Loading... (0%)
The Ayele Foundation
Augustine Cassis Obeng Boateng, a native of Ghana, grew up with a firsthand experience of the obstacles faced by many young students in Ghana. Classrooms had very few books, school buildings were often inadequate to withstand the rains that come each season, teachers often stayed for a year or less once they became overwhelmed with the realities of school life in rural Ghana. His mother, Henrietta Naa Ayele Smith, was a passionate educator in Ghana, and taught her children that “education is all you have, the only way to conquer poverty and be what you believe in.” This foundation has been named “Ayele” in her honor.
Decades later, while on a humanitarian mission in Ghana, Mr. Boateng met many other children suffering from the same conditions he went through. One of these was an 18 year old named Hannah. Dr. Todd Fife, a physician from Montana, describes Hannah’s condition:
29th June 2012, Dr Fife Screening Hannah
Hannah and Dr Fife, Asuom, Ghana
“It is an inward heart-of-a-lion sort of strength with a courage few of the rest of us will ever know. She walks to church every Sunday which is only a quarter mile away and it takes her about an hour and a half just to get there. She is choice. She attends primary because that is where the kids are that are her size. What momma doesn’t really understand, it is quite clear that Hannah does…she knows better. She knows that things are not going to get better-only worse as time continues its inevitable erosion of her body. She knows her time is fast running out. My take is that not only does she have a volleyball sized tumor in her stomach that should have been taken out years ago, but has now developed pretty advanced heart failure as a result-thus making a successful surgery herein Ghana very unlikely. She will not be here with us much longer.”
Hannah’s story was so touching to Mr. Boateng that it served as a turning point and a call to act, leading to his daily efforts to reduce poverty through education. His organization, initially founded in Ghana and named the Foot-Print Africa Foundation, was organized in the United States as the Ayele Foundation in spring 2013. Through hard work and support from friends, families and partners, the Ayele Foundation’s mission is to carry those hopeful words from Cassis’s mum “education is all you have, the only way to conquer poverty and be what you believe in” into the lives of the children of rural Ghana and make education not just the dream, but the reality for all in a more dynamic and modernized way.