This month, Light for Children was pleased to host a much larger group of volunteers than is usual for February.

Mette Nielsen and Andreas Madsen, both of Denmark, arrived early in February and are working with the Street Children Project, including both the preschool crèche and the drop-in center for street youth. Both will be staying for 3 months. Mette travelled to the Northern Region with the nuns in charge of the Project, to visit villages where the families of some of the children live. Every year the sisters travel to this region to work on reuniting street children with their families.

Emilie Lund, also of Denmark, arrived in early February and is volunteering at the Mampong Babies’ Home for 4 weeks. Sarali Lindquist of Sweden arrived at the beginning of the month, and is presenting Preventive Child Sexual Abuse workshops in schools in the villages around Mampong and Nsuta. She is working with Emmanuel Kwarteng and will be in Ghana until the end of April.

American volunteers Grey Gondella and Cori Brown worked on cataloguing all the books that have been donated to the Education Center’s library. These volunteers also taught English at the Future Leaders School in Atonsu.

A group of 3 student interns from KNUST’s social work department worked with Light for Children, under the direction of Justice Appau, to present the Preventive Child Sexual Abuse workshops in primary and JHS schools around the university. As interns, they also were actively involved in contacting the schools and scheduling the visits. This partnership between KNUST and Light for Children will continue in March with a new group of interns.

Lisa Parsons developed a program to teach primary and JHS students (and their teachers) about the importance of proper hand washing to prevent illness. Ally Root, a former volunteer with Light for Children, assisted by designing pictures and signs to be used with the presentation. Nada Khayyat of Saudi Arabia volunteered for 3 weeks with Light for Children. She participated in the hand washing workshops in the schools, as well as joining the KNUST interns in presenting the Preventive Child Sexual Abuse workshops.

Mike Owusu, Yaw Otchere, Rebecca Kuntz, and Lisa Parsons held a day-long meeting to discuss administrative issues with Light for Children. They agreed to make changes to the web site, began planning for the busy summer months, and discussed the grand opening of the Education Center (expected to occur sometime in May.)

Mike also attended the Grand Opening of a preschool and crèche started by the Street Children Project. This crèche will serve both street children and neighbouring families.

Mike and Rebecca travelled to Mampong to facilitate the admission of infant twins from Yeji to the Mampong Babies’ Home. Their mother has died, leaving six children behind, and the family has been struggling to care for the babies.