In December of 2006, volunteer missionaries from Alliance For Youth Development took part in a series of field visits to several villages near its local office in Cape Coast, Ghana. The volunteers comprised of local Ghanaian Board Members of the organization (including Executive Director Elvis Donkah) and volunteers from Canada, Australia and The United States. The mission of the visits were to locate documented orphans who were living in the villages to follow up on their social, educational and nutritional welfare. All of the orphans ministered by Alliance (or AYD) are from parents who have died from HIV AIDS. These orphans usually are taken in by village elders and or other family members, although in some cases they may be shunned as outcasts, due to local beliefs about HIV AIDS.
AYD volunteers Lauren Brokate (center) and Abigail Paige (right) get an update from 15 year old Eric Ansah (left), an orphan whose parents died of HIV/AIDS
One of the towns visited during these outreach visits was Asebu, Ghana. Asebu is a typical town for this region of Africa, with little resources and largely impoverished population (see About Asebu, Ghana). In this town, volunteers were able to meet up with two teenage brothers, Eric and Isaac Ansah. Eric is 15 years of age and Isaac is 19. Both of them were living with a family friend, whom they descirbed as "an uncle", yet they were left to fend for themselves for food, clothing, and other needs. Both of them were working menial jobs for support, and had little educational background. AYD administered aid to the boys, in the form of food on this trip.
19 year old Isaac Ansah of Asebu has not attended school since he was 6, as his family could not afford the means. Since his parents died of HIV/AIDS a few years ago, he and his brother have had to fend for themselves. Isaac is unable to read or write.
As the volunteers worked with the boys, they noticed that the older brother (Isaac) was unable to read or write, and needed the help of his younger brother to write his own name on AYD update forms. This was a very sad and alarming testament to the reality of the educational situation in this region of Ghana (see Education and Literacy in Asebu). With little means of self-support, and limited skills and education, the odds are stacked against the boys, as well as thousands of other children in this impoverished region of Ghana. Alliance For Youth Development staff and volunteers decided on that day that if there was any hope of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and poor health, that some long term answer was needed for this town, and the region. Together, they decided to establish a free community library to improve literacy in the region. Thus, the project was begun.
