A chance to dream, by Genevieve Jones-Hernandez

It’s 4 am in Ghana, and I am sleeping outside under the African stars. My mind is racing registering everything that we have experienced so far, it’s a very surreal experience for me to be here at our school in Ghana. 

We set up the school in 2014, when I was on maternity leave and due to raising my own family, I haven’t yet been able to come and work at the project.

Being here, seeing what the team started, what we have been fundraising for and meeting the very children who’s lives we have opened up by providing access to education is simply incredible.

Yesterday I met Perfect, you may recognise her from our website. She’s a beautiful girl who captured our hearts with her story and desire to become a nurse. She is a kind, sweet girl, caring girl who wants to learn and to give back to her community- what an amazing result from something as basic (and something which many of us take for granted) as education and good teachers. 

I believe that being human is to dream, to aspire to be something more and something better. Without this we are just static. Education is a fundamental tool for being able to achieve this. Education isn’t just reading and writing, it’s so much more! To me it’s:

• Learning between right and wrong
• Learning to interact with others
• Respecting others 
• Discovering the world 
• Learning what opportunities their are available 
• Developing life skills

Tools and power come through knowledge; without basic education how can we be able to dream? If we dream, then what tools do we have to make those dreams become a reality? We need a solid foundation to grow on.

As someone who not only works for the charity but donates, it’s such an amazing experience to be here, to meet the children, their families and see what we support first hand.

These people are warm, kind, generous, funny, full of life and love. You sense all of this within a second of being here, right from the instant we drove past the school and hearing the kids screaming with excitement about our arrival. These are good honest people, who were born on the other side of the world to me, unfortunately into a less prosperous situation... but we are all the same. Why wouldn’t I want to be part of giving them a chance to dream through the power of education? After all: We are all human here.