Archievements

African Angels achievements

We chose this title because it is short. The long version would be First steps towards achievements. It is still hard for us to use the term achievement in relation to African Angel. We are still at the beginning, and defined ambitious targets for being allowed to use this word: They will be met only when the first African Angel children leave the home with a high school diploma and/or finished professional training. Not the momentary achievements, but the sustained result will deserve the title achievement.

From Dream to Reality

In 2002, Harriet started to take action toward making her vision become reality: To help children from Bukom into living a decent, educated life in their own country. Together with some friends, she founded the charity African Angel e.V. in Düsseldorf. e.V. stands for eingetragener Verein and is German for registered association. [1]

Starting out in rented rooms: A house for 26 street children from Bukom

In 2004, Harriet flew to Ghana with 5,000.-- , collected from customers in her Düsseldorf toilet attendant job. Initially, she was met with mistrust and opposition by the people in Bukom [2, 3, 4]. Additional problems arose because she could not find a suitable house to accommodate the children. But eventually she managed to rent a house in a good town quarter of Accra, in spite of the short holiday period she had available.

African Angel as life saver!

Before their move-in into the home, all children had to get a first-in-lifetime medical check-up at a private clinic. In this check-up, the doctors discovered that three children had life-threatening diseases, that otherwise would not have been diagnosed, or only too late. The therapy that was started at once saved the lives of these children. Today, they are, like all others, healthy and confident African Angel children. But these children have good reason to celebrate two birthdays now! [5, 6, 7]

We are going to school or to kindergarten! We can learn!

No school and no kindergarten wanted to admit the children from Bukom when Harriet tried to sign them up in 2004. Nobody wanted to take the risk of admitting children of different ages, high aggression potential and minimal education background. Harriet despairingly ran her feet into the ground, and as usual, she succeeded in the end using some special manoeuvres. She could leave Ghana with the proud feeling that the children aged under 6 were going to Bethel kindergarten, which is the most respected kindergarten in Accra, and all others were in first grade at Christ Preparatory School. In the meantime, all children are successful at school, some could skip classes and won awards for their performances. [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]

Another step towards success: Our own office in Düsseldorf!

Until autumn 2006, Harriet ran the charity from her tiny apartment, where she also received all enquiries and phone calls from all kinds of interested persons. Since she was hardly at home, but at work most of the times, many requests had to go unanswered. In 2006, she decided to improve this situation. Through the help of friends she found a small back room in a shop that she could rent at a good rate as the official office of African Angel e.V. To complete the professional appearance, she found the Düsseldorf author Peter Schrenk through a newspaper ad, and could convince him to volunteer for African Angel. [19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]

In February 2007, newspapers of Düsseldorf began to write about African Angel, and already in March WDR TV produced first reports about Harriet, that were broadcast in LOKALZEIT and HIER UND HEUTE. Still before Harriets next departure to Ghana, a long report in the RHEINISCHE POST set a lot in motion: Many readers contacted Harriet and wanted to take over sponsorships for African Angel children in Ghana.

Hosanna! All 26 children have godparents!

In early 2007, only 3 children were supported by godparents in Germany. This was a burden on Harriets soul (as die other children could not understand at all why they had no godparents), and a financial burden as well. Once the plan had been that the contributions from godparents should cover each childs basic living expenses. So Harriet hat to find this money somewhere. She even had to sell her life insurance in order to save the home! When Harriet left for Ghana in June 2007, she could enjoy the comfort that all children had godparents and even a godparent waiting list for new children existed. What a difference towards the years before!

Media coverage makes members

In August 2007, the TV documentary 50 Cents for an Angel made that summer in Accra by Birgit Virnich was broadcast by WDR. Every minute of this documentary showed that it had been made with great professionalism as well as a great heart for Africa. This transmitted to the German viewers, and it showed in their reactions: The great lot of enquiries and donations sent the understaffed office spinning! While Harriets association had 19 members in summer of 2007, that number increased to 250 until Christmas! [25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]

A new home or the children will be back on the street

In early December, Harriet flew to Accra again. Time was short, as the tenancy agreement for the house was running out with the end of the year. The owner also did not want to negotiate: The children should leave! So a new solution had to be found. Due to the donations we received after the documentary had been broadcast, we had funds of about 38000 Euros. So Harriet was not without hope when she flew to Ghana and started her search.

How Harriet can see the future behind rubbish in a bush

Searching for a suitable house, there were a number of objects that would meet the taste of Helena and the real estate agents but not that of Harriet. Some objects were fantastic mansions at a cost of 150 to 200000 Dollars. Harriet rejected all these objects, as she had a vision of what she was really looking for. Finally they found a pretty shabby estate, that many neighbours used to dump their waste and that had two fairly run-down buildings. All were horrified, but Harriet was glowing. She saw the future before her: two separate houses for girls and boys and an estate of about 3500 square metres that held options for extensions in the future! [32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38]

150,000 Dollars for Harriets vision!

What a coincidence: The owners grandfather had come to Ghana from Bremen, Germany. The son now wanted 150,000 Dollars for the run-down property anyway. Harriet, having about 50000 Dollars in her bank account, began to negotiate. She kept bugging the owner for a week, until he finally consented to Harriets offer: 100,000 Dollars.

However, African Angels bank account contained only 70,000 Dollars at that time, which she transferred to the owners account. At the appointment to transfer the property to African Angel, the vendor wanted to retract the deal, as the agreed sum had not been paid. Now Harriet put all egg in one basket: She assured the vendor that he would get the remaining 30,000 Dollars within a week, if the vendor immediately gave her the keys for the estate and the buildings. Palaver ensued, and finally the vendor agreed. The only problem was that Harriets bank account was empty at that time point. On the day when the 1-week deadline ran out, Harriet phoned up the office in Düsseldorf. The happy news: They had just transferred 30,000 Dollars to African Angels bank account in Accra! Praise the donors!

January/February 2008: The garbage dump turns into a gem

It was a lot of work to clear out and clean the estate. Then craftsmen came to inspect the houses. The list of materials needed grew longer and longer. If donations had not kept coming in, we would not have been able to make the necessary renovations within this short time.

Again, big thanks to the donors and the sedulous hands in Accra! [39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82]

The childrens moving in and official opening by the German ambassador

When the caravan of children set in motion into the new home in February, the excitement was almost visible in the air: During the ride, one song was sung after the next, and even Rambo the dog howled along. Then the moment of arrival came, and the children screamed with joy when they saw the premise for the first time. Then they ran and danced through all rooms and took them into possession! Their own cupboards! Ventilators! Soo much room to play in the yard! A dream come true, and what a difference to the old rented house. The next highlight for children as well as adults was the party celebrating the official opening by the German ambassador. In the presence of the parents from Bukom, ambassador Dr. Marius Haas and his wife, Mi Cho, Reverend Puplampo of the Presbyterian Church of Hope, and Harriet Bruce-Annan cut the blue ribbon. [83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104]

A security house to protect the children

Increasing media coverage had the side-effect that unwanted visitors found the African Angel home more and more often. Sadly, they were not only friendly people, but increasingly often also persons with bad intentions. In order to protect our children and to control access to our home, Harriet had a security house built at the main entrance. This gate is now manned with a watchman day and night. Harriet hired two watchmen whom she selected and checked herself. We have to spend some of the donations on this, but now we can guarantee the childrens safety. [105, 106, 107, 108]

Summer 2008: African Angel tackles the sewage problem

The house was originally intended for and built to the needs of a normal family. This fact also applied the soakage pit. Now 52 children and the plus their adult caregivers were populating the house. It was only a matter of months that the soakage pit would be completely run down and destroyed. Since there was no sewage system in the town quarter, a tank vehicle had to come regularly and take away the sewage. The costs for this were considerable. Moreover, sewage water regularly swamped the streets, and was a significant health risk to all residents (malaria!). So Harriet decided to solve the problem from its root. The soakage pit was renovated and armed with concrete. Harriet also had sewage pipes laid underground that now connect the home to the main sewage system. In the meantime, all residents of the street benefit from this piping. [109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129]

A third house and better chances for more children from Bukom

In the spring of 2008 the directors board decided to use the donations received lately to start building a new house on the African Angel premises. Once the house will be finished, it will have a ground floor with an administration office, workshop, library and computer room, and two more floors. These two floors will hold living space for 60 more children, guest rooms and rooms for caregivers. You can read about the current status of this building project elsewhere on this website. There you can also read that further donations are highly needed to speed up the building process. If you would like to support this project, please click the tab !Fundraiser! and become a part of African Angels achievements for the children from Bukom. Thank you! [130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147]

Why 52/15 is a success for African Angel

Because our children from Bukom are zero-children: The support they receive through you and your donations is the first support they ever get. They never before received care and appreciation, the words performance and discipline do not exist in their environment, and their family environment (if existent) has no regular daily life to offer to them. That is why they often seek appreciation and security in groups of children of their age, who use the streets and beaches of Bukom as refuge. They have never been to kindergarten or school, they do not speak English, which is a prerequisite for participating in the education system. They usually only speak Ga, the tribal language used in Bukom, and only a street dialect thereof.

Now imagine a child from such a background coming to a regular school...

We have taken on the duty to turn this zero chances situation into achievements for 52 children. That means for us that we have to take all possible steps to support them well enough to start a career. Since they come from a situation are high ly disadvantaged compared to children from middle class families, our efforts have to be extraordinarily big.

So it is a success for us that we can supply our former zero-children with 15 caregivers to support them on their difficult way:

The director Miss Janet Dowetin
three so-called house mothers, who do the household chores
a secretary for the routine office and administration work
a sports coach
a computer coach
three tutors to help with the homework etc.
a so-called house boy (caretaker)
two security staff
a driver

All this local staff is registered for health and social insurance!

Through this improved caregiving, we can give these children real opportunities for the future. 15 people are now looking after the career of these 52 children 52/15 is our success formula, that is only possible due to your support! And how do they thank you? By making use of their new opportunities! [160, 161, 162]

African Angel vs FC. Soccer Professionals Sakumono: 2:1

Among the African Angel boys are a number of talented street football players, who have even been spotted by talent scouts. Harriet reacted to this by employing a sports coach for the home. He not only coaches these boys, but also assembles children and adults for exercises. Since we do not have enough children for our own football teams, we invited children from other slum quarters of Accra to train and play with us. This way we could build three teams in the meantime: U 17, U14 and U 12. In the medium term, we would like to establish a girls team as well.

Our U17 team now successfully played its first friendly match against a team of the Ghana Football Association (GFA). To the great surprise and delight of the spectators the African Angel team won 2:1 against the Soccer Professionals from Sakumono. Congratulations! [148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159]

Bukom: Poverty, ignorance and voodoo

One in five houses in Bukom is a so-called voodoo house. Harriet has lived in Bukom for a long time and believes that even one in three houses follow this cult of fear. Harriet, as a believing Christian, wants to educate her children to become liberal, educated humans living after Christian values. At African Angel, there is no room for sinister curses and other kinds of occultism. It is a bright and friendly place with a lot of hope. Therefore Harriet firmly believes that her work will contribute to reducing the number of voodoo houses in Bukom. All African Angel children regularly take part in the life of the local parish church. The girls of African Angel already are keen participants of the very successful Independent Christian Womens Movement Ghana (Women Aglow). [163, 164, 165, 166, 167]