Theresa Bajada

For some time I had been longing to go back to Ghana, though I hadn't managed to do so.  Twenty years had to pass for this desire to become a reality.  This time I went to Ghana as part of the Mission:/Possible 2014 team.  This was the fifth time I'd visited this country.  All in all we were a group of 14 people: nine Maltese, two Gozitans, one person from New Zealand, one American and one Slovak.

Nearly every morning we went to the Sisters of Charity.  At Kumasi they have a house for babies, children and disabled persons some of whom were literally picked up from the street.  Much of my time was spent with the babies.  Never in my life have I picked up babies so thin!

In Ghana we also visited two prisons and a home for the mentally ill.  Many times these people are not accepted in society.  We also had an opportunity to visit two villages far from the town of Kumasi, one was Amada where poverty was keenly felt.  We first went to the chief to uphold the culture of the locality, afterwards we played ball with the large group of children there.

Noon passed by and one o'clock was upon us, still the children remained with us.  None of them went to eat.  Dominic who is a Ghanaian told our leader that it's likely that many of these children hadn't eaten anything earlier in the morning neither for lunchtime.  In this situation the leader decided to search for where she can get some bread.  She managed to buy one hundred loaves.  When she returned she called the team together and with tears in her eyes told us what had happened.  Those were heart-breaking moments! So we placed the children into small groups and we divided one loaf of bread between three children.  You should have seen them eating the bread on its own!  After they had eaten we gave them some toys that we had brought with us from Malta as well as a lollipop each.  Some children put the lollipop in their mouths, wrapper and all because they didn't know they had to remove the paper.

Since in our team we had both a qualified and a student nurse, also a trainee pharmacist we had also taken with us some medicines.  While we were in Amada they gave medical treatment to another reasonably sized group of children.  These families have no food to give to their children let alone provide for their health care.  Hard reality.  Experiences that compelled us to think and ask questions.  Why am I healthy and others are not?  Why ...?  Every person in our team was gripped in some way by the sense of helplessness, sometime or other.

Well, it was an experience that will remain engraved in the hearts of everyone on the team.  Together we shared moments of sadness as well as moments of joy.  This is because from the very start we had the same goal, to give each person we meet the dignity they are all worthy of.  We were satisfied we could do what we needed to do while there.

Between 1 and 22 August of this year (1-22 August 2015) another Mission:/Possible team will be visiting Ghana to provide humanitarian aid.  You can also help to make a difference in the lives of those you are going to meet!  I assure you that this experience will change your life as well! 

If you wish to know more about the coming outreach to Ghana please contact Silvana Abela at: [email protected]

Also visit the ICPE Mission website at: www.icpe.org