The girls singing 'Welcome'

On Wednesday, November 23^rd, guests gathered at the historic Vogue Theatre which provided the ideal setting in which to celebrate the finale of the For Our Daughters Tour. The guests of honour included four young speakers from Ghana – Beatrice, Gladys, Fayudatu and Faiza, as well as Shannen O’Brian, the founder of Create Change, the organization which helped faciliate the girls’ high school education. The girls captivated the audience with their incredible and heartwarming stories and wowed all who were present with songs from their homeland. Isabel Prosper got up on stage and informed all of Shannen’s latest initiative, Karma Exchange, and spoke of unique opportunities for Vancouverites to “shop with heart.”

In addition, two Canadian bands, the Reckoners and the Boom Booms rocked the house. The Reckoners opened, offering beautifully romantic melodies. The Boom Booms, recent 2^nd place winners of the Peak Performance Project, upped the tempo with their unique blend of latin, soul, funk, rock and reggae. Just as they promised, their music had nearly everyone out of their seats and dancing along. The four young ladies from Ghana even joined them on stage, demonstrating that their talents don’t just stop at singing.

Guests offered extremely generous donations to the Create Change Foundation, all of which will go toward more education projects in Northern Ghana. It is no doubt that in the eyes of all who were present, the night was a complete success, leaving many with a new awareness of the changes we can make from right here in Vancouver.

Earlier this month, a staggering two hundred community members came out to dig trenches for a water pipe project. Now completed, the inlayed pipe system delivers clean, safe water to the four thousand people who live within the precincts of Damankunyili village. After two days of arduous digging and another two to install the pipes, community members were able to use the water.

Luckily for Damankunyili, we worked with a private contractor to supply and implement the project, speeding up the process considerably. Conversely, as with the piping project in Dungu, Government-led initiatives are often delayed with ample red-tape concerns. Quotes and materials are delivered at a snails pace, if at all.

Residents of Damankunyili were overjoyed when the water started flowing from the pipes for the first time.  This joyful welcoming underscores the tenuous and time consuming practices that most in the developing world must undertake to retrieve water from oft’ times less than potable sources.  The water gushing from these pipes travels from and is purified by a treatment plant operated by Ghana Water Company.

Depending on geographical and economic contexts, other methods such as boreholes and wells are used to procure a village with clean water. Boreholes are good because the ground water is usually cleaner and safer than the open water they fetch from ponds and such, but they are often dry because of the lack of ground water.  Therefore the pipes were a suitable match for Damankunyili due to their proximity to a treatment facility and other factors.  We are delighted to know that some modest funding combined with a community’s passion has resulted in clean water for all for the foreseeable future.

Exactly one year ago Creating Change provided Kula Primary School with much needed teaching and learning materials. This was done through our ‘Rural Education Material Project’ which aims to improve quality of education through the provision of reading and writing materials, art supplies, and sports equipment.  Kula Primary received exercise books, library books, pencils, pens, and textbooks. No more than a year later, we’re thrilled to see the effects of this project demonstrated in the students’ improved reading ability!

As Rural Schools Officer, Benedicta (Create Change staff member) holds examinations for students to evaluate their reading skills; she reported great success here. In years past, there were on average only a couple of students who qualified to graduate to Junior High. However, this year there are 8, with everyone in the 6^th grade now being able to read.

The teachers at Kula are confident that the increase in the students’ reading ability is attributed to the new books. Sadly the school doesn’t have enough furniture for all of the students to sit at a desk as you can see in these pictures; another project waiting in the wings for the future.

We extend our congratulations to these exemplary students and teachers, who are making the most of what they have to work with.

It was a festive mood at the celebration of Wayamba Primary School’s 50^th year, which followed a weeklong affair of community cleanups and communal meals that brought everyone together. On this day of the main event, students performed songs, poems, and traditional dances for the guests consisting of students, parents, community leaders and media. Girls of all ages danced in brightly colored sarongs and men beat their hand held drums before throngs of turquoise-clad school children who formed a big circle around the performers.

Create Change staff members, Shane and Benedicta were invited to the celebrations as guests on and were responsible for capturing these great shots.

Create Change has played an integral role in the recent development of the school. The building of a rainwater holding tank last year has provided students and staff with clean and convenient drinking water. This in turn allows them more time to dedicate towards learning rather than engaging in the time consuming practices of water fetching. It also decreases the presence of water-borne diseases, resulting in less time being sick and more time for school, family, and fun.

Thanks to our generous donors, Wayamba Primary School has a little more to Celebrate on this 50^th year and we thank them for inviting us along! We hope to be of continuing service to their mission to educate and uplift youth in their community.

These four high school graduates, Beatrice, Faiza, Fayudatu and Gladys, are a true inspiration to young women all over the world. At present, they have graduated high school, flown half way around the world as ambassadors for their sisters in Ghana, and are ready to take on a speaking tour in a foreign country as storytellers extraordinaire.

In addition to exploring the city, the girls have been honing their public speaking skills with the assistance of Narrative Communication’s talented Megan Sheldon. They are taking the time and care to perfect these skills since the message they wish to share is so very important:  how educating girls in developing countries can have an incredibly positive impact on the wider society. Their stories  inform us of the adversity they have overcome while engendering us with feelings of hope for the future.  The hope is that our continued support of their education will enable them to blossom into the fully empowered individuals they are meant to be.

This tour is also changing the way we view fundraising and humanitarian communication, in that the stories of those who are affected reach us directly. Storytelling and the voices of citizen journalists are going to play an increasingly important role in humanitarian work moving forward.  This tour hopes to inspire action, raise donations for those truly in need, and give the audience a fuller understanding of the problems faced by those in the developing world.

One of the projects that Create Change is currently working on in partnership with Building Walls of Wisdom, is a new school block in the community of Dungu.  The construction of this new school block started like any other construction project that we work on, with one exception: the incredible turn out of the members of the community to lend a hand with the construction.  For every construction project, the members of that community come out to help with the hard labor that is needed.  Fetching water, moving around sand and gravel, hauling around the concrete bricks: are just some of the things the members of the community assist us with.

The community of Dungu was so excited about the construction of this new school block that they organized their community members into various teams.  Each of the teams were assigned a different day to come and help, so that each day a refreshed and willing workforce came to help out the construction crew.  With all of these hard working people, the construction of the new school block has gone very quickly and smoothly thus far, and it is easy to see that this facility is going to make a very positive impact on the entire community for many years to come.

The girls have arrived and they’re ready to take on Vancouver. There’s some serious work ahead of them this November though, with a long list of speaking events, lectures and their grand finale gala on November 23^rd at the Vogue theatre. But before they get to that, one thing is in order. Must play in the ocean for the first time! As you can see in these pictures of them plashing in the water on the sunshine coast, poor Faiza got dunked into the freezing cold water. An unwelcome Canadian baptism of sorts, but seriously, oceans are exciting and are totally worth cavorting in barefoot!

I remember when I first came to BC from my landlocked hometown in Ontario. Even though it wasn’t the white sand and turquoise water that we usually associate with the Pacific, the salt laden breeze, the expansive horizons and powerful waves crashing at your feet made it a truly thrilling experience.  This is just week one for them and they have many events and sites to see yet, including the Vancouver Aquarium, Science Center and the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  What else might they enjoy?

Water fetching is a necessary but often challenging task for most communities in the developing world.  The women pictured here from Yilonaayili begin at 5am each day and will trek a 3-4 km round trip journey to collect water from this reservoir. If this seems tenuous, factor in that they do this 4-5 times a day!  During the dry season there is no water at this particular dam, requiring them to travel even farther, about a 7-8 km round trip to another reservoir which they can only do twice a day. These waters are often shared with animals and bring disease with consumption.

Seen as a woman’s duty, it occupies a large part of their day and detracts from other important things like education.  One can therefore begin to see the intimate connection between facilitating clean and proximal water solutions in villages and girls’ education.  When there is less need for women to travel far distances to collect water, and when they aren’t falling ill from water borne diseases, they can commit to a demanding school schedule and stay on track.

With the help of donations, and funding from our social enterprise Karma Exchange, we are working with communities to bring lasting clean water solutions to their schools and villages.  This can take the form of rain water harvesting tanks, pipes to transport water and boreholes to create wells. Everyone deserves clean water and most times the solutions are easier and closer at hand than one would think. Please visit our website to see which water and education projects you can align with or create your own on our site.

I remember when I was a kid that the only thing I enjoyed about going back to school in the fall was getting new school supplies.  I liked having new pencils and notepads and binders for the upcoming school year.  It seemed to dull the pain of giving up the freedom I enjoyed during the summer holidays.

School is resuming here in Ghana, and having supplies for the school year is a vital part of what Create Change does for our sponsored students.  Our students are unable to pay for their school fees, let alone the costs of all of the supplies they need for the year.  Add on top of that the fact that most of these students are in boarding schools, so they also need food supplies for the year.

Right now we have wave upon wave of our sponsored students coming to pick up their needed supplies from us.  We provide them with exercise books, as well as some food supplies to help them through the times when they can’t get enough food at school.

The common feeling among the students is relief.  Relief from the stresses of worrying about how they will get their supplies so that they can focus on their studies for the upcoming year.  Not only do these girls get to go to school, but they do so knowing that they have what they need to do well in their studies.

This past week was one of the most important in the planning stages of this speaking tour: obtaining a travel visa in order to come to Canada.  Anyone who has done any international travel before, you know that getting a visa can sometimes be tricky.

After filling out all of the documentation, and preparing for an in-person interview, the four girls took the long 14 hour bus ride to Accra to attempt to get their visas.  They were obviously nervous, but they received their visas without any issue, and are now set to come to Vancouver this fall for a wonderful opportunity to speak to a great deal of people about their lives and struggles living in Northern Ghana.

These 4 girls are a perfect representation of all of students that Create Change sponsors.  They are ready to represent their younger sisters in Ghana, and are taking the responsibility very seriously that they have been given an opportunity to help raise funds so that others can receive the same educational benefits that they have.

You can find out more of the details about the speaking tour on the website www.forourdaughters.com, and get updates from the Twitter account @fodtour.