We are back! What an amazing way to return to volunteering after a nearly 2 year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team of 13 volunteers worked closely with families and members of the community to start construction on 3 homes. Within a few months, these families will be first time homeowners with a safe place to raise their children.
Ghana, formerly referred to by Europeans as the Gold Coast, is located in West Africa and has been described in some quarters as the Gateway to Africa. This country is known for the friendliness of its people, the warm welcome given to visitors, and its cultural uniqueness and identity. Ghana stands as a stable, peace-loving nation that is the perfect introduction to a fascinating and beautiful continent.
Despite it’s strengths, about 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty rate (Ghana Statistics Survey Report). In many rural communities in Ghana, mud houses, which once provided shelter for the extended family, are crumbling. Poor drainage systems combined with torrential rains destroy mud foundations. Walls collapse, sometimes injuring those standing by. Traditional roofing is of split bamboo or palm leaves thatch which must be replaced frequently to prevent collapse of the entire building and allow for critter infestation. Families still occupying these houses are overcrowded. There is also a compelling need for accommodation in the urban areas caused by landlords requiring between two and six years of rent advance. A greater number of urban dwellers who cannot afford the rent advance live in slums or overcrowded houses which lack sanitary conditions.
About the Global Builders Program
Global Builders is The Fuller Center for Housing’s short term volunteer program, sending teams on domestic and international home-building trips, where partner families help build the homes and then will repay the cost on a no-interest basis to help more local families. All trips are hosted by our trustworthy Fuller Center covenant partners around the world, who love having volunteers join them in serving God by partnering with the poor.
For more information or to join a team, visit https://fullercenter.org/global-builders/.
About The Fuller Center for Housing
The Fuller Center for Housing, faith-driven and Christ-centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide. Their foundational principles include the beliefs that: We are part of a God movement, and movements don’t just stop. We have been called to this housing ministry; we didn’t just stumble into it. We are unashamedly Christian, and enthusiastically ecumenical. We aren’t a church but we are a servant of the Church. We are faith-driven, knowing that after we’ve done all we can do the Lord will help finish the job — something that requires us to stretch beyond our rational reach. We are a grass-roots ministry, recognizing that the real work happens on the ground in communities around the world through our covenant partners — so a large, overseeing bureaucracy isn’t needed. We try to follow the teachings of the Bible and believe that it says that we shouldn’t charge interest of the poor, so we don’t. Government has a role in our work in helping set the stage, but that we shouldn’t look to it as a means to fund the building of homes.
To learn more, visit https://fullercenter.org.
This post contains information provided by the Fuller Center for Housing. Their help and support is much appreciated.
**featured photo credit: D. Geiser