Challenges to come...

First of all, I want to thank all of you guys for supporting Goals 4 Ghana.
it's just amazing how much trust you are putting in us, especially because we are actually 3 greenhorns (especially me) just trying to do our best to make life
of less privileged kids than we were (or in my case still are) a tiny little bit better.


Trying to support Ghana'ian people is not an easy thing.
An example: One of my closests Ghana'ian friends, the actual keeper of the under 17 team, had to stop school last year, because he couldn't afford it anymore. Through my Ghana'ian host-mother, i got the chance to get this boy back into school, as I was (and I still am) willing to pay for his school-fees. The only requirement is, he has to bring certain documents, including his final-exam-marks, to my former host-mother, because she would be up to deal with a school-director. The thing is now, these documents are currently with one of the coaches of Cantonments Youth Academy. And it seems that this guy is not willing to fork out these documents!! Here, you see a common peculiarity of Ghana'ian mentanlity: Noone grants something to others. This coach probably hadn't the opportunity going to Senir Seondary School, so in his eyes, it is unfair if others get this opportunity. Sad but true.

An other thing is corruption. It needs so many clarifications until I would be ready to ship things into Ghana. Without really good links, custom dutys could possibly kill me financially. Through an amazing swiss guy who is currently living in the US, I got in touch with a Ghana'ian guy who also lives and works in the US and might be helpful in finding a so called claring agent, who seems to be essential to get certain exceptions...

But hey, there are also positiv things to tell. For example, my employer, a big swiss insurance company, is really enthusiastic about the project and willing to pay at least for a part of upcoming transportation costs, which is awesome. Furthermore, there are many people I don't really know donating something. Even if it's "only" one pair of boots; it will make one kid smiling, and if I get one pair from 1000 different persons....

Well, I still didn't plan my trip back to Ghana, the only thing I know is it will be in the begin of July. Like this, I am able to meet Mark, who is still keeping up his fantastic work in Ghana, to discuss certain things with him on-site.