Service Project Connects Utahns With Girls in Need in Ghana

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By Mary Richards, Church News

When Alisa Broadbent’s daughter spent some time in Ghana in West Africa for an organized humanitarian effort in 2019, she met Florence Nketia, who helped the volunteers know where to go and whom to help.

After the volunteers traveled back home, they still wanted to help make a difference in the lives of the children and families they met. To help with these efforts, Nketia founded a nonprofit organization called Guide Educational Foundation — which promotes education through monetary donations, school renovations, educational supplies and hygiene products.

Since meeting Nketia and learning about the challenges to girls’ education in particular in Ghana, Broadbent felt she could do something in her own ward to help.

Last month, she helped organize a service project in the Draper 5th Ward of the Sandy Utah Hidden Valley Stake to sew and assemble reusable sanitary products to send to the Guide Educational Foundation to distribute to girls in need in the city of Kumasi.

Broadbent said she has learned that many girls in Ghana lack adequate feminine hygiene supplies and therefore are forced to miss school each month. They also will try to raise funds to buy supplies by heading into the marketplace or streets to work — and they may have to drop out of school altogether.

“So this is essentially keeping them from poverty,” she said. “This is really affecting their long-term outlook.”

After word got out about the service project, Broadbent said many people responded in an inspiring way — by donating fabric or funds to buy fabric and in signing up to help over two evenings.

As young women and Relief Society sisters worked together, Broadbent spoke to them about how their efforts were helping girls and women in Ghana reach their full potential. That idea of empowering others really touched the young women, she said, and they felt that they were showing their love to the girls in Ghana through the project. They also wrote notes to send with encouraging messages.

The goal was to sew around 50 and they ended up making around 250. Broadbent said they felt united and grew closer together through their efforts.

“You are in a common cause and you are helping other people in need. It not only helps those people in need but it creates a unity and a bond with the people you are working with,” she said.

Broadbent hopes the effort will go beyond a one-time project and that others will understand how this service ties into long-term benefits. Her goal is to help Nketia and her foundation continue to do good things for the people in Ghana.

“It’s been really fun to see people’s excitement and eagerness to help people in need,” she said. “We want to help people in need and we are always looking for something to do for others.”

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