Africa

Project OKURASE

Our current work in Africa is through Project OKURASE (Opportunity, Knowledge, Understanding, Renewed Health, Arts-Based, Skills Training and Education) in Ghana. The purpose is to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Ghana by helping ophans and vulnerable children who are impacted by HIV/AIDS in their family and their village. The objectives toward this purpose are to provide skills training and formal education to vulnerable children and women, and to connect orphaned children with families, called Way Forward Families, that have the capacity to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of a child. This will allow the children to grow healthfully into strong and independent adults. The vision of Project OKURASE will be carried out in the village and in a Centre to be built called the Nkabom Centre for Skills Training and Formal Education. This Centre will consist of 16 buildings (www.projectokurase.org)

The four overarching goals of Project OKURASE are to develop:

• A family-based model of caring for orphans and vulnerable children.
• A model for job and skills training for youth, young adults, and women in the arts and building industry.
• A model for family and village-based formal education with special emphasis on female children.
• A model for a community of green design or sustainable architecture.

The MST Link to Project OKURASE:

In 1997, the Family Services Research Center (home of MST research) of the Medical University of South Carolina began a community violence prevention program, now called, �The Neighborhood Project� in the Union Heights community of North Charleston, South Carolina. One of the prosocial activities that was developed in the Project was children�s West African drumming and dance. This activity turned into a dance company called Djole and performance quality drums were needed. These drums were purchased from a Ghanaian drum maker, master drummer, and performing artist named Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah - called Powerful in Ghana. This fateful meeting led to the children of Djole traveling to Ghana in 2006 to join with Powerful and other artists to conduct AIDS dance/dramas in multiple sites in Ghana. Project OKURASE is a natural extension of Djole�s work in Ghana. The children of Djole are involved in raising funds and developing the Nkabom Centre. Project OKURASE is a global initiative. In addition to Djole, Family Services Research Center, MST Services, and people in Charleston, South Carolina, partners from England, Ghana, and throughout the United States are coming together to make Project OKURASE happen.