Our young charity has embarked upon what we consider to be a noble journey to provide a good leg up for some of the poorest children anywhere on earth, and by extension, their mothers. Our object is to help these children get a good start in life that would enable them, also, to have a good chance of life-long success, despite their initial circumstances of great misfortune. While we have already made some significant strides along this path, without help we really cannot sustain, and definitely cannot increase, the number of children and mothers served, and we are asking for assistance – to the extent you can.

Specifically, as detailed in the information on our website, www.solidfamilies.ca, the focus of our foundation is the children of a group of mothers in Ghana, West Africa, called kayaye, who are among the very poorest of the poor in that country. Their mothers, the kayaye, who are almost all uneducated, struggle daily to eke out an honest living from carrying goods on their head for mainly other poor customers and sellers in the major market places of the markedly better off- but still poor- southern half of the country. Because of the even more excruciating poverty of the northern part of Ghana where they come from, the kayaye not only endure the physical strain of carrying heavy loads on their head all day while negotiating their way through jam-packed spaces, they are also forced by their circumstances to do so while carrying their children on their back, since they cannot afford childcare or preschool for them.  Thus without relief, these children, too, are subjected to significant physical stress as their mothers do their work day after day. Perhaps worse,the children are also condemned to the fate of their mothers, as they, too, are deprived of the benefits and opportunities available through education.

Unfortunately, the situation of severe material hardship in the market areas of Ghana is not restricted to the children of the kayaye and their mothers, as these centres are also filled with other very poor petty traders who similarly carry their children on their back all day as they hustle from place to place and from customer to customer in their own effort to make an honest living. Our foundation is moved to try its best to do something about their plight, too, and seek your help in doing so.

What We Aim To Accomplish

We’re currently operating an Early Childhood Education and Childcare Centre in the Madina area of Accra, Ghana, serving 45 children from Monday to Friday.  We’re providing Crèche, Nursery 1 and Nursery 2 (combined because of current resource limitations), and Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2 education to the children (also combined

because of current resource limitations), coupled with a hot lunch each day.  All our programs are delivered free of charge to the children and their mothers.

Over the next 5 years, we aim to establish and operate 10 Early Childhood Education and Childcare Centres within the key market centres across Ghana where there are heavy populations of kayaye. Our target is to be able to serve a minimum of 1,000 children and their families across Ghana  in the 10 Early Childhood Education and Childcare Centres, gradually adding 2 Centres and 200 children each year.

Because daily many of the children come to us inadequately fed or completely unfed, over the long term  we would also like to provide breakfast to the kids, and support their families with food and other basic supplies, when financially feasible. More immediately, however, our plan is to increase the number of children at our present centre to 100, and over the course of the year to add another centre to serve an additional 100 children, thus serving a total of 200 children by the close of this year.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

As noted in our budget detailed under How We Use Your Donation on our website, www.solidfamilies.ca,for this year our budgetary need and fundraising target is $325,000. This will enable us to deliver our Early Childhood Education and Childcare program to 200 children and their mothers in 2019-2020.This means we need to raise $1,625 to educate and support each child and their family in 2019-2020.

We would be much indebted to you if you could support us with a donation of $1,625-$5,000, which would help us cater for 1-3 children this year. We will, of course, issue an official tax receipt for all donations received. Our undertaking to you is that 85% of all donations received will go directly into program delivery, with only 15% spent on administrative costs!

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NOTWITHSTANDING OUR IDEAL DONATION TARGET, WE WOULD BE MOST DELIGHTED AND GRATEFUL TO RECEIVE ANY AMOUNT OF SUPPORT YOU CAN OFFER US, AS NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL OR TOO BIG FOR US - $10, $20, $100, $1,625, WHATEVER AMOUNT!!! YOU CAN SUPPORT US WITH ANY AMOUNT, AND ON A ONE-TIME OR ONGOING BASIS. SO PLEASE SUPPORT US AS BEST YOU CAN. ALL HELP WELCOME AND APPRECIATED.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!