Help 19 disabled and disadvantaged kids in Ghana

Dear Donor,

At “Casa Italia” it’s time to take stock of what has happened during 2022 and which are the purposes for 2023. Our local partner Simona has shared the obstacles and difficulties faced during the last months, informing us also about all the progress reached that compensate for the efforts.

Some of the children hosted need constant medical assistance and a lot of time has been spent in hospital by the local staff in order to face their health emergencies. Each child has specific needs, has to be fed in a particular way and has to be medicated.

The rainy season has destroyed part of the roof and some walls of the structure that have been promptly repaired. The local staff frequently needs to buy orthopedic supports and wheelchairs.

Despite these difficulties, many are the successes reached and the lives changed. This is the case of Mawie: she was blind since when she was 6 years old and now – after 20 years – she had surgery in Italy and she can see. She has finished high school, she wants to become social worker and work for “Casa Italia”, which has been part of her life for 3 years. Grace was born with a serious hand’s malformation; she has been hidden for a lo o years and now she is proudly attending school. Joseph is Agostina’s son; they have both a disability and they lived in the street surviving thanks to occasional jobs. Now they live in “Casa Italia” and they have two rooms for their own. Jacob has finally come back to his family after 15 years.

The struggle remains, but it reminds us of all the goals reached and of all the purposes still to be reached. Together we can make a real difference in the life of a lot of children with disabilities and thanks to your help we can generate a great impact.

Thank you!

Dear Donor,

at “Casa Italia” the school ended in September and now in November the lessons have already restarted! Restrictions related to the pandemic are almost completely cancelled and the lessons are now carried out in person. Actually, official Covid-19 data in Ghana have never been so reliable, but the caution of our local representative Simona allowed to overcome this difficult period without children affected.

Children at school are collecting good results and every one of them is going forward in his/her path of personalized growth that adapts the goals to different capabilities and physical conditions. The main purpose is to make the children feel peaceful after the numerous negative experiences that they have lived. With the love of all the staff of the center and with an appropriate psychological support, they can overcome shocks and the children area ready to be included in host families. Our local representative Simona dedicates great efforts in order to follow this delicate phase: during these last years around 50 children have found a new family and are supported at distance.

The daily life of the center is going on and children are engaged not just at school because every one of them has to contribute to different activities of the center. For example, children are learning how to take part in household chores in particular during the meals in order to help each other.

Thanks to your help we can support “Casa Italia” and all the 19 children with disability hosted that now can live a more normal and safe life.

Thank you!

Dear Donor,

with this report we would like to update all of you about the project that we support with your help in favor of 19 children with a disability in Ghana. Even though the Covid-19 pandemics is going on, the activities of “Casa Italia” have never stopped. This is a letter written by Simona, our local representative that works every day with the children hosted in the center.

“Today V. has asked me if I remembered everything about my childhood. I answered that I don’t remember everything, for example I don’t remember every single thing about my bad past. V. asked me: “don’t you remember or don’t you want to remember because you know that it is bad?”. It is a good question. We have talked about the good people and the villains of history and V. told me that the villains are the people that get rid of children. I’ve answered that here in the center all the children are loved and safe and when they will be adult they can always count on us. We love every single aspect of their personality. We will always be there to listen to their good or bad stories, to overcome every nightmare and to be sure that they will collect positive memories. They must have the certainty that here no one will ever abandon them again.”

Through the words of Simona, we can understand how difficult it is for a lot of the children hosted to face their stories, to believe in their selves and to rebuild their life. Most of them have been abandoned because of their disability, have been abused or have lost their family. Thanks to your support we can help these children ensuring their education and medical care and we can guarantee their right to live in a safe place.

Thank you!

The World Health Organization reports that actually in Ghana there are still 160.028 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1.442 deaths. Our local referent Simona announces: “in the country there’s a lack of official data concerning the spread of coronavirus so it’s very difficult to understand the real number of deaths and confirmed cases due to coronavirus”. Her words in the latest update letter were full of suffering! She told us that one day she saw two children die because they were unable to breathe properly while she was at the hospital for some medical checks.

One of the most relevant problem in the country is the vaccination campaign! The majority of the population still refuses the vaccination because there’s mistrust and suspicion about it. According to the latest census the current population in Ghana exceeds 31,732,127 but unfortunately, actually, there are only 12.511.697 doses administrated.

In the past months the government has imposed several restrictions to reduce the virus circulation as for example the closing of the borders. For this reason, to protect our children health, our local referent has decided to keep the center close for visitors. This choice had a huge impact on donations but our priority is for sure children’s health-care. Actually, the school is open and our children keep going diligently and follow the classes with great interest!

We want to remind you once again the importance of our center for these children! Thanks to your support in our center we daily fight against social exclusion of disabled children in Ghana by providing them education and a safe place to live and grow up in.

Our kids need your help!

In Ghana, from the 3^rd of January 2020 till the 12^th of November 2021, there have been 130.649 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1.206 deaths, reported to WHO. As of  the 5^th of November  2021, a total of 3.162.666 vaccine doses have been administered. Thanks to the COVAX program, 2 million vaccine doses have been donated in October by European countries to the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, and the United States donated 1.3 million doses. This accelerated Ghana’s vaccination campaign and the country is now close to reaching 10% of fully vaccinated population.

But now come the good news, fortunately our children are doing well, schools and shops have re-opened! Some kids made very good progress despite the period of closure of schools. Most of them attend special schools where they follow personalized programs. For some of the children, it was time to return to their families, others found foster families ready to welcome them. Every child in the foster program is monitored with great attention because most of them has had traumatic experiences previously.

Our local representative Elena says that inside Casa Italia kids are always playing, they were gifted bikes, a trampoline and musical instruments, to allow them to experiment their skills and develop new capabilities apart from school homework.

In our distance support program, K. a little boy who is very a vivacious rascal who has obtained top grades in school and with the help of his therapist has made little steps forward to overcome the trauma he experienced when he was little. He’s coming up pretty well and he has regained use of his hand, surprisingly he’s taking percussion classes, we think it’s a great idea for a vibrant boy like him! He’s really passionate about bicycles and superheroes, he always teams up with another boy of the center to play superheroes together. As all the children of the center he has daily duties, he’s responsible for watering the flowers and he coordinates the kitchen!

N. another little boy who used to be shy till the point of staying alone in his room made lots of progress, he has learned to interact with the other kids, share his toys (he’s in love with cars) and tantrums had decreased a lot. Since he has learned to ride the bike, when he isn’t in kindergarten he plays all day. Like K. his preferred activity is watching movies or cartoons, he has his favorite but unlike other kids he doesn’t fight to choose, in the end he always gets what he wants. Sadly, he had some difficulty walking, and his right leg had to be bandaged but soon our local representative, Simona, will have him do a medical check-up to know the cause and possible cure.

The progress made by the kids represent all the appreciation they feel for the donors. Thanks to your donations, from July till October we collected 118,10 USD Dollars! Please keep supporting our kids, they need your help!