Act!on aid

For the last four years, members of the Discoverers, (St. Mary's Church young people's group) have been sponsoring a child called Anatu who lives in Ghana via the charity act!onaid. Anatu is now a young woman who has moved away to live in another village, so we are now sponsoring a little girl named Rahinatu.

Rahinatu was born in 2002, she is one of a family of 4 children. She attends school where she is learning to read and write. Many languages are spoken in the area, Rahinatu speaks Dagbani. The family lives in a village called Ngarun in the savanna grassland in northern Ghana. They have a small plot of land on which they grow food for their family, mainly maize and cassava. They also keep a few animals. The severe and unreliable climate in this part of the world makes farming difficult, contributing to the extreme poverty of the people.

Rahinatu's house is made of mud walls with a thatched roof and a protected water source nearby. Like many people in the area, they are a Christian family.

The money donated by the children and their families through our weekly collections goes directly to help the community in which Rahinatu lives. Act!onaid Ghana is committed to alleviating poverty in the area by working with the communities on a series of programmes to improve their food security and standard of living.

To mark the start of our sponsorship of this child, and to boost the collection money, we have asked the Discoverers children to think of some fundraising ideas that they would like to take part in. Watch out for posters around the village to see what they choose to do.

For more information about sponsoring a child go to www.actionaid.org.uk

We have just received an update from Action Aid about the work they are doing to encourage more girls to go to school and to promote equality between girls and boys. We also received the following personal message from Rahinatu and her field worker (2008):

"Christmas and new Year greetings from Rahinatu your dear friend to you and your family. Rahinatu says that she goes to the farm every weekend with her father to help drive away birds and animals. Rahinatu says that the crop she likes best is rice, but she doesn't eat it often."