Central New York connections helping Ghana native improve life in his ... - Syracuse Post-Standard

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By Alaina Potrikus / The Post-Standard

February 21, 2010, 5:00AM

Stephen D. Cannerelli/The Post-Standard Yao "Chacha" Foli" will host his second reggae concert Feb. 27 to help raise money to finance the building of a new school in Ghana, his home country. Foli, who attends Cazenovia College, holds the blueprint for the new school.
Provided photoSeveral people accompanied Yao “Chacha” Foli (second from right) on a trip to Ghana during the summer. With Foli are (from left): Amewu Nelson of Kpando, Ghana; Clary Middle School teacher Adam Felleman, of Syracuse; and Ashley Crider, of Cazenovia College.

Since coming to the United States from Ghana in 2007, Yao “Chacha” Foli, 33, had a dream to create a school and organic farm in his home country.

That dream is taking shape.

Aklobortornu, a rural village on the shore of Lake Volta in western Ghana, may become a model for rural education and sustainable agriculture with the help of resources and volunteers from Central New York.

Construction began last summer after Foli secured land and created a nonprofit organization with the help of the Cazenovia College community, local churches, business leaders and residents. The project is called Ndor Eco-Village and plans call for a kindergarten, library, office and five-room guest house. Ground has been broken for the guest house.

Aklobortornu’s 250 residents live without running water and electricity. Elementary students currently walk two miles to school, carrying their chairs on their heads.

“That is a problem that prevents a lot of kids from going to school,” he said. “Some of them just sit around and don’t do any work.”

If students decide not to make the trek, their other option currently is a very rudimentary school in Aklobortornu, with a single chalkboard attached to the ceiling of the thatch-roofed hut.

“If it rains, there is no school,” he said. “Education is the main key to development. Without education, it is hard for us to see even beyond our own borders.”
Provided photoThe current school in Aklobortornu, Ghana, is a hut with a thatched roof with one small chalkboard. Students from the village walk two miles to a nearby school, carrying their chairs on their heads. Yao “Chacha” Foli is hoping to build a school and sustainable farm in the West African nation.
Foli believes the project will change the way of life in the community, whose residents rely on fishing, farming and weaving a traditional Ghanaian cloth called Kente.

“I know what poverty is,” said Foli, who grew up in the town of Hoehoe in southern Ghana and received a degree in agricultural engineering at a vocational school. “I know what hardship is. Sometimes I cry when I think about what is going on. But I know I am supposed to be here, so I can learn and go back to help.”

Though thousands of miles apart, both communities embrace Foli’s enthusiasm. In Ghana, men and women set aside Thursday afternoons to work on the buildings.

“Women are fetching water, men are molding the clay into building blocks,” Foli said.

In Cazenovia, reggae concerts raise money for the effort. A group of Fayetteville-Manlius High School students formed the organization Ghana Bound and hope to accompany Foli on his next trip. And a classroom of third-graders at Enders Road Elementary School exchange letters with their Ghanaian counterparts, thanks to Foli.

Foli returned to his native land in the summer with friends from Cazenovia and Syracuse. He also celebrated his engagement to Cassandra Haines Foli, of Cazenovia, who he met in class and married in August.

He has plans to return to Ghana this summer to plant trees and a garden.

Now, he says, he has two homes. At Cazenovia College, Foli is studying for his degree in international humanitarian service and says his work mastering the language and classwork is improving. He has connected with a group of fellow Ghanaians in Syracuse, who share his love of drumming, dancing and food. Last fall, he worked at Our Farm in Manlius each weekend, helping families choose pumpkins and negotiate a corn maze.

“I don’t see any difference,” he said. “I just feel home.”

Get involved

• Visit www.ndorecovillage.org to learn more about the Ndor Eco-village.

• Donations can be mailed to Ndor Eco-Village, P.O. Box 505, Cazenovia, NY 13035.

• A benefit concert will be held 7 p.m. Saturday at Cazenovia College’s Schneeweiss Athletic Complex, Liberty Street. Admission is $5 for students, $10 for adults. The lineup features several local reggae and rhythm bands, including the Adanfo African Drum and Dance Ensemble, Akuma Roots, Kwadwo Sankofa and Riddim Wise.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.