In The Shadow of the Sun, Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski describes Accra, the capital of Ghana, as “an overgrown small town that has reproduced itself many times over, crawled out of the bush, out of the jungle, and come to a halt at the shores of the Gulf of Guinea.” Among these multitudinous towns, Kissehman assumes a somewhat understated yet distinct position. In the wake of political turmoil in its neighboring country, Togo, Kissehman was resettled by scores of Togolese refugees in the early 1990s. These people, ethnically distinct from most Ghanaians in Accra, moved into abandoned housing structures or built their own from mud, clay or cement. Sharing neither a language nor culture, these new residents have struggled to build an integrated community.
In Ghana, as in much of Africa, poverty is relative; however, the people of Kissehman suffer from a particularly acute lack of resources. In an area of about one and a half miles, over four thousand people reside without electricity, plumbing or clean water access. Women tend to be employed in the markets selling fruit, while the majority of men work as general laborers or are unemployed altogether. The children of Kissehman, until recently, had neither structure nor access to basic resources. While education is ostensibly free in Ghana, families are expected to cover school “fees” and provide books, shoes and uniforms for their children. On average, the families of Kissehman have around six children each, whereas the average family in Ghana has four. This makes their burden even more unmanageable.
These needs, coupled with the vision of a respected young man from Kissehman, Mollishmael Kwame Gabah, inspired the formation of the Maine Ghana Youth Network (MGYN) in 2003. MGYN was bred from a friendship between Mollishmael and Ian Jones, then a student at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. The two recognized the impact that they could have on the children of Kissehman and made a commitment to providing a safe venue for organized youth activities. The two are an effective team: Ian possesses a passion for the arts and children, coupled with a desire to promote Maine-Ghana exchange, while Mollishmael has overcome many of the very same challenges the children of Kissehman face: he has dealt with the death of his father; he has lived through a famine; and he struggled to send himself to school at the age of ten. Now, at twenty-four, he has turned his experience into an opportunity to show the kids of Kissehman that they too can overcome such obstacles. To learn more about MGYN’s activities, please visit the Maine Ghana Youth Network website.
