Future Stars Children’s Home
Future Stars runs a children’s home in Buduburam refugee camp. The home is a four bedroom house that has been converted to house 30 children. The children have all experienced different traumas: loss of parents, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and extreme poverty. Many of our children have been denied the chance of an education and have lived through severe neglect. The home strives to provide a better future for our kids by providing love, shelter, food, and education.
Volunteers that chose to work at the orphanage will be tasked with mentorship, counseling, general childcare, cleaning, and various other tasks. The children are desperate for mentors who are willing to spend quality time with them, and plan fun engaging activities.
Although childcare is the main focus, many volunteers get involved in repairs and painting since the house is in constant need of upkeep. Most volunteers that work at the children’s home also teach at the primary school.
Future Stars Primary School
Future Stars runs a primary school in Buduburam with classes from preschool through sixth grade. The school is made up of six classrooms, and an office building; classes run from 7 am to 3:30 pm. Volunteers will teach three classes to a specific grade: English, math, and science. After classes they will have the opportunity to be involved in sports and crafts. There are currently 180 children attending our school ranging from 2 – 16 years old.
A feeding program has been established in order to provide lunch every day; kids cannot learn on their empty stomach. Our goal is to aid, encourage, and inspire less privileged children to stay in school, and continue their education in order to lift themselves out of poverty.
Public Health: Education, Empowerment and Assessment
Poverty in Ghana has lead to poor hygiene practices, and unhealthy living conditions which in turn leads to disease. In Ghana the healthcare system is grossly inadequate; treatable diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS cause permanent disability and mortality. In order to improve the situation, Future Stars has partnered with clinics and hospitals that are in desperate need of volunteers.
Volunteers with medical training and medical students will support the local health centers in Buduburam and Senya. These clinics are severely understaffed and struggle to provide general care. Volunteer’s hands on work will depend on their qualifications. We do ask that they provide their own gloves, masks, and scrubs. In addition to working in the clinics, volunteers will be part of the community health team. Each week, the public health team conducts health talks to the students at district schools and villages.
Stop Child Labor
There are over 1.3 million children in Ghana who are engaged in child labor. The largest cause of child labor and trafficking is a family financial crisis; in desperation, a family will be forced to sell their child for a small sum of money. Children are sold to fisherman and taken to work in villages with little to no compensation; these kids will work until they’re either killed or severely injured.
Our child labor project is focused in the fishing communities of Fetteh, Nyanyano and Senya Beraku where child labor is a familiar hardship. Many families that sell their children or allow them to work are not aware of their fate which is why we strive to eliminate child labor through education.
Volunteers will host educational talks at local schools to raise awareness. Our goal is to educate families about trafficking and convince children to stay in school. In addition to educational talks volunteers will conduct research on the causes, effects, and best strategies for eradication of child labor.
Successful and Sustainable
In order to make Future Stars succesful and sustainable we need reliable sources of funding to support our operating costs and growth. We currently rely on donors and volunteers for all our funding. Although we have been able to cover our current operating costs we are working towards becoming more sustainable through a few different projects. These projects will either generate income or lower our operating costs while simultaneously benefiting the community.
Here’s the list of what we’re working on and plan to implement in the future:
A poultry farm project
A gardening project at school
A microloan project to support local woman in business
A small van (tro tro) business that creates jobs and financially supports our project
Eventually we also plan to build our own school, and children’s home