REQUEST FOR EDUCATIONAL ATTENTION

Dear friends-of-humanity:

Kindly accept our heartfelt greetings.

We call it a blessing and an opportunity to be in connection with your vision. We have heard and read about the wonderful testimonies of people who lives have been transformed through the active vision of your organization.

We are a youth group comprising of mostly Liberian refugees for now who have been lingering in Ghana for many painful years of our lifetime. You may have only heard, read about or seen on screen people of our status. But from real experience, we can tell how deplorable it is to be a refugee, especially in a country like Ghana. Words may fail us to say how getting common water to quench our thirst in a hot 120 degree temperature can really be difficult. We might lack the appropriate words to describe exactly our feeling of waking up every morning from dirt-and illness stained mattresses to face the rest of the challenges of each day on empty stomachs. We cannot state here vividly as experience teaches us the extremity of our plight; how our hearts cry out and our souls burn with the desire for education. The troubles are multi-dimensional and it is difficult if not impossible to mention them all on these limited pages.

The only benefit we have had so far from our stay here is the fact that, with our refugee eyes, we are opportune to see the impact of education in the development process of our host country. In spite of the challenging moments we experience here, it is an absolute privilege for us, the future of our nation and the world, to flee the valley of destruction and settle on this mountain of rescue (Ghana) to be able to look in every corner of the valley and identify the causes of the unpardonable destructions. It is on this mountain that we have discovered that our own people used our ignorance and innocence as an advantage with which they could fight their power-struggle. They were successful in using us as their instrument for destruction, but now we wish to correct the wrongs by serving as instrument for re-construction. Though we destroyed our land with our ears and hands, but we can rebuild it with our hearts and minds.

Listen beloved. Listen without pity. Just listen with understanding. You do not know us, neither did you expect a message like this from people like us, but now you can feel our heartbeats on this paper. Our message is: in spite of the circumstances surrounding our lives here, we have a burning desire to rise from this state and affect our generation to the extend that posterity will keep applauding us. We are so obsessed with this great desire that most times we hardly recognize the complex troubles that form our refugee burden. From the success stories of successful men who have lived, we have observed that the deeper their plight was, the higher was their flight on their success journey. It has been said that when people strive to reach their goals in life, pains becomes temporary and pride forever. This knowledge has inspired our YEP dream.

YEP is at its formative stage and has a membership strength of talented youths who have captured the attention of the refugee community through excellent performances in various competitions organized by some authorities. We have tried to fight the challenging circumstances but the only thing standing between us and our vision is education and between us and education is finance. We believe that your foundation can be a blessing to our dream financially and morally.

Beloved, the most painful thing about living in our world is the fact that those who are privileged to have some financial substance are misinterpreting success to be how much money can be made and what luxurious life can be lived. True success, we believe, is not how much money can be made in our short lifetime but how much money can be invested and how many generations can benefit form the investment. Money deposited in banks as we know may increase by interest rate but money invested in lives will certainly multiply and eventually offer real worth and wealth both on earth and in eternity. Some minds may uAnderstand these truths and some hearts may be willing to apply them but maybe they cannot find a trusted means to channel the needed help to the needy.

Most of us in YEP, compelled by the circumstances and also for the dream we share, sleep on the same mattress together. This is the evidence of our unity in this struggle. We are just a hopeful family now and probably for the rest of our lifetime. We, with the diverse skills and the common desire that God has given us, believe that our war-ravished nation can be transformed into an admirable one through our efforts. The peace we came to seek in Ghana has returned to our country, but our youthful fear is that we might be rejected by our ill-tempered society for returning home empty-handed and empty-headed.

Now, our spirits are lifted and hearts sincerely believe that your ministry of concern can make the crucial but worthwhile sacrifice to invest into our future and our minds and souls, as well as our generation, will forever remember.

It is our fervent prayer that our message reaches your kind hearts in peace as we anticipate a positive rejoinder preferably by e-mail or phone.

May God multiply your source of income in your effort to bless our destiny.

Contact: The Youth Empowerment for Progress
P. O. Box 46, State House, Accra - Ghana
Email: yep.gahan@gmail.com/yep.liberia@gmail.com
Cell: +233 244 964681/247414941