Help Jeff lend a hand to a West Africa Woodworking School.
Dear Friends, Patrons, Students, and Colleagues,,,,, thank you for taking the time to check this out. This is a project of importance to me and I am hopeful for your help. I hear often that one person cannot make a difference but if you study history, it is often only one person that actually ever has. What is important is to recognize that special individual when he or she appears and provided their mission is sound and good, to do all you can to enable them. All this said, on my word, I am hopeful you will agree that Abubakar Abdullai, of Cape Coast, Ghana West Africa is that one right person that can indeed make a difference and you will lend me a hand in my effort to help him help the people of his village in Ghana. This is a very worthwhile project so please consider making even the smallest of donation. A small token of support on your part will make an enormous difference to a lot of those less fortunate if enough of us chip in. I am asking you to please read on.
Specifics of this project and what you can easily do to help.
In the Spring of 2007 I was contacted by a young fellow by the name of Abubakar Abdullai of Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africa. Abubakar who I will refer to as Abu is currently a lead Carpenter / Workman and Caretaker of the Baobab School for Trades and Traditional Arts in Cape Coast. This trade school is currently a fledgling project that occupies the Dining Pavilion of the Boabab Children Foundation. The Baobab School is an important mission in Cape Coast under the direction of Edith DeVos, a German Waldorf Teacher, organic farmer, with a passion for natural healing. The current web site for the Baobab School is in German , See: http://www.baobab-children-foundation.de/ you can also find an English language reference at: http://www.ghana.diplo.de/Vertretung/ghana/en/04/deVos/text.html I strongly feel this is an important international aid project that Woodworking Enthusiasts in American can lend an important helping hand in the hope of relieving poverty and lack of employment possibilities in Ghana.
Help Jeff help Abu and the Baobab School!
Abubakar Abdullai / Recipient of the J.D.Lohr Woodworking 2008 Scholarship Award.
I am pleased to introduce Abu to my fellow State-Side professional and non-professional woodworkers and woodworking enthusiasts. Born and raised in Cape Coast, Ghana, Abu has not lived a life of privilege but he is devoting much of his life towards helping others. Now it is our turn to help Abu and many many others in kind with the training and tools we are hopeful to supply to him through this effort to get the fledgling Baobab School of Trades Woodworking Program off the ground upon Abu's return to Ghana.
Click to read Abu's personal goals.
In total, I will be welcoming Abu into my home for 9+ weeks of work/study at my school and furniture studio here in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, USA. I have taken it upon myself to do much of the heavy lifting on this project both professionally and as much financially as is within my means. However I am very hopeful my friends, patrons, professional peers, and students will join me to make this American International Aid project via woodworking more substantial than what I alone can do.
I'll donate all meals, lodging, weekly field trips, and complete free tuition to Abu but I am asking for help with his Air Travel expenses which are significant and also supplying this school in Ghana with woodworking tooling. If I can get him here, I'll take it on myself to take care of the rest. Also, please know that the primary focus of this effort will be to send some modern woodworking equipment back to to the Baobab School in Ghana. I have selected Abu as our emissary to receive and install our gifted woodworking equipment and to utilize the fabrication methods I will be teaching him as soon as his training is through with me and her returns to Ghana.
Click to read Abubakar's personal goals for his American Studies
Background on my outreach to Ghana project:
In the months that have followed initial contact in Spring of 2007 from Abu, it became apparent that bringing him to America to take my Practical Woodworking Course would be very beneficial to him and the development of the Baobab School of Trades and Traditional Arts. Currently there is no public electricity to Abu's area and the Baobab School. What little electric service is there is supplied by a small generator. However, with a sound and realistic machine based training program in place and with the promise of donated tools and equipment to come, growth can occur. Once the project is more of a reality than just a pipe dream, it is hoped that the Ghana Department of Energy will be willing to run public electric service to this more remote village and impoverished area of Cape Coast, Ghana. Currently the Department of Energy sees no need to go to the expense of extending the poles and utility lines to this area. It is sort of a case of which comes first, the chicken or the egg, or perhaps what we Americans call a "Catch 22". There is no need for electricity if there is no business or existing program to draw on it but without electricity there is no hope of growth and developing industry and small business in this impoverished community.
You can make a difference with just a $25 donation!
The people of Cape Coast are industrious hard working men and women. Many existing workshops are out in the open or under makeshift shelter. Tools are hard to come by and very prized possessions. The creation of a woodworking school for the young people of Cape Coast along with a modest supply of donated tools from America would do wonders for the health of this African community.
With a methodical approach, proper training, and a few good doses of hope, we can truly make a difference. However, the first obstacle is that we have to be able to get Abubukar to my workshop in America for some sound training on how to efficiently produce utilitarian as well as decorative and regionally artistic goods for trade.
Given that the annual income of an average Ghanaian is about $300, traveling to America for Abu to study methods of furniture making initially seemed about as possible as taking a rocket ship to the moon. With a round trip ticket to the United State costing about $2,400 (the equivalent of 7+ years of a many typical Ghanaian's income) the likely hood of success seemed remote. However, just as I started my own studio from no funding and virtually nothing but a makeshift workbench on sawhorses and just a few hand tools 33 years ago, you eat an elephant the same way you eat a mouse. One bite at a time. Abu had the foresight and ambition to just start and despite my initially explaining to him it would be extremely difficult to bring him to study with me, Abu did not give up. His persistence was amazing. Having no computer of his own, nor electric to run it with, his communication to date has been through waiting his turn at an Internet Cafe many miles from his home. I will point out however, that although there has been some success in raising some modest funds from Ghanaian and a few German Benefactors giving what they are able, we are still in desperate need of funds for his round trip airplane ticket. There is also much to be done other than just acquiring transport.
About Ghana, West Africa.
Ghana over the past decade is considered an 'island of peace and stability' in West Africa. The country has had four consecutive free and fair elections and democracy and freedom of expression is embraced. I have tried to research this as best as I can but American Government aid to Ghana seems to have been spotty in recent years compared to past initiatives. The country remains quite poor despite being a democratic friendly government. Although American Government Aid to Ghana and Africa in general has improved with our attempts to stem the tide of HIV we can and should do so much more. This is where the private sector in American can step up to help to greatly relieve poverty which is at the core of our effort here to develop the Baobab School of Trades Woodworking Program.
A project like this is monumental but with your help and mine we can accomplish this important mission one step at a time and lend a helpful American Hand to our African friends across the Atlantic. Here is your chance to really do some good that will last for just a modest donations. Give a man a fish you feed him for one day, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a life.