A whole new world

Sabine with one of the children she looked after with Orphan Aid Africa

The Côte d'Azur is one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Its landscape has inspired the great painters and has, since the Belle Epoque, attracted some of the world's most fortunate people. Having lived here for the past nine years, I understand better than most the powerful pull of paradise.

This paradise, is what I know and where I feel comfortable. But I am about to take off. Not forever of course but for three weeks, going to Africa for the first time. I'm flying to Ghana, a country that is only an eight-hour flight away, but in my imagination it may as well be a million miles and another world.

A chance encounter

I have ended up on this journey by chance, having stumbled across the project Orphan Aid Africa on the Internet. The purpose of the charity, founded by an English woman called Lisa Lovatt-Smith in 2002, is to provide caring homes for orphans and, more importantly, to work preventively by assisting families whose children are at a high risk of abandonment.

Orphan Aid Africa ultimately aims to strengthen whole families and communities so that they can always care for their own children, thus avoiding the precarious future often faced by orphans.

Politically speaking, Ghana is generally deemed one of the most stable countries in Africa. In January this year, Professor John Evans Attah-Mills was sworn in as Ghana's fifth democratically elected President since military rule ceased in 1992.

His smooth accession demonstrates that the political stability, in place for over a decade, remains strong. Even knowing this, touching down on the tarmac at the airport in Accra, Ghana's capital, I am full of nervous expectation: I have no idea what to expect. The orphanage bus has come to collect me. Three children are sat in the back, friendly and welcoming and also curious: with my blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin I'm the exotic one here.

Arriving in the village of Ayenyah I am immediately overwhelmed. The moment the bus veers around the corner and comes into view around 50 children stop playing at once and start to run towards the "Obluni" or white woman. At first I'm convinced that all these new faces and names will be impossible to remember. However, it turns out that it won't take me as long as I think; after a few days I am able to recognise many of the children because they are always wearing the same clothes.

The organisation built a school some years ago. It has several classrooms, a sports field and office, and there is a nurses' station currently under construction. Every morning I go to the school to teach. Because I am here in the school holidays we are concentrating on English spelling exercises, dictations and revision of subjects such as geography. In the afternoon there are other activities such as sport, painting and making bead bracelets.

Occasionally we manage to organise a trip to the cinema or pool; activities that are so normal to children in our home countries but so rare for young Ghanaians.

I find it especially touching to witness how the children with special needs are taken care of by the orphanage’s "Mammas". These mentally and physically handicapped children would have little chance of survival otherwise.

Having the opportunity to give them time, making them so happy simply by playing, carrying and hugging them, this is when I really understand how one person can make a difference. Even if it is only for a brief moment.

Against all odds

Other aspects of daily life here are more difficult. To see people surviving without anything: no electricity, for example, or purified water. Every other day a child is sick with fever, often malaria, which is still one of the main causes of death in the country. Food is sparse and simple. Families can't take care of their children or afford to send them to school. The difficult circumstances faced by most of the people in the village, makes their positive attitude, their ability to always have a smile on their face and laugh in the face of adversity, even more astounding. For me, a girl from Monaco, it is an education in luxury.

I am so grateful for this experience. Being able to make vulnerable children happy with simple things has been truly emotional. I can't imagine ever being able to return to my normal life.

I have tears in my eyes as I wave goodbye from the bus to the children I feel I've come to know so well. I know that when I get back to my daily life I will often dream of Ghana and wish I were there - spending another day in a very different kind of paradise.

Sabine Weber