Touch A Life
TAL in AFRICA
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The Village of Life is up and running, with capacity for twenty-four residents. A school building in currently being built. Right now, vocational classes are being held outside on the property, under a large thatched structure (called a Summer Hat). We are desperately needing a second cottage built to house volunteer groups, and are currently fundraising for that. The staff are busy now: making the kids feel at home, establishing fish ponds to raise fresh fish, preparing the soil for gardening, and building bee houses for honey.
We have also purchased twenty acres of land in Tema, which is about sixteen miles outside of the capital city of Accra. Our hope is to build a boarding school similar to the Village of Hope. In the meantime, we have partnered with the City of Refuge in Tema to house the youngest children in our program. The majority of the seventeen children at this home, all rescued from the Lake, are between the ages of 5 and 10. The children have a personal tutor who comes daily to help prepare them to enroll them in school. Eight of the children have already been accepted into a private school in Tema and the other nine are learning basic English and reading skills. We hope to have all the children enrolled by this fall.
In addition to finishing the construction of the school and additional cottage the Village of Life, we are also hoping to purchase a large van. We spend a lot of money on van rentals and drivers while in Ghana, and those costs add up.
Perhaps our greatest need is meeting our monthly costs of supporting the children. In Ghana, we budget between $100 to $150 each month per child. This covers the cost of their room, board, medical costs, their house parents’ salary, and whatever else they need. Since we care for fifty children in Ghana, we need to raise $5,000 every month. This is often enough to cause me to lose sleep. Click here to help.
TAL in VIETNAM
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It costs just $50 a month to support a child in Vietnam, including room and board, school tuition, medical needs, the salary of house parents, and whatever other needs arise. Click here to help.
TAL in CAMBODIA
We continue to support the work of our good friend Marie Ens, who runs the Place of Rescue, where sixteen families suffering from AIDS live. When both parents die, their children then transition to Marie’s orphanage. We also financially support seven children here. All seven were in extreme situations, and at great risk of being trafficked. When Marie told me their stories, I knew they were Touch a Life kids. Click here to help.
For more information on Marie’s program, visit http://www.placeofrescue.com/