Posts Tagged ‘Marcel’

Update from Ghana

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Here is a little glimpse of what Freedom Stones in doing in Ghana, shared by Marcel Koppejan, Freedom Stones’ Regional Operations Director of West Africa.

Freedom Stones in is a place of expansion. Recently we have been engaging new partners around Ghana as we prepare for a large order from a jewelry company in the US. In the month of June FS worked with two new partners: Krobodan and the Village of Hope. Krobodan is a Danish based NGO that works with single mothers and other vulnerable women in small villages around the town of Kofiridua. FS was able to train 19 women who are very excited to start production in August. Our order will give these women a meaningful income and help them to break the cycle of poverty.

Also, in the month of June FS worked with the VOH. We are partnering with the Village of Hope’s street children program. The VOH bring together a group of youth who come from the streets of the larger cities in Ghana to a rural location for a nine month skills training program, teaching them such vocations as auto mechanics, tailoring, local kente weaving, and Ghanaian tie and dye. Through the upcoming FS jewelry order they will be able to earn an income that will help them to save for a seed fund that will enable them to be successful in their transition from the training program to being productive citizens of Ghana. The pictures below are from our time at the Village of Hope trainings.

Fabri Joseph (studying auto mechanics). Really skilled with his hands.

Isaac (studying auto mechanics)

A guy named Bless working on one of the samples.

Emmanuel, serious with his work

Isaac

Emmanuel showing Gideon how to tie the knots.

Getting Ready for Ghana!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Hi everyone,
Wanted to let you know we will be trying to blog here as much as we can while we are in Ghana this next month to keep you updated on our progress there. So subscribe to our RSS feed if you are tech savvy and you can hear from us all the latest developments of our launch of formal operations there. The first team of women is leaving this Friday. Please pray for myself, Gina Calvert, Jessica Hooten, and Kara Ulmer as we spend our first few days in Accra doing logistical errands like buying beads, etc. Also be praying for our second team which will come in mid March. Those traveling then will be Trish Trueblood, Bri Wollman and Janice Ingram. And also keep Marcel Koppejan, our West African Regional director in your prayers as he is really running the show over there and has a lot on his plate.

Marcel met with his first group of widows in the Kete Krachi region today and explored with them how Freedom Stones might help them and their children who are vulnerable to trafficking in this region.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you. So keep checking back here for updates.

Thanks,
Leah Knippel
Founder/Director
Freedom Stones