Hello friends!
I am writing to tell you of a dream I have. I hope you feel the passion of my heart as I share with you in the following book—I mean letter (I really did try to keep it short but I failed miserably—I do apologize). I want to thank you at the front end for listening to my dream and even if you cannot give at this time it means a lot to me that you have cared about me and influenced my life. Hopefully you can read this when you have a moment to grab a cup of coffee, sit in a cozy chair and take a deep breath J Here we go…
My story begins with a heart for Africa. As most of us did I grew up hearing “be thankful for what you have, there are starving children in Africa”. It became a fairly meaningless cliché to me as most overused phrases have the tendency to become; however I became distinctly aware of some of the travesties going on in Africa when taking a Global Solutions class in college. I read through a story of one of the lost boys of the Sudan and I was hooked. I knew I was meant to go and make a difference somehow at some point. In fact those of you who know me best would know if I could have I would have dropped everything and just gone but “timing is everything” and I continued with my education. Now I am a teacher myself. I get to make a difference in the lives of young people and I truly love my work. Life keeps happening and the time has never been right to go yet I have not been able to escape the inner ache for Africa. Most recently I have been introduced more closely to the crime of child slavery and my passion has been re-ignited.
Here is the thing: For generations, Ghana and other West African nations have served as a hub for child trafficking and slavery. An estimated 200,000 children in West and Central Africa perform unpaid labor. They are given minimal food and clothing, are deprived of schooling and medical care and are often subjected to physical abuse. Laws outlawing slavery in many African countries have had limited effect. Slavery has a long history in these parts. The Elmina Castle on Ghana’s Cape Coast was one of the major departure points for the 18th and 19th century slave trade to the Americas.
Today, the enormous problem of child trafficking and indentured servitude of thousands of children on Ghana’s Lake Volta continues. Many of these kids are sold by their parents and relatives for as little as $20 to lake masters who exploit them and use them as extremely cheap labor in the thriving fishing industry in Ghana. Children (mostly boys) as young as five are sold into this slavery, working on canoes, detangling nets and other dangerous tasks below the surface of the lake’s cloudy water. They are taught to swim by being repeatedly thrown off a boat with a rope tied around their waist. Many do not return to the surface, disappearing forever. They are also beaten severely and starved of basic human necessities, such as food, sleep, proper hygiene and education. Girls are forced to work as domestic laborers, and are often sexually abused.
Yet these children are not entirely without hope. There are people who have devoted their lives to going to the root of this problem and ending this kind of slavery for good. Eric Peasah, featured on Oprah (had to throw that in), is one of them. Eric finds kids who are in slavery, takes pictures of them and then goes into villages in order to find their family. Once he has found the family Eric can then rescue the child which involves making deals with the owner and then the process of recovery, rehabilitation, and education for the child and family begins. The child is kept at a camp (this part is important because this is where we get to come in) where they are loved, allowed to play and introduced to education. Here they receive badly needed medical treatment and physiological help before they are reintroduced to their family who has also gotten the help and education they need. They are provided with a caseworker that works with the child and family to ensure that it is in fact a safe environment for the child to be in and the child get to go to school and is not sold back into slavery.
Meanwhile in the United States I see kids that are longing for a purpose that is great enough to distract them for a moment from their social gaming, video gaming, Facebooking, and the latest entertainment vying for their attention. This is the world I live in: the world of the American teenager. Although it may have been a while for some of us (11 years for me), you must remember the way high school was. Will you humor me and think back for a moment…Were we thinking about the value and coming responsibilities of our freedom? Was learning at the top of our agenda? My guess is probably not. Walk onto any high school campus and you will see that although the scenery may have changed a bit high school remains the same. Only perhaps worst. (At least that’s what the veteran teachers tell me). We have cliques and bullying (now magnified through texting and web access), provocative dress (I’m telling you teenage boys don’t have a chance at being able to focus on their “studies” in the spring—and God help the male teachers these days—I’m just saying) and true to form it is survival of the fittest in high school with students doing their best to climb their way up the social ladder, and either steer clear or become one of the “social sharks”. Thank God for athletics which still plays a pivotal role teaching discipline and team work and you had better believe there is still sex, drugs and rock and roll. There is little intrinsic value for education in the students because well—they are kids and isn’t it OUR responsibility as parents, teachers, adults and citizens to impart that value to them? I hope you would join me in saying yes!
So this is my dream. Rather than beat them up with lectures on how privileged and ungrateful they are I want to take my students to Africa. It is here as they serve and love those who have been abused and robbed of their freedom that the purity and the justice in their own over entertained hearts will rise up and stir them to action. Youth still have an innocence and resilience about them and as a high school teacher I struggle with watching this small space in time be filled with so much humor, mockery, entertainment and drama which although fun at times is lacking in the ability to add redeeming substance and value to their lives. We have kids with freedoms that desperately need a reason and a purpose for their freedom because “without a vision the people will live without restraint”. There is not a doubt in my mind that if I took a group of thirty students to Africa they would come back far more changed than the children we helped. They would come back grateful for one, ready to value their education, wanting to make a difference, unaffected by many of the shallow peer influences that affected them in the past, and more respectful and appreciative of their teachers (I’m shamelessly adding that one in) and parents, and ultimately changed on the inside and ready to grab hold of their education and make a difference with their lives.
So that is the vision. I take students to Africa. We love the African children. My students are forever changed and they come back and now begin to be a positive influence in the lives of their peers. We continue to stay in touch with the children we have helped and the students that want to will raise money and sell items on an ongoing basis to be able to keep helping the African children receive an education and the financial support they need.
I have found a fantastic team to partner with. This first year I will be going to Ghana on a scout like mission with local, non-profit organization called Kids Helping Kids, founded by a teenage boy Tyler Page together with his mother Laura. Tyler took the situation in Ghana to heart and decided to take positive action, and through his leadership and team fundraising efforts, Kids Helping Kids has raised over $100,000 in just three short years! This year will be an amazing opportunity to partner with Eric and Kids Helping Kids to get the ball rolling so in future years I can bring along students and parents!!!
I wanted you to have the opportunity to consider helping me financially to achieve this dream. If you think this is a worthy cause and if you are able to give at this time I would be absolutely grateful for any financial support you would like to provide. I have a website up in which you can donate directly online which is probably the safest route since I am in Pemba Mosambique presently. (http://www.stayclassy.org/member/fundraising?fcid=4115) (it is actually easier to just google my name --Renee Biesemeyer-- and the second link is the fundraising page)
For the more administrative among you here are the numbers:
Mission dates: Feb 2012 two weeks
Personal Travel Expenses: $3000-$3500
Center for Hope: $50,000 This money would go directly to Eric and his team to build a facility that will house the children while they are receiving the care and love they need before being reunited with their family. If you are looking for a way to directly impact Africa this would be where to do it!
Thank you so much for your time and for listening to my dream. If you know anyone who is also passionate about Africa or ending human trafficking please lead them to either my website (http://www.stayclassy.org/member/fundraising?fcid=4115) (it is actually easier to just google my name and the second link is the fundraising page) or the KidzhelpingKids website at www.kidzhelpingkids.org. You may also contact Laura Page directly (CEO of kidzhelpingkids) for more detailed information about the Ghana project at Laurapage@kidzhelpingkids.org.We are eternally grateful for any support you feel compelled to provide but please feel no pressure to do so if you are unable or the time is not right. Please also feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about allocating funds or about the mission itself. I also value your prayers and am very grateful for your influence in my life as I would not have sent you this letter if you had not impacted me in a significant way! Thank you and God bless you!
Renee
Donation Website:
Or google àRenee Biesemeyer fundraising and click on fundraising link
When donating please let me know where you would like the funds to go and I will personally see to it that they are allocated properly. I will also be sending you a thank you by email.
