Newsletter


 

Dear friends and supporters of GLOVO!
GLOVO feels sorry to keep you all waiting for so long for the new newsletter. Due to some administrative hitches and the focus on the construction work on GLOVO Academy at the new site which was to be completed before September, we did not find time to write this newsletter.  The whole GLOVO team hopes that you all had a great summer and has much news to inform you about from the last months as we continue to put all effort in helping and brightening the children’s future academically as well as their living conditions. 

Volunteer Project:  Within the last two months, we had to say goodbye to all GLOVO volunteers. Most of them left between the end of August and the beginning of September, except Luisa, who stayed for about two more weeks to help at the GLOVO Academy. Whereas a group of supporting volunteers left, six new volunteers joined the GLOVO team. Four of them were sent through ARA (Agricultural and Rural Development Association) and the latest two via Kultur-Life. While the ARA volunteers are taking part at the GLOVO ICT program, supporting the current ICT teachers at the GLOVO schools with their time, ideas and knowledge as well as learning for themselves. We also are happy to welcome our new office Assistant Secretary, who will be helping at the office, as well as giving some of her time to the children at the GLOVO Academy nursery.  The newly arrived Kultur – Life volunteers will be teaching at the GLOVO Academy and we are thankful to actually start a French teaching program in Primary one and two through one of them.  Those two volunteers will be in Ghana for three and six months respectively and we are looking forward to a wonderful enriching time with all volunteers and say AKWAABA to all of them.

The GLOVO doors are always open for everyone interested in becoming a part of this great program and family and for everyone who would like to give their time to the children in need, helping them on their way through basic education. To get more information contact Kultur-Life (www.kultur-life.de) or take a look at our homepage www.glovo.org.

Back-to-school program: As the new school term began in September, GLOVO’s Back-to- school program also started again. As we did the previous years we tried to support and distribute assorted educational materials to all the children under the wings of GLOVO. Sadly, we did not have the chance to provide our children with new school uniforms within the last two years. Many of them have already grown out of their last set of uniform. To offer those boys and girls a new uniform and further materials for their education, we depend on your help. With one Dollar or two Euros, each of us would be able to help a deprived and needy child get their own fitting school uniform. Please, take a minute to think about this wish and donate at our blog at www.Betterplace.org to save the situation.

Expansion of the GLOVO Academy: As we told you in our previous newsletters, we are happy to have a new building containing two class rooms for Primary one and two of the GLOVO Academy, though partially complete. The two rooms were opened for teaching and learning when the new academic year started on 11th September this year. Officially the building is not inaugurated because our target is not a two-classroom building but a multi-purpose GLOVO Village comprising several important facilities. We hope to one day welcome you to the GLOVO Academy Complex, GLOVO clinic, GLOVO ICT center, GLOVO Counseling Center and GLOVO foster home for abandoned and street children, all located in the Glovo Village. To realize this dream, the children and we, the GLOVO family, depend on you for more help. A single building or block will be named after the generous donors who open their heart for the children in need.

Special thanks are sent to the MorningStar Family Ministries Inc. in Canada who has shipped to us a 20-feet container full of items such as mattresses, clothing, medications and toiletries. We’ve distributed almost half of it to GLOVO children and their families and can report of many thankful and happy faces.
As all GLOVO staff members put their time, effort and energy in the brightening of our children’s future and focus on the GLOVO Academy, our Director, Mr. Williams Yirenkyi, got the unique chance to go to Germany for three weeks. He takes his aims and ideas with him to spread the vision and message of GLOVO Ghana over there. He will have a bilateral discussion with Kultur-Life on volunteering and a business meeting with GLOVO Germany. With his experiences and focusing on the children’s health and future, he will try toliaise with sponsors and interested people, spread GLOVO’s vision and work. This is another further step in strengthening GLOVO’s work and relationships worldwide.

Monitoring of new volunteers: As GLOVO sees itself as a big family including all volunteers and staff members, it is a part of the office to check on the new volunteers’ integration into their new environment and workplace. Therefore, the office members went on a monitoring and asked about their belongings and arriving. All of the three ICT program volunteers were welcomed kindly and openly by the school staff as well as the children. All of them are looking forward to their time as teachers’ assistants and working together with those motivated kids and accompany those on their way through education and growing up.
Last but not least, we hope to keep on walking this road towards our aims and visions with you all together so as to guide, support and monitor all those children under our care on their way into a good, successful and healthy future.

May God bless you all!

Your GLOVO Team,
Ghana
www.glovo.org




Dear friends and supporters of GLOVO!

During the past few months the whole GLOVO Team has continuously worked to keep on carrying out our various projects so as to guarantee the steady movement of the Organization with all its good and important aims of helping to satisfy the needs of all the deprived children under our care in order to make their future look brighter.

Volunteer Project: Through the GLOVO Volunteer Project there has been a lot of movement within the organization during the past couple of months. In May one of our short-term volunteers from ‘Kultur-Life’, our German partner organization left us and just throughout the first weeks of June we received four new volunteers from the same organization. The duration of their stay ranges from four weeks up to three months. Whilst we are sending some of our volunteers to different projects, some of them are also working in the GLOVO Academy, assisting the teachers in caring for the children, teaching them and also bringing in new ideas in order to help support and improve the work of the GLOVO staff. Some of them have even brought and donated some games and learning materials to the school for the usage during lessons and breaks which we are very thankful for.
We are grateful to see how all of them are working very hard, bringing in all their efforts, so as to support the work of the organization, which they are now part of. Furthermore it makes us very happy, that, at the end of their service, we can send them home with a suitcase, full of new, exciting experiences, newly achieved knowledge and visions. As we are doing our best to make their stay over here a memorable one, we hope that our volunteers have experienced / learned things, which will be helpful for their future lives.
If you too would like to be one of them, please feel free to contact ‘Kultur-Life’ (www.kultur-life.de) or visit our homepage for further information (www.glovo.org).

Expansion of the GLOVO Academy: As we told you in our last newsletter, GLOVO now proudly owns a big plot of land close to the recent location of the school, which we will use for the planned expansion of the academy. During the past few months we have started building a three classroom block, which is yet to be completed. It is rather unfortunate that at this point in time we will only be able to completely finish one of the classrooms until the beginning of the new school year in September 2012 due to our lack of funds. Though we are praying to find a way of raising more funds for the completion of the building, we are still hopeful to at least be able to finish one classroom which we will need for hosting the new Basic School Class 2, for this year’s Class 1 pupils.
We have also harvested some of the crops from our own newly established farm on the new land which will be a great support to the school in case of feeding when school resumes in the second week of September. 


GLOVO School Project: Lately the GLOVO Academy had to deal with some few hindrances which are mostly still a natural follow-up from the school being quite new and GLOVO struggling on getting enough funds for covering the cost of all its meaningful and worthy projects.
First, the salary which we are able to give to the school staff is comparatively low which caused the resignation of our headmaster. We haven’t found a new one, so in the meantime our Director Mr. Williams Yirenkyi has to monitor the school himself. Additionally just some few weeks ago our KG2 Class Teacher gave birth, so we had to replace her for the period of three months until she comes back to school. It is a normal thing that, if there are leaves and newcomers are brought into a team it has to newly reconstruct itself, find areas of responsibilities, learn how the other ones work and how to work together. Of course as a result of the expansion of the school, the team will also expand more and more with the time passing so that there will always be bigger or smaller changes, but we believe in the strength of the whole GLOVO team including management and school staff to be able to go through this period hand in hand and overcome hindrances commonly.
Another problematic issue is that the management was forced to increase the school feeding and transportation charges in order to be able to cover all the huge costs. Due to that some of our students from one of the rural villages have stopped attending school, because even though the increase of the feeding charges was only small, some of the families cannot afford to pay this amount. This is exactly the opposite of our aim to make quality education available for everyone, no matter where they come from and what the financial situation of the family is like, so as to provide all those deprived children with one of the biggest childhood treasures – education – which will make their future look brighter. For that reason we are hoping to be able to find a way for those students to come back to school as soon as possible.


Third Anniversary of the Organization: Three Years ago around this time of the year Glorious Vision Orphans was founded by our Director Mr. Williams Yirenkyi. Though we couldn’t celebrate this anniversary, for us it is a reason to remember where we are coming from, what we have been able to achieve over the past years full of ups and downs and what we are still aiming for. Over the time we started a lot of worthy projects which had an impact on the lives of many children and their families for example the ‘Health Insurance Project’, the “Child Support’ and also not forgetting the ‘School Project’. Big projects such as the expansion of the GLOVO Academy or the ‘Asifaw Foundation’ need a lot of patience, time, work and a strong team in order to become what we want them to be in the future but we believe that we can get much closer to our goal if only we all keep on working wholeheartedly together. Even those small things like our ‘End of Year Parties’ or organized soccer games shouldn’t be missing here because they brought the GLOVO family together and put smiles on everyone’s faces. 
Again we want to show our appreciation to those who have made such great efforts in order to support our work in one way or the other: A big THANK YOU to the whole GLOVO team, our donors and volunteers. Without you we wouldn’t have made it so far in such a short period of time.

Well-done To Volunteers: A small Get-together was organized by Management for the long term volunteers whose internship period expired in August. The short term volunteers were also invited to share in the joy. Certificates were presented to the volunteers for a good service rendered to humanity. We say bravo! 

Passing away of Glovo Child: We regret to announce, that GLOVO child, Comfort Sam, has died. She was diagnosed of kidney failure and died two weeks after admission at Ghana’s premier hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. Management attended the funeral and made a cash donation to the parents of the late Glovo child. 
Last but not least, we hope to keep on walking this road towards our aims and visions with you all together so as to guide, support and monitor all those children under our care on their way into a good, successful and healthy future. 

May God bless you all!

Your GLOVO Team,
Ghana
www.glovo.org



April 2012
Dear friends of GLOVO!

Another two months have passed by and as always we now would like to brief you on our work and the recent outcome of it through this newsletter.

House-to-House Monitoring: During the last couple of months we have been very busy visiting all the GLOVO children in and around Swedru in the cause of our House-to-House Monitoring Project. When we went for this project the last time we already realized that one of the main problems most families are facing in cases of supporting the education of their respective child, is the lack of electricity in many of the rural communities we are operating in. Because of this it becomes very difficult for the children to do their homework and also learn in the evenings. Of course GLOVO saw this problem and we are convinced that it is very important to address this issue as best as we can. As a result of that we donated study lamps during our recent monitoring activities to those who don’t have access to electricity. All the children and their families were very grateful for this kind of support and we hope to be hearing about positive changes the next time we are going there. 

Franzi in Ghana
Additionally we lately have been able to distribute food items study lamps and toiletries to all our children. The donation for this activity was raised by Morningstar Family Ministry and two of our former volunteers Simon Ansel and Noomi and at this point we wish to truly express our appreciation for that, because we believe that even the smallest donation can make a big difference, can put smiles on the faces of all the children under our care.

Visit of Simon: In the beginning of March one of our former volunteers, Simon Ansel, returned to Ghana for the duration of one month, two years after he completed his volunteer service. Within the period of his stay over here he visited the GLOVO office several times, joined us for House-to-House Monitoring, travelled to Asifaw with our Director Williams and of course visited the GLOVO Academy.


Lawrencia
We are very happy to see that former volunteers keep visiting us because it shows how much they still feel connected to GLOVO and it as well expresses their appreciation for our work. Besides that we also want to say thank you to Simon for making big efforts to raise some funds in order to support GLOVO projects. Firstly his donation aided the purchase of the new land for the expansion of the GLOVO School and secondly through these donations we were able to supply all the GLOVO children with food items and toiletries as mentioned above. 

Volunteer Project: Just as we told you in our past newsletters, the GLOVO Volunteer Project is growing steadily. We have had so many volunteers from all over the world working at GLOVO Academy. We are always very happy to welcome a new volunteer to the GLOVO family, because every single person brings in new ideas, perceptions and attitudes. As a result of the cultural and personal exchange, that naturally takes place, the quality of the work we are doing here is improving bit by bit.
So if you would also like to volunteer with GLOVO Projects, please contact ‘Kultur-Life’. For further information and articles of some of our volunteers feel free to check out our homepage (www.glovo.org).

Glovo Academy
GOVO Academy Expansion: We are very happy to be able to tell you at this point that by now we have been able to purchase the new land for the expansion of the GLOVO School. We were very lucky that the owner of the land was willing to set up a contract with us, which made it possible for GLOVO to only hand a part payment – the amount our budget allowed us to spend - to that person. The total cost of the land is not less than the sum of GHC 9,500.00 and at this point we wish to express all our appreciation and gratitude to Judith Mletzko, who has been able to raise a lot of funds for this project. Judith was a German volunteer in the year 2009 at the Government Hospital here in Swedru. She heard about GLOVO through some of her volunteer friends, got very curious about our work and as a result of that came to visit us in November 2011. She started supporting GLOVO Projects from then on. Our thanks go to Judith and all the people who have been willing to come to our aid in trying to better the lives of all those orphaned, handicapped and vulnerable children from Swedru and its surroundings. 

Judith loves children
Above all we are very relieved that now we have been able to make this first big step towards our visions and aims of expanding the school and with this to make quality education accessible to more and more deprived children from the rural communities so as to help to make their future look brighter. At this time our way forward is to try to raise more funds in order to complete the payment of the land and also for the movement of the school (building of new classrooms etc.) to the new location, which should be done by the beginning of the new school year in September 2012. As a way of saving money and helping the school to become more self-reliant we have started a farming project at the new land in order to support the school feeding. 
Health Insurance Projects: Just recently we carried out two big Health Insurance Registration Projects so as to ensure instant and quality health care for those who can not afford the payment of the Health Insurance (2 Euros/ child/ year). Both projects were supported by donations some of our volunteers had been able to raise and we are very thankful for this kind gesture. 
-          GLOVO Academy: The first exercise that we have been doing took place on March 30th 2012 at the GLOVO Academy. Here we registered about 80 of the school children and additionally the teachers onto the National Health Insurance Scheme.


-          Asifaw: On April 10, 2012 we travelled to Asifaw village with three GLOVO Executives and four of our volunteers in order to carry out the second exercise. Once the officials had arrived we were happy to be able to have about 100 of the Primary School children being registered and it was great to see that quite some of the rural dwellers/ parents of the children had heard about this exercise. As a result of that many of them also showed up on the day GLOVO had brought the officials to the village so as to register themselves.

Registration of Health Insurance in Asifaw
The GLOVO Team also used the chance of being there on that day to discuss with the Community Representatives about the achievements as well as the way forward concerning Asifaw projects. Furthermore we hiked to the Umbrella Rock again in order to witness the developments that had taken place at this site. It was truly a big and amazing surprise and those who had been there could hardly believe that it was the same rock because by now all the undergrowth had been cleared away so that we were able to climb to the top platform of the rock. From here we had a fabulous view over the whole area including all the small villages and we could just imagine how nice it would be to enjoy a picnic up there in the middle of the beautiful nature of Ghana. We believe that this Umbrella Rock is an awesome tourist site and it is totally worth going there, also to see the waterfall and maybe to actively experience the village life for some time.  We are hoping that once we promote it people will be coming there, so that the village people can raise some funds through this themselves, for bettering their own lives.
Last but not least we wish to inform you that just lately we have set up a new GLOVO homepage (www.glovo.org) which includes many new features, information about all our projects, articles about the recent outcome of our work, volunteer articles etc. So please don’t hesitate to take a look at it and maybe you too will want to support one of our projects in one way or the other and join our family for the worthy means of all the deprived children under our care. For further information we are also always happy to help you out.

Once again we thank those of you who have been supporting us over the past years. Without your help GLOVO wouldn’t be what it already is, a steadily growing NGO.

The sunniest greetings to all of you from Agona Swedru, Ghana

Your GLOVO Team






February 2012
Dear friends and supporters of GLOVO!

 First of all the whole GLOVO Team wants to wish all of you a belated very happy new year. May it be full of blessings and joy.
We hope you have all taken off well for the New Year and through this newsletter we would like to brief you on how GLOVO started into 2012. A year which will hopefully be a big success for us; a year in which we all want to work hard together for the important means of all the disabled, orphaned and less-privileged children under our care; a year full of good projects; a year full of happiness!


End of Year Party: We were very happy and thankful that on December 28th 2011 we were able to have an End of Year Party for all the GLOVO children. The basic idea behind that was to gather all the children under our care so as to put smiles on their faces and to take off for the New Year all together. Through this we want to once more express our appreciation and gratitude to the Manager and staff of the, close to Swedru located, ‘AAA Restaurant’, who kindly sponsored and organized the whole party for us. They served us with drinks and food, which perfectly concluded those joyful hours we were given with the kids. We believe that this day was a great conclusion for a year full of ups and downs. It was a true blessing for everyone and you could basically see it under the motto: Where you give a smile, there you get one back.


Volunteer Project: I think as you already know, we are working on establishing our own volunteer project and until now the outcome is pretty good. So far we are cooperating with two different organizations. First of all the German organization ‘Kultur-Life’, from which we received our first ever own GLOVO volunteer in December 2011. Lore has successfully completed her service in January 2012.She was very satisfied with her stay here in Ghana and wants to still support GLOVO, now that she is back in Germany. In March 2012 we will receive the next volunteer from this organization and are just as excited as we were the first time about working together as well as sharing ideas with another volunteer. The second organization we are cooperating with is ‘AISEC’, which is operating worldwide. On January 9th 2012 two new volunteers, one from Germany and the other from Australia, were brought to the GLOVO office by one of the organization’s staff. One of them is teaching at GLOVO Academy and the other one has been working at the Church of Christ School until he completed his service and left Ghana after six weeks.
Apart from the well appreciated huge efforts the volunteers are distributing towards GLOVO, the sharing of ideas and the cultural exchange are only a few aspects of the positive influences the work with volunteers has on GLOVO. We are indeed very glad about the ongoing process of this project. If you would like to volunteer with GLOVO, please don’t hesitate to contact the above named organizations. (www.kultur-life.de)

Visit of American friends: On February 12th, 2012 two American friends arrived in Ghana for the first time in order to visit GLOVO. On Monday the 13th they first of all came to our office, where they were given a welcome address by Williams Yirenkyi, the Executive Director. After that he took them to some of our project sites, so that they could learn more about GLOVO and its various actions. They were very impressed with the work GLOVO is doing. Our American friends spent the following days with the Director, showing them a few places in Ghana until they left Ghana on Friday, February 17, 2012.


The School Project: Of course the GLOVO Academy has also started freshly into the new year but whilst the school children are coming to school as usual and the school staff is keeping up the hard work, we are still having a hard time raising funds for the daily use (staff salaries, food, fueling of the school car etc.). Additionally we are still struggling with getting enough funds that will make it possible for us to buy the land, where we are planning to move the school for expansion. Even though there are a lot of hindrances in our way we still so believe in the need of what we are heading for - caring for and supporting vulnerable, orphans and disables in bettering their lives and helping them to become as self-reliant as possible by furnishing them with quality education - because our aim is what is best for the children under our care.
Expenditure of our support programs: Just a few weeks ago the Director of GLOVO traveled to the northern parts of Ghana for a whole week, because we are now thinking about and planning to also operate in the Upper East Region of the country. During his travels Mr. Yirenkyi has visited some potential new project areas for GLOVO and when he returned he carried many new impressions with him and brought them into the organization. The GLOVO Team thinks it is a good and very worthy idea to also start projects like the registration of children unto the National Health Insurance Scheme in those areas of Ghana. We hope that through the next newsletter we will already be able to furnish you with further information concerning this issue. 

The Asifaw Foundation: I’m pretty sure that probably most of you are wondering what Asifaw might be. So please let me last but not least present our most recent and new founded project to you. Asifaw is a very small village which is located near Korfuridua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It is the home town of Williams Yirenkyi, our Executive Director. The people living in this village are very less privileged because the road access is quite bad so that hardly any car comes there and they neither have electricity nor running water (they don’t even have a well). So now, coming to the end of last year, Mr. Yirenkyi had the intention of also supporting the people from his own home town aside of operating in and around Swedru.
The plan is to first of all try to register as many children and parents as the available GLOVO funds allow us to, onto the National Health Insurance Scheme and furthermore to raise funds for the construction of a borehole for the village. Aside of that it is our aim to care for those children just as we do it here in Swedru and its surrounding villages by supporting their schooling  (providing learning materials etc.) as well as helping to satisfy their basic needs. Through the provision of mosquito nets we want to contribute something to the active health prevention. Besides that there will certainly be more project ideas be coming up in the future and we pray that our budget will allow us to realize as many of those ideas as possible. Yet we are very convinced that this project is totally worth all the efforts and we are always happy about any kind of support.
A pretty interesting thing about Asifaw is that very close to the village there are natural attractions like a huge umbrella rock, a small waterfall and various caves. When we found out about this, we soon had the idea of developing those places as tourist sites, so that the village people can raise funds themselves through this for helping to better their own lives. Apart from that it will also be quite an experience for strangers to be part of the village life for some time (visit some of the home, see the school, be part of one of the very typical entertainment activities (drumming, dancing, singing) of the people etc.). 


Apart from the Director going to Asifaw by himself to discuss the project details, on February 4, 2012 we went to Asifaw with a group of three GLOVO Executives and eight German Volunteers in order to raise some funds for the Health Insurances as well as to see the place and through that to commonly develop further ideas for the future performance of this meaningful project. After we first of all did a clean-up exercise and socialized with the children and adults from the village, they took us to the above mentioned attractions. The people also showed us where they receive their water (drinking, washing, bathing, cooking) from and it actually was quite shocking to most of us, when we saw how people were coming along with their bowl, fetching water from the water hole, in which the water is truly not clean at all and drinking it like that right away. Just like in this case, where all of us could really see the importance of the construction of a borehole, the visit to Asifaw village was as we think quite a success because firstly we had a chance to get closer to the village people and secondly through having seen the place, it is now easier for us to assess the situation and to plan further actions.
Please feel free to check out the Asifaw Foundation homepage for further detailed information. http://www.asifaw.blogspot.com/

To finally sum this up now, we can say that the first couple of months in the new year have been full of changes, full of new ideas and actions, whilst we of course still work hard on our already established projects to ensure to keep up the support we have been providing over the last years for many needy children. The vision of GLOVO is what we are heading for and within this we truly appreciate the support some of you have been contributing to us – to all those children - in one way or the other.

February 2012
The GLOVO Team

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