Four New Homes in Ghana
Completed Project
PROJECT LOCATION:
Accra, Ghana
Rev. Rick Whitcomb is the Founder and International Director of the Agape Gospel Mission, a mission agency working in West Africa. He and his wife Donna have spent the last 21 years ministering on the mission field. They spent 11 1/2 years in Nigeria, and have been in Ghana since 1994.
Be a HERO is pleased to report that the project in Accra, Ghana has been completed in partnership with Hope for the Nations. 4 Children’s Home apartments have been completed.
Thus, the ministry of the Agape Children’s Home was born in July 2000. The Home began with nine needy orphans from Liberia. Today, there are 57 children from Ghana and Liberia living in the two facilities. They operate a full-service residential facility with live-in staff Mothers. The Home provides food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and spiritual development. Their goal is to embrace children that are true biological orphans who have lost both parents.In 1999, Rick made a ministry trip to the war-torn nation of Liberia. During his visit, he saw first-hand the deplorable condition the orphans there lived in. Thousands of orphanslacked food, clothing, adequate housing, medical attention and education. Touched by their plight, Rick promised the Lord that he would do something for Africa’s ophans — if only God would make a way. Shortly afterwards, the Agape Gospel Mission received a large, unsolicited gift to help feed and house needy children.
Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is located on the coast, in the south-east. Sub-Saharan Africa is a poverty stricken and war torn third-world area in which to live. Economically, it is in bad shape. The people are poor and the standard of living is low.
Death and suffering are routine due to the constant Civil Wars, leaving children without anyone to care for them. Aid is spreading rapidly – taking lives daily. Others die of simple sickness and injury because there is poor quality healthcare.
When someone falls ill, they do not have a doctor or a clinic to go to. If there is a doctor, they are not well trained, nor do they have the supplies and facilities to care for the patients. Trained doctors are very expensive and most people cannot afford treatment. Many simply die from malnourishment.
When parents die in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is not like a wealthy nation where family memebers raise the child. Family members do not have problems taking in babies because they do not each much and they are easy to clothe, plus they are cute and you feel for them because they are helpless. When they get older it is harder to take care of them because they start to eat more, then they start school and there are school fees and such. such a large amount of orphans become a strain on society. kids are everywhere, just living in the streets — they have nowhere to go. Many are working hard to earn only a dollar a day to feed the eight mouths that already live in their house and now they have nine or ten. It falls back on society to give benevolence.
13 Million orphans in Sub-Sahara Africa do not have a mother or father.
To better care for the orphans, an expansion of four apartments, each one with four bedrooms, a common room and two bathrooms was needed. Each apartment was planned to house 10 children and one mother with an estimated cost of $25,000 each (with a total of $100,000 for the entire Children’s Home).
In partnership with Hope for the Nations, this goal was reached, the expansion was built, and the Children’s Home is better able to care for those children in need.
In 2007, Agape Children’s Home started their own small school in order to train today’s orphans to become productive adults. Now the aim is directed to the next level: to equip the school and build a new facility for the Agape Academy. They are hoping to establish a private school for all of the “Agape Kids”.
Future Plans: Agape Academy School – Cost: $200,000
The cost of the building alone will be at least $200,000. Additional funds for materials, desks and teachers will have to be calculated in.
As of March 2008, $55,000 has been raised toward the project.
A big thank you to all the HEROES who contributed toward this project.
You are Heroes!
For further information on Be A HERO and our projects throughout the world browse through our site www.beahero.org, or send an email to info@beahero.org.