'African Angel': Low Budget, Great Impact in Ghana

African Angel is a Germany-based organisation that was founded in 2002 by Harriet Bruce-Annan, an adorable woman from Ghana, and six friends of hers. Harriet is 'the' African Angel. She was born and raised in Accra, the capital of Ghana, in a well-off town quarter, and received a good education. Here is a picture of her as little girl. I think she looks like a little angel already :o).

Harriet frequently visited her grandmother in Bukom, one of the poorest quarters of Accra. Here I quote from the African Angel website, where it says: 'There were kids of her age who did not have enough food, no clean and proper cloth, slept with many other kids on the floor; and what appeared to her worst of all, was they had no money in order to attend school to have an education.' This made a deep impression on little Harriet, and from then on she had a dream of offering help to the children of Bukom.

Size: 238.537 km² (roughly equivalent to the United Kingdom). 24.2% of land area covered with forest.
Population: 23 million. Ethnic groups, languages and dialects present in Ghana can be counted by the dozens. Official language is English. It is also the standard language used for educational instruction.

Image source: Wikipedia/Creative Commons by Rei-artur

The following figures were taken from the Indicator Tables of the Human Development Report 2007/2008, published for the United Nations Development Programme:

Ghana's place on the human development index: 135 of 177 countries (US: place 12)

Health: Life expectancy at birth: 59.1 years (US: 77.9 years) + Probability at birth of not surviving to age 40: 23.8% (US probability of not surviving to age 60: 11.6%) + People not using improved water source: 25% (US: 0%) + Under weight for age (under age 5): 22% + Under 5 mortality rate per 1000 live births: 112 (US: 7) + Physicians per 100,000 people: 15 (US: 256)

Education: Illiteracy rate aged 15 and older: 42.1% (US: 1%) + Net primary enrolment rate 65% (US: 92%) + Net secondary enrolment rate 37% (US: 89%) + Internet users per 1000 people: 18 (US: 630)

Industry: GDP per capita (PPP US$): 2.48 (US: 41.89) + Population below income poverty line: $1 a day: 44.8%, $2 a day 78.5%, national poverty line 39.5% + Electricity consumption per capita: 289 kilowatt hours (US: 14,240) + Electrification rate: 49% (US: 100%) + GDP per unit of energy use (2000 PPP US$ per kg of oil equivalent): 5.4 (US: 4.6) + CO2 emissions per capita: 0.3 t (US: 20.6 t)

In 1991, when she was in her twenties and newly-wed, Harriet came to Germany. She had trained as an IT specialist in Ghana, and came with the intention to do additional training that would enable her to get a good job in her new home country.

However, she was unlucky, her marriage did not work out, and she found herself in a position where her only chance to support herself was to work as a cleaner at the Düsseldorf Messe (The Exhibitions and Fairs Park of Düsseldorf, her home city in western Germany). But here the story turns impressive: In spite of the hardship she had gone through, she had not given up her dream of helping the children from Bukom. Therefore, she accepted a second cleaning job for the evening hours at a Düsseldorf pub, and the money she earned there she saved for the children.

African Angel was founded in 2002 by Harriet plus six fellow supporters. Since then, they have been fundraising by the means possible for such a small organization. The image shows a poster advertising the 1st birthday-fundraising party held in the pub where Harriet worked her evening shifts.
As far as I can see, African Angel spend very little money on fundraising till today. Luckily, they received coverage from quite a number of local media, and gained new members as a result (and I am one of them).

This is the story of how the first 26 children moved in, as told on the African Angel website:
'On 14 September, 2004 was the day when 26 children from Bukom, after having been medically examined in a hospital, got the chance to look forward to a new beginning. They moved into a rented house Harriet was able to procure. This meant they were able to enjoy having their own bed to sleep in, eat regular meals, and a supply with a number of new clothing.
Apparently, Harriet had beds only for 24 children, but 2 additional kids, with all the excitement, had manage to smuggle themselves into the mini bus which carried the children to be checked in the hospital. The bus was crowded after the head-count had completed. Harriet was also too excited, at the time, and did not observe that the head count, unknowingly to her, had slightly increased.
After the medical check, the hospital gave Harriet the bill, stating the charges covered a total of 26 children. She complained, but then decided to do a re-count again, only to find out she too arrived at the same number. Not being able to leave these two kids behind, she had to quickly organise two extra mattresses. Now every child had to take its turn to sleep one night on a mattress on the floor. That's how she managed to have 26 instead of the original 24 children into the initial programme.'

In 2004, when the financial background seemed solid enough, Harriet went to Bukom an tried to persuade parents to leave their children to her care. This was a difficult task at first because parents were suspicious as to what her true intentions were and worried about their children's well-being. But she managed to win their trust and as a result took 26 children to live in a rented house in a 'good' area of town. Those children who are not orphans remain in contact with their families and regularly go for visits with them.



Initially, Harriet employed two women to share the house, cook and care for the children. And, very importantly, she arranged a place in a good school or kindergarten for everyone. None of them had gone to school before, but once given the chance, many of them advanced very fast and achieved good marks. In many cases children were able to advance to higher classes ahead of time. All children also are members of the Sakumomo Presbyterian Church. At least twice a week they attend church services and join in Sunday school activities or singing lessons.

In 2007, the children were kicked out of the rented house by the landlord, who had never been very cooperative. Finding new living space for the bunch of kids was difficult. Luckily, financial resources of the charity were just enough, in combination with Harriet's spirit and will-power, to buy a property. After renovation work, the children moved into their new accommodation in early 2008. The new building opened up the opportunity to accommodate more children; currently, there are 49 of them. A second building, that will provide living space for more children and hold a library, is currently under construction.

From the African Angel website:
'German Ambassador opens African Angel's new house in Accra!

It was quite exhausting in labour and time for Harriet over the past 2 months. When the German Embassy informed her that His Excellency, Dr. Marius Haas, and his wife, planned to attend the opening ceremony of the African Angel Home on the 17th February, Harriet was quite overwhelmed. She had actually planned and catered for only a big children's party with coke, chips and funny games, with no Dignitary in mind.
Spontaneously Harriet organised a more festive event with official speeches, and the National Anthems of both countries being sung by our Bukom children. As the Ghana Television and News Agencies were reporting the event, special scissors had to be purchased, so that the Ambassador could cut the traditional ribbon.
In the end, the day was mere happiness and joy: The Ambassador brought presents for our children, who welcomed their guests with waving flags and dances. It was also an exciting day for Harriet as well, who enjoyed and appreciated the official recognition of her work by the German Government.'

Since the foundation of her children's home, Harriet goes back to Ghana every year during her holiday. She uses the opportunity to spend time with the children and arrange the affairs of the home. This includes the purchase of building materials for the new house and supervision of the construction work. When these tasks are completed, she returns to her cleaning job in Germany.

Image: Harriet and two newly arrived children after the relocation to the new home.

Harriet left for her yearly visit to Ghana end of March this year and was scheduled to return early June. In the end, she returned in mid-August, as there were various unexpected problems to solve. There is now a report available on news and activities that took place during Harriet's stay. The report is in German, but I made a translation.... A brief note on this: The writing style of the German report is not as I would necessarily write it... but I tried to do a literal translation, as I think that might bring the spirit of those who run the project across to you... I hope you'll like!.

New donations arriving in Ghana
All children are well and they have received their presents - great happiness in the home! This took, however, a big effort. They went with 10 people, Harriet, Anne-Marie Galanis, her friend Anne Stowers and 7 of the older children to the customs authority to collect the container shipment from Germany. This meant that they had to empty the whole container, everything was checked and then had to be put back into the container. The older children had come to watch the things removed from the container, so that they would not 'run away'! This all took 6-7 hours! But they could only pick up the things the next day, as the customs duty still had to be calculated. But then there was great jubilation.
The children are very happy about the bicycles they got from their godfathers and -mothers! Those that cannot cycle yet are being taught by their housemates, and they become mobile. The largest part of the children now owns their own bike, but this also leads to chaos on the home's premise. Also this problem Harriet solved in her down-to-earth style: She made a plan for a bicycle shed that she then had built behind the security house. Now each child has a place for his or her 'vehicle' and order is reestablished on the premise.

A new school bus has been donated
Thanks to the generosity of our donors we were finally able to adjust our school bus capacity to our increased number of children: Together with Harriet also the large container with the bus donation from the Broich family and all the other donations at the seaport. With the two minibuses all 52 children can be transported to school and back simultaneously. They were also used for driving to the beach party. One can imagine the fun bunch of people on the road - 52 singing children, Harriet, four Germans and several more people.

A field trip with the children
For one day, the plan was to visit a nature reserve. So all buses, cars and people were set into motion again - for a 4 hour trip. Then, upon arrival at the nature reserve, it turned out that another 3 hour waiting period would have been necessary to enter the reserve. This was not desirable and so the return journey was begun. Luckily, a restaurant was discovered, and Mr. Broich invited everyone for a meal - that was a premiere for all children, since none of them had been to a restaurant before. There was chicken with French fries or rice and Coke and Sinalco for everyone. Mr. Broich said that it was a great job by the three men in the restaurant to serve 60 people so fast and well. The restaurant was closed for the day afterwards, though - the whole food stock had been finished!

The house is growing
The main reason for her trip was the timely continuation of the construction work of the third house. Everybody who has ever built his own house knows what this means: As soon as the building owner is away, nothing happens at all! So once again Harriet spent weeks as architect, builder, procurement operator for building materials, lead worker and labourer in one person. She again did justice to her reputation as 'slave driver' with the Ghanaian workers. During the last days of her stay the plaster floor was cast and the concrete walls plastered. Now the second floor is more or less finished. The rooms of the ground floor now have ceilings to protect them from rain and are partly in use already. The office moved from the girls' house to the new building and is fully functional: There are three PC places and an extra room that only contains filing and registry, and two toilets. The former office is in transitional use as a guest room. Also rooms of the ground floor that are not completely finished yet are being used by the children as dining rooms or for doing their homework.
How important Harriet's eyes are 'on site' became also evident regarding the unpaved front yard surrounding the houses. After each heavy rain shower, of which there are quite a few in Africa, the yard became a swamp with water rising ankle-high. Harriet solved the problem by ordering three lorryloads of stones to pave the yard.

New staff members
The growth of the number of children and the increase in the size of the home were a significant challenge regarding administration and financial affairs, housekeeping, learning efficiency, logistics, medical and pedagogic care and safety. Due to her long-term observations from March to August, Harriet had to notice inappropriate developments and to react to them. This meant to restructure staff for the benefit of the children: The contract with the present director was cancelled. For finding new staff, job ads were published, suitable candidates were invited for interviews and the most suitable persons were offered a trial contract. Only after a trial period and subsequent discussions the contracts will be approved by the Germans steering committee. The financial situation will play a large role in this process. As of now, the following positions were filled by new staff members for a trial period:

Principal director of the home, Rebecca Yeboah, made her Bachelor of Science at university and also has experiences in administration. She will be responsible for running the home as a whole regarding administration (including reports and accounting), home economics, staff management, and pedagogy. She will also represent the home towards governmental authorities and engage in contacts with other Ghanaian institutions.
Assistant director, Janet Dowetin, trained as a teacher and will support the director especially in the areas of education and pedagogy, but also in administration and school issues.
Office assistant, Rhoda Hammond, will be mainly occupied with office work, but will also, from time to time, supervise the work of other staff as well as the children. Harriet preliminarily employed these three persons for the same sum as was previously paid to the old director alone. Additional members of staff were employed in order to adapt to the new situation (higher number of children):

Sports coach, Kennedy Sarpong: Sports are hardly taught at school. But there are a number of girls and boys who are already very talented soccer players. These are in danger of being attracted by empty promises of so-called club scouts and sometimes diverted away from school to very dubious soccer clubs. They will usually yield to these temptations and be lost for a good education. We therefore decided to train these talents at our home. To this end, a sports trainer currently comes to the home three times a week to coach our soccer talents. Additionally, he carries out a compulsory early morning exercise every Saturday from 5 to 8 am for all children and their mothers.

Daytime caretaker Helen Nketsiah. Since the two home economics staff are busy preparing the meals nearly all around the clock the children were too little attended too often. Currently, Helen provides this attention until 10 pm. In case financial resources will admit some day, we will of course prefer 24hour attendance.

Security personnel: These positions are very sensitive since they concern the children's safety. Harriet had to give notice to one of the two male security guards as he had proven unreliable. Since there are only few female security guards in Ghana, Harriet had to employ another male, Uriah Ballan. He is a lucky pick, though, as he is a bicycle repair expert and takes care of the children's vehicles.

Our main mission: Education of the children
The main goal of African Angel is to provide a good education for the children from Bukom as a basis for their future! In contrast to Germany, there are no good public schools in Ghana. So we are dependent on private schools. When our program started, Sakumono Complex School was an appropriate solution. But unfortunately conditions there deteriorated during the past: Classes are crowded now and there is a shortage of teachers especially in for the first few school years, which are of special importance. This lead to a lack of interest and motivation among the children which in the end turned Sakumono Complex School into a mere 'children retention establishment'. This development was so worrying to Harriet that she decided to have some children change to different schools. Since May 2009 most children are attending Ann Lisa International School, and some will start at Vison Intellectuals School with the beginning of the new school year. The remainder still attends Christ Preperatory School in Sakumono. Support and stimulation for the children are much better in these schools! Their behavior and especially their study habits considerably improved after changing schools. But this success had its price - school fees roughly tripled compared to the previous situation.

Another aspect of the children's education are the so-called Vacation Classes that are preparatory classes for the next school year. The are not strictly compulsory, but yet almost indispensable to ensure success during the next school year. And there is something like peer pressure: Those who do not participate get isolated from the rest of the class. Vacation Classes started the first week of August and ended first week of September, when regular school started. Attendance fees this year were 13 Euros for each child, i.e. 676 Euros in total. The money could be raised by Harriet with a big effort.

Protection of culture
In order to protect the old cultures from getting lost in the cause of the society's modernization, Ann Lisa International School holds a 'Cultural Day' in July. On this occasion, children dress in the traditional costumes of different tribes, also from Ghana's neighbor countries, and celebrate the cultures. Of course, children of African Angel participated in this, and symbolically performed several ceremonies, like the Kpanlogo-Dance, the Wolomo (priest's prayer), rites of Nigerians when they meet an Ingwe, a Nigerian king, and the appearance of an Asantehene (Ghanaian Asante king).

The Book!
For one and a half years a book on the life of Harriet has been in production, and it will be published in October. The author Beate Rygiert visited the African Angel cottage for a week in May 2009 to have a detailed discussion about the book with Harriet, and to see the children's daily life herself. The book will be published by 'Lübbe Verlag'.

"Ye da mu ase, Nyame enshira mu"
The children of Bukom thank you for your interest and your kind support, saying "Nye yiwala donn agbo agboi" ("Many thanks" in Ga) and "Ye da mu ase, Nyame enshira mu" ("Thank you and God bless you" in Twi).

Clicking on the logo will take you to the English version of the 'African Angel' website. You will note that their site is a bit sketchy at times, but this is because all is run by just a few volunteers. The English version of the site is, for lack of manpower, much shorter than the German version. Especially, the English version contains no photos, for which you have to go to the German one. But there you will find plenty, especially under Home, Erfolge, and Ziele.

• Promote this lens by voting for it on Squidom:



• Promote this lens by: Rating, commenting, lensrolling, digging, voting for at lensroll.com, or linking to this site to increase traffic (this will spread the word) and to help keeping a good lensrank (this will earn a little for African Angel).


• Have a look at the Ghana- and Africa-related products displayed towards the bottom of this page.


• Currently, donations of English language children's books are needed to fill the library. In case you have some that you would like to get rid of you can post them to African Angel's office in Düsseldorf, from where they will be shipped to Ghana by sea together with other donated items. Their address is: African Angel e.V., Derendorfer Str. 89, 40479 Düsseldorf, Germany.


• Donate a little money, preferably via PayPal. Their PayPal address is info@african-angel.de

Remember, the motto is
(as analogy to the tips that Harriet receives in her cleaning jobs):

50 Cents Can
Change the World

If you prefer making a donation by bank transfer,
please find the details at the bottom of this page.

Coming across the book displayed above made me dip a little into Kente cloth. Isn't it truly beautiful? Here is some of what I found out about it.

Kente cloth is, as I have read, the best known of all African textiles. It is a silk fabric made of individual woven strips that are later sewed together. In Ghana, Kente is made by several people, including the Asante, Fante and Nzema. It is outstanding for its bright and multicolored patterns, and was the cloth of kings in ancient Ghana. Still today, it is only worn on special occasions.

Strips are generally three to four inches wide and seven to ten feet long, and the length of time it takes to complete one strip varies by the complexity of the chosen pattern. Of the simplest style, an experienced weaver can make several strips in one day. For others, it can take up to four days to complete a single strip. The patterns themselves are carefully chosen symbols, which a master weaver develops and names, often to honor people, historical events, or proverbs.

Photo used under Creative Commons from whiteafrican.

Please also scroll down to the ebay shop if you would like to see some more Kente cloth examples!