Ghanaian Memories 

Operation Ghana 6-17th October 2006

In October 2006 a team of hard-working volunteers undertook the daunting challenge of rennovating a badly run-down medical clinic that specialised in pre and post natal care, in the heart of a Ghanaian community. They endured unbearable heat, humidity and black fly for five days to transform the site into a clean, freshly-painted and fully-functioning medical facility.

The team were sponsored by friends and family to go, and raised an incredible £30 000 for FSID.

Read about the project from the words of two participants: Russell Soden and Huma Mahmood.

In the words of Russell Soden:

I decided to take part in Operation Ghana because F.S.I.D had helped me with the loss of my daughter and I wanted to help them and give something back. This seemed the perfect way to help raise awareness and funds, and also get involved in a project with a lot of meaning.

As I signed up virtually a year before, I had plenty of time to plan how I was going to raise the required funds. These came from various events.

Firstly I organised a climb of La Concha mountain, near Marbella. Many people have lived here for years and said they would love to climb it but never got round to it, so I made up some posters and sponsor forms and placed them around the area. On 8th January I took 28 people to the top.

The next event was with a restaurant called 'Out Of Africa', where I organised a gala dinner. The restaurant agreed to do the food at cost price for me and also gave me 20% of the bar. I managed to get an African drummer to play over the music and local businesses to donate prizes for a raffle. This led me to do a bigger version at a larger restaurant with an outdoor area. On May 5th ( I combined it with my birthday so all friends would come) I arranged for four live bands to play on a stage we set up outdoors. Three of the bands were already on the Costa del Sol, but one band flew in from Belgium and they all played for free. The way I managed to get the Belgian band Bai Kamara Jnr to play for free was to book them gigs in other venues along the coast to make it worth their while. Once again, with the restaurant I took a percentage of food and drink. I promoted it in local magazines, was on two local radio stations and put up posters everywhere. The night was a great success with about 175 people turning up.

The project itself was excellent.  To help re-build a medical centre gave me a priceless feeling of achievement and I have many vivid memories of the trip. Most important is the smiling faces of the children that followed us everywhere. These children have nothing, and yet I have never seen a happier bunch of kids. Other memories include dancing around the fire with all the kids with drummers paying their hearts out, eating far too many biscuits, laughing cow triangles and the bloody black flies that were relentless from dusk till dawn in biting your every move.

To re-build a medical centre, have it mosquito-free and clean, and then have a baby boy born there two hours before we left was very special.

I would definitely do something like this again. You gain so much from it that it is hard to put down in words. The experience was at first emotional, then exciting, and then rewarding. On a personal level it has helped me be more confident in talking about my daughter, because with all the fundraising and meeting new people I have had to be open about why I am doing this.

From beginning to end it has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions and I have come out smiling.
Russell Soden

In the words of Huma Mahmood:

After having a look at your website and reading about what the charity does I was convinced I wanted to help raise funds for the fantastic things the FSID looks to achieve.

Fundraising does take over your life, but everyone rallied round to help. The packs sent out from the FSID has a lot of information in it too. We raised the money through donations from friends and family, an abseil, a tombola, charity boxes in our local pub and cakes sales every Friday for three months.

I was very impressed by the challenge of renovating a pre and post natal baby clinic, and it was relevant to the charity. The project involved interacting with a community and helping them improve facilities that were much needed.

Top memories were the African rainstorms and doing the hokey-cokey with the children from the village.

Doing something on such a personal level is the most rewarding feeling in the world. Just a little snippet of time from your life to help someone else is actually very easy when you see the difference it makes.
Huma Mahmood

 

FSID would like to thank all those who took part in Operation Ghana for being part of such a worthwhile project and raising so much money for cot death research and support.

 

Are you ready to take the challenge of a lifetime for FSID? If so, click here to see your options!

 

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