Kwasi Awudi lives in the rural village of Dekpor Dome in the Volta Region of Ghana, West Africa with his father, two younger brothers, and grandmother. His mother is remarried and no longer lives in the area. Dad is a farmer who works a couple of plots of land that are a fair distance away, and as a result, is often away from the family home for several days in a row. Neither of the younger boys, aged 10 and 14, attends school. The grandmother is considered the women’s leader in Dekpor Dome, and she takes a very active role in organizing the village women to participate in communal labour and other activities.
At home, Kwasi is a big help by taking on many chores. He fetches water, sweeps, cooks, collects fire wood and helps his grandma tend their family farming plot of cassava and maize. He also accompanies his grandmother to the salt pond, collects and carries the salt home, and then the family sells it to earn a little cash. His grandma also mentioned that he helps an elderly neighbor by looking after the sweeping for her. Dekpor is a very dusty village and sweeping around one’s house happens at least once, if not twice a day.
Although the family attempted having Kwasi attend school on the rare occasion, starting at the age of 12, sitting in a class of 60+ students in grade 1 was not ever going to meet his needs. Kwasi has no Ewe or English comprehension and uses family-generated simplistic signs to communicate.
This year, at the age of 18, he was sitting in a grade 3 class, maintaining fairly regular attendance, when the teacher came to DSDO seeking help since it was clear that learning is greatly impeded. Kwasi can copy from the board, but doesn’t understand any words and is just starting to show some understanding of numerals. Given his current age, it doesn’t seem likely that attending a residential school for the deaf would be beneficial.
Emajjin to Support Kwasi's Formal Apprenticeship
After many hours of brainstorming, meetings, and consultation, DSDO decided to provide a one month trial for Kwasi during the month of May with a local tailor. It went well, so we chose to go ahead and turn this into a formal apprenticeship and find him a sponsor.
We are going to go ahead with a formal tailor apprenticeship for him, thanks to The Pink Tie Affair! The master tailor feels that Kwasi can be successful and, more importantly, Kwasi is interested and keen to learn. Will there be hurdles? Certainly, but this opportunity will give him a chance of becoming something more than a subsistence farmer.
What a gift this education will be to a young man who has endured many difficulties and challenges. A tremendous thank you to Emajjin Children’s Foundation for making this possible!
A Personal Update from Carol Sheardown of DSDO
A long time ago in a place called Dalston, I grew up with my mom, dad, and brother. Like many others, we had colourful sheet sets for our beds. I do shipments to Ghana on a regular basis, and collect from lots of people. For a May shipment, my parents gave me some linens. They were in great shape, but no longer fit any of their beds. I sent aforementioned bags of goodies along with loads of other things to Ghana. It takes 2 months for any given shipment to arrive. Out of the blue, I get a photo from Linda. She says, Kwasi made this with the help of his instructor. My eyes open wide, I burst into tears, and then eventually just sit beaming at the image in front of me.
This amazing outfit was made from sheets that my family used! I can’t begin to put into words just how hard this one hit me! Yes, I’ve obviously been shipping my own stuff right since the very first suitcase was filled. A few times I’ve had rather dramatic emotional responses, but never as much as this! Not only have I got an extreme soft spot for this young man, but, to know that he ended up picking out something from my past to turn into an outfit for himself? Priceless!