A Gift of Education

Last summer, while I was in the throes of meeting untold demands from our U. S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana, West Africa, in order for them to honor a request for a visa for one of their best and brightest 16-year-old students, I preserved my sanity by working on a special quilt that I hoped might help other children in the village to have an opportunity to attend Heritage Academy. (You can read about my experience as a volunteer teacher of creative writing in the summer of 2007 elsewhere in my blog.)

The picture above shows the finished queen-size quilt top: it is entirely made of batik fabrics and contains 1,342 pieces. It was professionally quilted, and I have received many compliments on it. Actually, I would say it is my best effort.

There are two potential good things that will come out of this quilt: 1) you may win it if you buy a raffle ticket for $1, or six tickets for $5, and 2) even if you don't win, some child will come closer to being able to attend the Heritage Academy school which this year had 100% success among the students taking their national exams, which permit them to go to high school.

One year's tuition at Heritage costs $75, so your money goes a long way. If you would like to participate in this gift of education, please send a check made out to Schoerke Foundation, 400 W. School Lane, Westtown, PA 19395, along with your telephone number, and Melissa Koomson, Director of Schoerke Foundation, will put tickets in the drawing pot for you.

If you'd like to know more about my friends Kwesi and Melissa Koomson and the amazing educational difference they are making in Ghana, go to Schoerkefoundation@yahoo.com.

PS Doing battle with the Consulate ultimately had a happy ending, and we now have Sarah Nyame, 16, here with us in the States. She is living with my daughter-by-affection and attending McDevitt High School, and I am her grandmother. I pick her up after school each day and she does her homework at my kitchen table, and I have not had such joy in my life for a long, long time.