taking up some successful tasks
Working in a rural area of my country, Ghana for six years and witnessing how hard life is for the people in the area touched my heart to help the needy. I got to feel their hardship as majority of them could not afford to spend $1 on food a day. The desire to help the vulnerable got me to take up tasks some of which were successful and others still in course.
My first offer was when I had to give almost all of the money I had on me, one morning on my way to work, to a teenage school girl. She needed money to pay her exam fees to enable her take part in her final exams. I was moved by the tears in her eyes to sort out her problem. The joy and gratitude I saw in her after giving her more than she needed brought fulfilment in my heart. I did not met her again until recently when I saw her in a senior high school uniform from afar. This got me to join groups on social media to offer relief to the less privileged. I know you will wonder why someone who says she possesses leadership skills could not start one on her own. I wanted to join those who have already started to learn from them.
I co-founded a group called Love Extended with a friend; Rebecca Acheampong who lost her father at a younger age, making life difficult for her and her siblings. She approached me to discuss her plans. I came up with a Mission, which is to reach out to the less privileged in deprived areas and invest in their lives and Vision is to have Ghana as an enviable country in Africa with the best human resource. Our first project was to raise funds for an orphanage in Ningo-Prampram; a deprived area in the capital of Ghana. The idea of fund raising was a very big challenge since we were new and lack the trust of people. As the co-leader of this initiative and having known some media personalities, I approached them to give us the platform to air our project in order to gain the trust and confidence of Ghanaians. I could not get their attention so that failed. With the zeal to help the kids, I suggested we win individual trust through effective communication on social media platforms likeWhatsApp and Facebook. Helping them understand the vision and mission of the foundation and how importanttheir individual contributions are to achieving our key objectives. The idea was quite successful as we had many young fellows like us who shared the same vision to join us. We managed toraise 60% of the targeted funds and some few clothes, toys, books and other learning aids. We also taught kids to read and write. We did constant follow ups and helped the kids to pick up reading and maths. As of now some of the kids could read very well and are doing great academically and we continue to keep in touch with them.
I joined another group; Chosen Generation also founded by another friend called Edward Ambrose. Before I joined the group, they had made some donations to an old lady who could not move about due pains in her limbs. I presented them with my mission and vision for the foundation, which was the same as Love Extended. The idea was to have the two groups join forces to have the vision be a success. The groupmade similar donations like Love Extended. Our next big project, which I suggested was to buy 100 wheelchairs for clinics in some rural areas. Again, funding was another major challenge as wheelchairs were quite expensive. In order to encourage people to donate, I suggested group members contribute some money so that we could present the money before some organization to encourage them to support us. I failed as a leader as I could not follow up on the funds raised and a member who was keeping the money got defrauded by a firm abroad. The firm was providing us with the wheelchairs at a discount of 30%. I took responsibility for every thing. Though I was daring, I could not manage the risk of dealing with an unknown person over the Internet effectively. I still urged the group not to give up the cause to help the needy but make the best use of every opportunity and build on our mistakes. Another challenge was having people exiting the group. I devoted to speaking with them individually and ensure them that proper care and accounts will be made on the next move. I was able to get a few to come back but some I could not convince. As I write the project is still soliciting for funds and I haven't given up on it.
One other move I made was in my institution; Social Security and National Insurance Trust(SSNIT), encouraging the ladies club of the institution to help in a big project. This was an initiative of a Multimedia Journalist who upon research decided to raise funds to build a bigger maternity Centre for Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi; Ghana. One morning preparing for work, I heard the gentleman give a heart-breaking story of how women lose their lives and babies during labour. The maternity facility available was too small to cater for the number of women that come for child delivery in a day. His aim was to reduce the death rate drastically. Upon reaching work I wrote to the president of the SSNIT Ladies' Club to help support such a good cause. Initially I was sceptical about the response I might get, but I thought it would be better to make a move and fail than failing to make the move. I also thought it was good helping others achieve their dream of reaching out to the vulnerable. The president was so delighted to help. Memos were sent to various branches and departments to contribute towards it and SSNIT gave a cheque of 20,000.00 GH cedis out of the 10,000,000.00 GH cedis needed.
I may have not started the initiative but bringing to the attention of SSNIT got them to contribute.
I believe I possess the quality of gaining trust and confidence of the right contacts to push for a good cause. I see myself as a very ambitious and daring person who believes in investing in the human resource be education, health orother skills for an achievable economic development.
