Help please?

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Each morning as the tide receded, a young boy walked along the beach plucking starfish from the drying sand. Abandoned by the water, the starfish were sure to die in the growing heat. But the boy would toss each starfish he came upon back into the cool and calming waves. A passerby shook his head at the boy’s slow pursuit and grunted, “Don’t bother, child. Those starfish go on for miles. You’ll never make a difference.” But the boy, cradling another small creature in his hand, tossed it back to the sea and simply replied, “It made a difference to that one.”

So I knew it was just a matter of time until this day happened, but it was still a smack in the face when it finally did. Its never easy when you have the realization that I had today. The world is just a screwed up place and there are so many injustices. I wish there was something I could do to make it all go away, all the pain and suffering, all the poverty and disease, but I can’t. I can only do one thing at a time and pray its enough. Let me start from the beginning…

So it was a pretty ordinary day at the school, they had me type up some reports for them so they could send some emails and that kept me busy the entire afternoon. The sweetest part was when Gladys (the little girl in the picture wearing my sunglasses a couple posts back) wasn’t feeling well so she cuddled up in my lap while I was typing until her belly started feeling better. That’s just a little side note, I freaking love that little girl and her brother! Well anyways, after the students left and went home, Michael called together a staff meeting to discuss something. As we were talking about it, there was a lot of information about what is really going on at this organization and I just knew the tip of the iceberg.

Well apparently, none of the men get paid for working at GCP, and Michael is living at the school because he has no income. He is in essence homeless and has to hope for donations just so he can eat. He is also housing a little boy who is a student at the school because the boy doesn’t have any where else to go. Today this little girl named Comfort who is 10 years old came to school with her mother. Her mom told Michael about the financial problems she has been having and how she is evicted from her home. She is leaving to a different town in hopes of being able to find somewhere to stay, but she isn’t able to bring her children with her. She begged Michael to take Comfort and provide for her. Michael is unable to even provide for himself, let alone 2 young children that aren’t even his. Some days he goes without even eating, but he still finds ways to take care of the GCP kids. Well the mother really doesn’t have any options so Michael reassures her that we will take care of her daughter some how. The whole time we are sitting together as a staff in front of this little girl deciding her future. She just stood next to Michael with her head down and tears running down her face. I cant even begin to imagine her pain. Knowing that her ENTIRE world is just falling apart around her. She’s 10, and what we decide in the next few days could ultimately decide if she is going to be selling water sachets on the side of the road all day for the rest of her life.

I just feel so… helpless? I don’t even know. I wish I could do more for her. I wish I could do more for Michael. Its so unfair that I live in my world full of material things and they live in a world where one cedi can decide if you eat or not that day. Just that her mother would even have to split the family apart and it’s a frequent occurrence in Ghana. What’s going to happen to her? What’s going to happen to the hundreds of little kids that don’t have an organization like GCP that will try to figure something out? How could I be so selfish? I just don’t understand all the suffering in the world.

I have to do something. Me and Bethany are working on getting the basic supplies needed to run a school and a home together, things like pens, paper, soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, blankets, shoes, heck, even rice! The problem is Michael isn’t the kind of guy to ask us for anything. He knows we are students and we are volunteering so he wouldn’t want to put that pressure or burden on us, but it makes it difficult to know what he needs. Maybe once we put together a box of a few things and some money so they can eat he will open up and let us know what is needed to provide for this make shift family. So here’s where I get to the meat and potatoes of my post.

I need your help. Anything you could be willing to help with. School supplies are really expensive here (like $1 for one of those cheapy BIC pens) so if you would be willing to send some basic school supplies, little books, anything would help. Or maybe we can even pull some “Eat, Pray, Love” action and raise some money up. Every little bit helps so if you would even be willing to donate like $5 and I will give you information about how to transfer the money. And if you have any other ideas about how we can help take care of this family and also provide a decent education for these children, please let me know. PLEASE if you would be interested in helping in any way possible, email me at [e-mail] and we can come up with a plan.

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