A year ago, Mission: Spread Hope, Give Love was created as a mission initiative under the H.O.P.E. For Tomorrow umbrella. The original plan was to take 20 Americans to Ghana to do outreach in partnership with Ghanaian nonprofits. Everything was set in place from pre-departure trainings, boarding, transportation, and even our packed schedule to distribute donations and do community health work. However, because of Covid-19 restrictions, our plans for Mission: Spread Hope, Give Love seemed to fizzle out.
About three weeks before leaving for Ghana to check on our nutrition initiative at Adenkrebi Basic School, I spoke with Wolfgang Macdin, the founder of Asase Africa Foundation. After speaking with Wolfgang, I felt a stirring in my heart to do something to help the homeless teen mothers, women, and children his organization serves. I spoke with a board member about how I felt and she encouraged me to plan something to help the families served by Asase. I spoke with Wolfgang again and he said there were 200 teen mothers, women, and children who needed help and the best option would be to provide hot meals. I’m not going to lie, I felt a little overwhelmed because I was the only one going as a representative of the organization. I reached out to a few of my friends in Ghana who wanted to serve.
At the time, H.O.P.E. also did not have the budget to do anything, but I still planned believing that everything would work together. Board members began to reach out to others and within two weeks of me leaving for Ghana, H.O.P.E. was able to raise $1,080 for the mission initiative.
I knew that we could do even more to help the families served by Asase, so I reached out to FOCOS Hospital to partner with them as well. If you don’t know about FOCOS Hospital then please read my personal blog post about the phenomenal work they’re doing. FOCOS Hospital was able to send volunteer nurses to provide care to the teen mothers, women, and children.
The night before our outreach day with Asase and FOCOS, I learned that more people, whom I never met, also wanted to volunteer. My heart was full and I was beyond grateful. I knew that we had all of the help needed to successfully serve the women and children.
The day of the event, H.O.P.E. For Tomorrow had 12 volunteers and we were able to feed 200 homeless teen mothers, women, and children. Over 50 women and children received care from the volunteer nurses. We also distributed clothes purchased by Asase Africa Foundation and collected by one of our H.O.P.E. volunteers. Although it was a small gesture, the ladies told us how grateful they were for what we were able to do.
With the money raised for Mission: Spread Hope, Give Love, we were able to purchase 200 hot meals and waters, and make a financial contribution and buy bags of rice for Hour of Grace Preparatory School.
All things really do work together…
Click here to watch our Mission: Spread Hope, Give Love compilation video.
The World of Public Health 