Loading our 8th 40-foot container to Ghana posed new problems in this age of the Covid-19 virus. Since schools were closed, USACF had no access to high school volunteer groups. We relied instead on family, friends and supporters. The additional challenges of keeping socially distant while loading boxes didn’t stop us. Instead of passing boxes from one person to another, we chose to put out 6 foot tables in a line. This enabled us to slide boxes from the storage container to the seagoing container. Boxes were then placed on dollies and rolled to the back of the seagoing container for stacking.
We added a new partner in Ghana with this loading. Super Soccer Stars, who has been running our 5-day soccer instructional clinics in Zimbabwe for the last 8 years, has been supporting a soccer program in Ghana called Akwaaba. Super Soccer Stars brought additional bags of soccer balls and soccer uniforms to the loading for Akwaaba.
This shipment included 50,000 children’s books and 8,000 textbooks. Also shipped were 12 bags of sneakers, 94 boxes of clothing, 14 bags of soccer balls, 34 boxes of puppets, 33 boxes of toys, 60 chairs and 5 boxes of school supplies. In all, there were 1,533 boxes and bags shipped. Every box and every bag makes a real difference in a school and a child’s life.
USACF’s partners in Ghana are the National Partnership Children Trust and The Mothers of Africa. Both programs run comprehensive literacy programs in 200 schools. Over the next ten years we hope to expand our library and literacy program in Ghana to include 500 schools.