MUSC, others help build hope to
African village
by Mary
Helen YarboroughPublic Relations
Two hundred years after their ancestors came to Charleston as slaves, representatives of Ghana will arrive as partners to local groups committed to building a new future for their village and people.
Project Okurase, co-sponsored by MUSC’s Family Services Research Center (FSRC), is an extraordinary trans-continental plan to counter the spread of HIV/AIDS in the impoverished African village with formal education, training and esteem-building through the Nkabom Centre for Skills and Formal Education.
Project Okurase's
founder Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah and Dr. Cynthia Swenson in Ghana, Africa.After the center has been built and becomes established, the Nkabom Artists and the Craftspeople Association of Accra, Ghana, will support the center financially with money earned from performances, arts and craft sales, and musical recordings produced in the center’s studio.
Organizers and village leaders intend to make Project Okurase a model for other communities around the world. That model would incorporate an ecologically sustainable design and architecture; job and skills training, family and village-based formal education. It would be a family-based model for caring for children impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Educating and training girls and young women will be emphasized, said FSRC’s Cynthia Swenson, Ph.D. By providing meaningful support systems and jobs, women are less inclined to engage in activities that can spread diseases such as AIDS, she explained.
“When you’re a young mother in one of these villages and you don’t want your children to starve, you’ll do what it takes to provide food for them,” including prostitution, Swenson said. “Education for everyone, but in particular for what they call ‘the girl children,’ is a major key to solving this crisis.”
The center will be built on funds raised through events like those held in Charleston (see box). It will be supported by ongoing support and fundraising events sponsored by FSRC and its partner, Gethsemani Circle of Friends in North Charleston.
The Nkabom center will provide on-the-job training, internships and international work, formal education, seminars; and a sustainable arts program. Villagers could become master craftsmen, and education in information technology and English as a second language also will be available for adults to make them more competitive in the global marketplace.
Health education seminars will inform the local community about malaria and HIV/AIDS. Children orphaned due to AIDS will have the chance to grow up in a home with a family on the grounds of the center, and students from colleges around the world will be given opportunities to intern, student teach and work at the center, local orphanages and the children’s hospital, Swenson said.
“Historically, people from our country tend to go into Africa with American eyes to solve the AIDS crisis. “The people of Ghana know what needs to be done to solve the AIDS crisis, but they don’t have the resources to do it.”
Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah is the founder of Project Okurase and director of Nkabom Artist and Craftspeople Association.
“Project Okurase is guided by my similar experiences as a child and the wisdom of the village elders, community leaders, and the children,” Yeboah said. “Many organizations and agencies are concerned with finding the best ways to support children and vulnerable adults. We believe the best way to help children is to help them provide for themselves through marketable skills training to foster their talents so that they can make a living. We will be empowering children and women through Project Okurase.”
Others active in Project Okurase include MUSC’s Eve Spratt, M.D., a champion of children’s causes; Scott Henggeler, Ph.D.; William Simpson, M.D.; Jennifer Shambrook, Ph.D.; Lori Ueberroth, a research program coordinator in Pediatrics; and many others who also traveled to Ghana for to support the Project Okurase.
Judith and Marc Mann, both former psychologists, are producing a documentary of the Project Okurase, which includes footage from the village. The filmmakers are producing the film in charitable support of the project, Swenson said.
For more information, contact Swenson at 452-1310 or swensocc@musc.edu. For information about the project visit http://www.projectokurase.org.
Project Okurase fundraiser
Nkabom will perform at the ProjectOkurase fundraising gala and photo exhibition from 7-11 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Francis Marion Hotel. Arts and crafts also will be on display and available for purchase. Heavy hors dourves will be served. Tickets are $100 each.
Nkabom also will perform Oct. 20, at Fort Moultrie, Sullivan’s Island. A special ceremony will be held honoring the slaves from Ghana who were shipped to this location within the last several centuries. They will perform at Winwood Farm, Oct. 29; Cainhoy Elementary, Oct. 29; Buist Academy, Nov. 2; and Memminger Elementary Nov. 2. Call 452-1310.
Friday, Oct. 19, 2007
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