If you are one of those people, the Jah Own Foundation is probably not your kind of gig.
I can promise you that your donation will buy actual materials and will be used to invest in actual training to do actual things. I do not like wasting time, and I do not liked wasting money. I can promise that I will do neither in Ghana. So: please please donate and I can bombard you with more photos.
The photo (left) is of me with one of our shops selling craftwork. I look a bit fat and am wearing tye-dye. Surely the comedy value of this image is worth a few pennies. Mepowkyew (please). Medawoase (thankyou!!)
This is me and one of the shops. I look a bit fat and I am wearing tye-dye. Hopefully the comedy value of this photo will encourage you to donate a little bit of dollar. Mepawokyew (please). x
Who am I?
I do not know. I need to go to Ghana to find myself.
HA! Only joking.
I am Emma. I work as a researcher on governance and social development (don't worry if you do not know what that really pertains to). I like Africa, but hopefully not in an irritating way.
