Ghana Education Support

UPDATE JUNE;  The van is being painted, seats have been purchased, windows installed. All should be ready to go in service by end of June. Need to finish the fundraiser asap. Various people have loaned money to the cause to get to the target. This is just the beginning of some very exciting education and empowerment projects in Sawla.UPDATE MARCH : The van has arrived and cleared customs. We are currently working on getting it prepared for use. I delivered $2800 personally to Ghana. I spent the most incredible 14 days with the people of the Savnnah Region. They really need our help and appreciate all you do.
NEW UPDATE:  The van has now been loaded on container and being sent to Ghana!  Arrival is expected end of February. I will personally bring the needed money to Rashid in Ghana.  We are looking for many small donors. Do not feel like you need to donate a large sum, $10-$20 is looked at as an awesome help, of course more is better. FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM: peterdghanatrip

Family, friends, co-workers, and others:
I am raising funds for customs duty and repairs to a van that is being sent to Sawla, Ghana, one of the most impoverished regions in Africa, from Barcelona, Spain. The recipient of the funds will be the NGO in Barcelona, Spain and Sawla, Ghana, CEHDAGHANA.ORG. The originator of CEHDA is Rashid Iddrisu, a migrant from Sawla now living in Barcelona. A detailed story of the needs are included below. I have met Rashid in Barcelona and he is one of the most inspirational people I have met in my life.  I have personally observed the way he has changed the lives of migrants through education and compassion. He is a migrant from Ghana that has dedicated unmattched energy, and wisdom to better the lives of African migrants in Europe through education, job training and cultural assilmilation. Now he is looking for ways to encourage economic and cultural development in his village to discourage the wicked migrant journey that brought him to Europe through education and empowerment of the people.  We can all aid his cause. Please take a quick look at his organizations web sites, www.cehdaghana.org  and www.wiactghana.org . In addition I will be participating in researching agriculture development projects in Sawla in the Spring of 2020 and anyone donating I will be more than happy to give you updates on the van and these projects. An instragram will be allow you to follow all the action. This will be established after February 14. Instagram  :peterdghanatrip  I will do my best to keep all informed. Any of you that know me personally, I will be more than willing to discuss this project and others. I want you all to feel a part of the project.
Cehda is staffed mostly by voluteers. This movement is very grass roots but WITH RESULTS. No donation is too small but THE LARGER THE BETTER! 

Thank you.
Peter and Cehdaghana

THE STORY


Rashid Iddrisu, an African migrant to Europe who arrived there in 2001, started an NGO to help African migrants in Barcelona as well as help young people back in Ghana to avoid having to make a decision to migrate.  The programs in Barcelona have been run on a shoestring budget with additional grants for direct benefits like food and transportation tickets provided to migrants.  The work in Ghana has been very much more difficult to fund, but this work is what will get at the underlying issues leading people to risk the dangerous journey to Europe.

 He started a CEHDA school project for kids in Sawla, Ghana, first meeting outside, and then he got a small amount of funds enabling the project to share space with a family.  Eventually they were able to construct an independent space for this project, but the new site outside of the town and the kids have to walk a distance to the school…so this discouraged some from persisting.

 Nevertheless, Rashid and his team encourage them to come…

 In 2014 one of the kids called Nurideen, a very intelligent and brilliant boy, had an accident on his way to the school and he died. 

 Rashid says, “it was a strong sad for us especially me because I could see a good future on the boy. So we decided to find ways to get a means of transport to be taking the kids from town to school for safety and as well as taking them for excursions and to do some work  for the Project.”  There is a picture of Nurideen above.

 It has been very difficult to get sponsor for a van, but last year the Town Council of Sant Vicenç del Shorts gave 4000€ to CEHDA to help.  Rashid was able with that amount of money to buy a van with engine problems and without seats inside, with the plan that it could be fixed in Ghana since labor would be cheaper there.  This year the Town Council gave some additional monies left over in their budget (4600 euros) to help ship the van to Ghana.

 Rashid still needs to raise 2500 Euros to get the van out of customs in Ghana, and then an additional 2900 Euros to get the van fixed and outfitted with seats. 

 Once functional, the van will be used to pick kids up and transport them to school, as well as to transport volunteers who will help with various projects around the Savannah region. 

 The funding needed is not huge, but it will have a huge impact for the work that Rashid and his Ghana-based NGOs do in educating kids and working with economic development projects in the region.  The two NGOs can be viewed at www.cehdaghana.org, and www.wiactghana.org

NEWS UPDATE: WIACTGHANA has designated architectural firm to aid in the reconstruction of the traditional palace.
Tribal chiefs are all on board to go ahead with the project.

RASHID'S STORY

Rashid Abubakar Iddrisu (Wari), Director of CEHDA Ghana, is from the Gonja tribe (Ka Gbar nyi Bia) of Ghana. He is the son of a Ghanaian farmer, and speaks eight African languages as well as English, Spanish, and Catalan. As a young man, he decided to migrate to Europe (1998) to seek economic opportunities, and after nearly three years finally arrived in Barcelona. The story of his experience as a migrant en route and after arrival to Barcelona is told in a chapter of the 2016 book, Understanding Migrant Decisions: From Sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean Region and in the film, New Roots (Otoxo Productions). He has served as a guest lecturer in two online graduate classes in human rights practice for The University of Arizona. In 2001, he initiated a hunger strike in Barcelona among sub-Saharan African migrants to protest a draconian migrant law that prevented migrants from getting papers so that they could work. The strike led to a massive migrants’ revolution in Spain and resulted in thousands of people getting documents. He founded the NGO CEHDAGHANA in 2008 to address the very difficult circumstances of African migrants in Barcelona, and to help youth in Ghana resist the lure of migration to Europe based on false expectations about opportunities that would await them upon arrival. He travels between Ghana and Barcelona to carry out his mission.