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The Making of the
Village of Hope project began when a group of ministers
of the church of Christ purchased 17.42 acres of land at
Ayawaso in the Ga District of the Greater Accra Region
in August 1989, for the establishment of an orphanage.
These ministers’ names are Jerry Reynolds (an American),
Emmanuel Asante, and Christian Nsoah (Ghanaians).
Unfortunately, the project could not take off as planned
because in November of the same year three different
families claiming ownership of the land were battling in
court. After pursuing the case for three years with no
positive results, funding for the project stopped and
work on the first building project ceased. By 1992
things had come to a virtual halt, even though eight
children were being cared for. There was no money and no
real housing to care for them.
Birth & Infancy: In 1994, an appeal to the elders of Traverse City
Church of Christ, Michigan, U. S. A. by Josiah Tilton,
an American missionary, resulted in the elders agreeing
to allow Josiah to raise funds for the project to be
restarted. The work was then placed under the general
oversight of the elders of Vertical Centre Church of
Christ, Tema, Ghana. In June, 1994, the overseers
appointed a nine-member Board of Directors to see to the
restarting of the project. The Board of Directors
appointed Fred Asare as Managing Director in November,
1994.
1995 was a significant year for the Village of Hope. The building
project (a four-bedroom house) that began in 1989 was
completed and furnished with funds from Traverse City
Church of Christ. The Village of Hope was also
officially registered with the Registrar-General’s
Department as a non-profit mission of the churches of
Christ (Reg. No. 59,176). It was later registered with
the Department of Social Welfare (Reg. No. DSW/1372).
The Village of Hope fulfills all its obligations to the
Internal Revenue Service (Reg. No. NAE 73311) and to
Social Security and National Insurance Trust (Reg. No.
ER202J179). Thus adhering to the laws of the Country of
Ghana.
Roland & Gladys Bulley were appointed in August 1995 to begin work
as House Parents in January 1996. Eight children were
brought to the newly completed house in January 1996 and
on 24th February, 1996 the Village of Hope was
officially inaugurated at Ayawaso. Meanwhile the
disputing families were still in court battling over the
land. For two years after the inauguration of the
Village of Hope, efforts made to settle the issue out of
court yielded no results and the case made no progress
in court. By 1998, the only house accommodating the
children was full to capacity and yet additional houses
could not be built as long as the case remained in
court.
In August, 1998, therefore, 25 acres of land were purchased at
Fetteh in the Gomoa District of the Central Region for
the development of a new campus. (All the funds for
the purchase were raised in Ghana from among the church
members and interested local businesses.) Since
then, the focus of the work has been on developing the
land at Fetteh to serve orphaned, abandoned, destitute
and needy children. The house at Ayawaso has been
converted into a Vocational Training Centre where street
children are taught employable skills to help them leave
the streets. |
