Advisor: Kathy O’Hara
Students will participate in projects that will raise awareness of international issues and benefit specific global concerns.
Activities include the Ghana Fishing Project and Heifer International.
Requirements: Students attend meetings and participate in the service projects.
March 2008 HIGHLIGHTS
Ghana Fishing Project Success!
Sophomore Claire Dillon and her mother, Lori, traveled to Ghana in early
January to participate in one of the Ghana Fishing Project’s
rescue missions of trafficked children. Money raised through LFHS’ Global
Connections service club, together with money raised at Deer Path Middle
School, allowed for the retrieval and for the subsequent rehabilitation
program of 3 of the 21 children in total that were rescued. The three
children rescued from funds raised in the Lake Forest community are
14 year-old and 5 year-old boys, Patrick and Selasi, and a 12 year-old
girl, Salomey. Not only did our schools and community save these three
lives, they also saved other children from being trafficked since fishermen
who release a trafficked child sign a social contract agreeing to never
again force children into hazardous fishing work.
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 Salomey is 12 yrs old. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. |
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 Selasi doesn’t know how old he is, but he thinks he’s four years old. He worked with Patrick so they were rescued together. He and Patrick sleep in the same room on bunk beds at the Rehabilitation Center in Accra (capital of Ghana) and Patrick looks after Selasi. Both boys used to sleep on the dirt floor of their master’s hut. |
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Patrick is 14, trafficked two years ago. He once worked with another boy who was about 10 yrs old but he drowned after he got tangled in the fishing nets. He would wake up between 5:00 am and 6:00 am and work until 2:00 pm when he would be able to eat his one meal a day which was a white doughy substance sweetened with a little sugar. They never got to eat the fish they caught. The fisherman told his parents he would enroll Patrick in school and he would fish on his boat to pay for school. He was never enrolled in school and worked every day on the boat. |
February 2008 HIGHLIGHTS
Ghana Fishing Project Update!
The Global Connections service club has raised enough funds from LFHS students and the 6th grade class at Deer Path Middle School to initiate the rescue of three trafficked children as part of the Ghana Fishing Project. Sophomore Claire Dillon and her mother Lori will by flying to Ghana in to participate in the rescue.
December 2007 HIGHLIGHTS
Ghana Fishing Project and Heifer International
The Global
Connections Club has an international focus and its mission is
to increase awareness of global issues. This year the club is focused
on the Ghana Fishing Project and Heifer International. For the
past two months, the club has put its efforts toward the Ghana
Project which rescues trafficked (sold) children in Ghana, West
Africa, who are forced to work in hazardous conditions. One out
of four children in Ghana are child laborers and the most dangerous
job is working on fishing boats. The club members, led by co-chairs
Claire Curran and Claire Dillon, are attempting to rescue a nine
year old boy, Gabriel who has been selected by the Project. The
funds raised are used to educate the rescued children and provide
them with medical care and counseling. They also provide education
and support to the fishermen regarding child trafficking and offer
them new fishing equipment or training in a new trade. The sixth
graders at Deer Path Middle School have held a bake sale, sold
bracelets and held a raffle to raise funds. Global Connections
members at Lake Forest High School have given out literature about
the Ghana Fishing Children Project and collected donations through
the cooperation of Don’s
Finest Foods, Jewel, and Sunset Foods.Tax deductible donations
can be made to LFHS (please write Save Gabriel in the memo section) Mail to: Lake Forest High School attention: Kathy O’Hara 1285 N. McKinley Rd. Lake Forest, Il. 60045Questions? Contact Lori Dillon 847-735-9210 or kohara@d115.org. |
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