The Education Center-Phase 1 of Foundation |

In my last blog post about the Education Center I was FINALLY able to tell everyone the big news that I had to keep a secret until it was official. Click here to read what exciting things are happening with the Center!

After officially being granted the land, we got straight to work. The first step was taking the final plans from the architect to our contractor who quantified all of our materials needed. He told us how many bags of cement it will take to lay the foundation, how many iron rods for the support beams, how many bricks for the walls, all the way down to the gallons of paint needed. This helped us create a very rough budget for all the supplies and labor needed. We came up with the number of 35,000 cedis, or roughly $20,000. $20,000 will build the entire physical structure but does not include installing internet/electricity, computers, furniture, textbooks, supplies, shipping donated books to Ghana, security, etc. My dream number is $50,000, which will build, equip, and open the Center and includes an operating funds for 1 year. Wow…that’s a lot of money I need to raise by June 2013.

I was itching to begin building and thanks to some amazing Global Giving donors we had just enough money to complete phase 1 of the foundation-molding 1,500 blocks to be used in the trenches of the foundation. On Christmas Eve our contractor and I went over to the supply shop and bought 45 bags of cement, 5 truckloads of sand, and 20 barrels of water for a total of $910 USD (US Dollars) and had it transported to the land! Our workers came early Christmas Day (they were very excited to begin and wanted to start right away!) and we officially started molding 1,500 blocks.

When I left for the US on December 28th about 1,000 blocks were finished and the workers were in amazingly high spirits and determined to finish the remaining 500 blocks in 2 days!

We will be building the Education Center in stages. First the foundation, then support beams, walls, roof trusses, roof, windows, doors, etc. We will start the next stage once we’ve raised enough money for the supplies and labor, so the faster I raise the money, the faster the Center can be built. But the entire center must be built by August 2013, at the latest, so we can begin operation when the new school term starts.

After building the blocks, we don’t have enough money to break ground just yet and need $2,000USD more to completely finish the foundation. You may donate through our Global Giving campaign, all donations are tax deducible.

In the coming weeks I will be posting a longer blog post on how you can get involved with the Education Center, from fundraising to coming to volunteer in Ghana!

The offer still stands that–
if you raise $20,000 or more I will take you on a 2 week trip to Ghana for the opening of the center in the summer of 2013. (I’m serious). You will meet and get to know the children who will attend the center, live with a Ghanaian host family, volunteer with Light for Children, and be emerged into every aspect of Ghanaian life. It will be an amazing experience and will open your eyes and change your life in many ways.
Who’s in?