Genvieve

 

            Genvieve (pictured, on the tricycle, with Christiana) has been a long-time member of Hope for Life (HFL). When I first came to Ghana and HFL in 1996, she was the coordinator for the Teshie (a neighborhood in Accra) branch of the association. With her deep voice and her dignified, loving and caring personality, she used this same tricycle to make the rounds of all the HFL members of her branch. She knew them and the reality of their lives and their needs well. Today, her smile still lights up her face and brings a smile to my own.

About 6 years ago, she had a stroke and still has some weakness and limited mobility on her left side. Her tricycle definitely shows its age and needs some repairs and maintenance. Tsotso (Genvieve) says her lottery ticket-selling business (that she has used to support herself over the years) is not doing too well since most people now play the lotto online. She wants to build up her business by also selling kerosene, which is still used for lanterns and other things during the regular power outages in Accra. Unfortunately, her brothers and sisters do not help her out, so she is pretty much on her own to meet her needs.

Hope for Life is trying to build up its coffers to help Genvieve along this path….

 

Hope for Life is a community-based organization, primarily in Accra, Ghana, for people with disabilities. It was begun by a French SMA in 1986 as a type of support group for its members to come together and discuss life - their struggles and joys - and to offer each other advice, support and encouragement, with the goal of lifting each other up to their greatest potential. HFL members share the value of being productive members of society, and of living with dignity and as independently as they want to and as is possible for them to do.

When appropriate and possible, the HFL association assists its members in other ways towards reaching their personal goals. Sometimes this takes the form of looking for funding to acquire surgeries, mobility devices, etc. Other times, it is with assistance for completing education or acquiring vocational training. And at times, it goes towards a start-up business or assisting a member in boosting up an already existing business (as we hope to do with Tsotso).

HFL also strives to enlighten families, schools, communities and workplaces about the potential each person has if given the opportunity, support and the open-mindedness of others.

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"Every human being has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally; this fundamental right cannot be denied by any country. People have this right even if they are unproductive, or were born with or developed limitations. This does not detract from their great dignity as human persons, a dignity based not on circumstances but on the intrinsic worth of their being. Unless this basic principle is upheld, there will be no future either for fraternity or for the survival of humanity." - Fratelli tutti, 107