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An Unforgettable Trip to Kushea, Kirsten’s Story

Back in April, Goal Zero handpicked a lucky few to go with them on a humanitarian trip to Kushea, Ghana to help install solar power to the community’s information technology center, here is a look at Kirsten’s experience while there.

 “We had the opportunity to walk through some of the different areas of city, to get a better feel for the different neighborhoods and the different lifestyles that exist in Ghana.  This particular moment came from our walk through the fishing towns of Accra.  This particular part of the city was an exceptional poor area.  Although these kids didn’t have much, you could tell they made the best out of life.  We were told there was always a soccer tournament happening in a dirt field near the school and people were out and about, active in their community.  I brought out my camera to take a few pictures and these little kids got so excited.  I took their picture and showed them what they looked like.  Their amazement was a neat experience.  We had a good time taking pictures in the middle of the street.

Life lessons learned, life is precious and short, these kids reminded me how important it is to live life and not stress out about the little things.  Life is so simple in Kushea.  There are some serious struggles these people face that most of us can’t even imagine facing, yet they value the important things, such as family, friends and building memories.  They don’t sweat the small things, they are very good at rolling with the punches and I admire that.  I wish we all had a chance to learn from the amazing people of I met in Ghana.”

Here’s Kirsten’s story, what’s yours?

5 Ways To Get Involved In Your Community

Ways to get involved in your community

The Tifie Community is about creating partnerships, making natural connections and establishing global engagement, but we also believe that doing good starts at home.

Here are 5 ways to get involved with your local community.

Volunteer

There is no greater thing you can give, than your time. Consider spending some time at a local organization helping out, and what better way to get your kids involved too.

Donate

Donations don’t always have to be monetary. Take a look around and find a need you can help with, whether it is food for the food bank, or much needed school supplies. Your small donation is likely to make a huge difference to someone.

Attend local meetings

Do you know how often your local community gets together? Take a look and stop on by to see what is going on.

Get to know your neighbors

You don’t always have to welcome the neighbors with a pan full of sugary goodness, but it doesn’t hurt either. Find a fun way to say hello to those around you, after all you will be living next to each other for a while.

Support local businesses

Shopping locally is a great way to get involved in your community. You get to know local people, keep money in your community, and help support people starting out.

How do you stay connected with your community?

Tifie’s Story, Finding Better Ways To Give Back

Mindy on a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mindy on a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mindy has been with the Tifie Community from the beginning. As a daughter of Tifie founders, Ange’ and Robert Workman, doing good and giving back is just in her blood. Here is the journey of Tifie, from her point of view.

“Technically, there is no wrong or right way to help those in need. But, there are better ways to go about ‘giving back’ to achieve long-term results.

I am a Public Relations major, and one of the first things I learned in my Intro to PR class years ago, was knowing and understanding your audience. Who are you talking to? What motivates them? What is their culture like? How does their culture affect the way they see the world?

I think about how these principles relate to Tifie’s efforts. I hear about stories of humanitarian efforts where the needed facilities were built, supplied with goods, and then failed only a few years later. Why? People saw the need and filled it, why didn’t it work?

Perhaps, they were missing the education pieces.

This is what sets Tifie apart from the traditional ‘see a need, fill a need’. They are trying to empower the people they help through education. They are trying to produce long-lasting results by teaching sustainability.

They are not perfect, they have had their wins and losses. Part of that comes with learning about the culture, understanding what motivates them. But, despite the “failures”, Tifie pushes on to bring light, shelter, food and water to those in need.”

Here’s Mindy’s story. What’s yours?

 

Giving Second Chances In Kushea, A Sit Down With King Nana

“In our journey, we realized that we could still help lift people out of poverty, but we didn’t have to do it alone. We could find like-minded communities and organizations, and together we could do miracles.” –Robert Workman, Founder of Tifie

 

As we sat down with King Nana Prah, leader of the Kushea area in Ghana, Africa, we couldn’t help but get an instant feeling of inspiration. His passion for the education and success of his village is overwhelming, but it was his warm and welcoming smile that made us instantly connect and feel like we had known him for years. With representatives from both Utah’s first farm-based Charter High School, Roots, and Westminster College, we all gathered around together for the same things; to hear some incredible stories, share ideas, and ultimately do good.

King Nana Prah started out with the beginning of his journey as the leader of the Kushea area.

“30 years ago, I returned to Ghana after receiving my education in England. At that time the area had no electricity, water or health facility, and a poor excuse for a school system. I remember one year, not one student passed the end of year exam. After I investigated further I found that there were three classes for 180 students and only 1 ½ teachers. I say ½ because the teacher was rarely there, and when he was, not a lot got taught. Let’s just say it wasn’t a school I would want to send my son to.”

Years later, the schools have improved, but because they are in a rural area experienced teachers are hard to come by. Even when they are transferred to the area most won’t come due to lack of living spaces to rent, connectivity with their ongoing education at universities within the city, and lack of amenities they would expect coming from larger areas, ultimately leaving the kids at an unfair disadvantage. How can we expect kids to learn when they don’t have the resources necessary to make it happen?

“In our schools each year, 90% of the 14 year olds won’t pass the state exams due to lack of resources. Of the 10% who qualify to continue their education, only 50% will actually go due to the inability to pay. That means each year 1,000 14 year olds are set out into the world with poor education and absolutely no skills. As rural children with a hope for a better future, the majority will head into the city. Many will be taken advantage of, become single moms, or turn towards a life of crime because they can’t do anything else, ultimately returning to the villages years later, trying to create a life for themselves”

King Nana has struggled with this year after year. How can he intervene so these children have a second chance at a good life with skills that bring their family income so they may thrive? Since the Information Technology Center has been installed he finally has the answer, a vocational/technical school. Thanks to the solar panels installed at the ITC, students can return in the evening, for classes to learn skills that can bring them that second chance. It is unlike anything else they have ever offered, but after seeing the King’s face light up with excitement talking about this project we can’t wait to see what lies ahead for the incredible community of Kushea.

Community Spotlight, The Green Urban Lunchbox

“I find it inspiring to be around people, like those in this community, who are doing amazing things. I believe we can solve the huge problem facing our world like poverty, climate change, and hunger. To do so we have to be creative and willing to work hard. I find the same creativity, passion and hard work in the Tifie community that we try and embody in our organization. “

-Shawn Peterson, founder and director of The Green Urban Lunch Box

Green Urban Lunchbox Project is an organization right here in our backyard, Salt Lake City, that has recently joined the Tifie Community. Armed with an old school bus used as a mobile greenhouse and a passion for educating, this team has created a culture for urban gardening unlike anyone else. By promoting local farms, healthy eating, and sustainability they demonstrate the creative possibility of urban agriculture with 4 basic programs.

Community Farm

The community Farm and Orchard is located in Layton on land, leased from UDOT. It serves as both a farmer training program and an incubator farm, where people interested in growing their own garden can lease reasonably priced land.

Fruit Share

Gulb has partnered with Salt Lake City’s division of sustainability to help maintain fruit trees in the area. Their staff and volunteers maintain and harvest the trees that are then split between volunteers and GULB to be shared with local food assistance programs.

Backyard Farms

The Backyard Farms program pairs senior citizen homeowners with local volunteers who convert backyards into urban farms. The homeowner provides the land and water, and the volunteers provide the knowledge and labor. When everything is harvested the produce is shared.

Mobile Greenhouse

The GULB is a 35-foot school bus that has been converted into a mobile greenhouse. The bus is used as an educational tool to teach kids the scientific, agricultural, and social aspects of growing food in urban and suburban environments.

These amazing programs help bring gardening to you; from your backyard, to a community garden, or a school bus parked on the street. Get involved in the Green Urban Lunchbox adventure, where both body and spirit are nurtured.

To check out what else GULB does, or how to get involved check them out here.

Helping Uplift Communities Through Education

Tifie looks at education projects in a new way. Our basic needs approach focuses on developing tools and creating the capacity for people to lift themselves out of poverty. Education is one of our strongest initiatives because it provides the building blocks for lifelong learning and human development in and out of the classroom. “We are stuck with only what we know and experience. When we can read and communicate in writing, the whole world is ours.”

We asked our founders, Angé and Robert Workman, to share their views on education and happiness. Robert believes that the “tools needed for happiness can be taught and doing good with the right intention is one of the best tools for happiness in the galaxy.”

Angé believes that happiness is not really taught, but the steps to reach it, can be. We can teach happiness through service, by being kind, and spreading unconditional love. “When we get outside ourselves and engage with others in a healthy way, we get to learn from them and them from us. We are all connected. When we do something good, it has a ripple effect. When our actions, our words, our thoughts are focused on good, it affects others in a profound way.”

“The learning center in Ghana is a perfect example of engaging with others.” Power and light have expanded essential learning tools and content along with the ability to study after the sun goes down.
By installing power we can share and learn from another culture in real time. Two people from halfway around the world get to share their joy, tears, victories and challenges. We are all united as humans through this experience.

Education is a key for personal and social improvements and the capacity for self-reliant development. Angé states that “happiness is learned or discovered individually through life experiences.” As children gain knowledge and skills in the classroom, they get integrated into community learning programs for adults. The classroom is an incubator for building self-esteem and helps an entire community build its own bright future.
“I have seen young children in an orphanage blossom when they are loved and given opportunities to grow and learn.”

We currently have educational projects all over the world. Modern classrooms are being constructed at the Kola School in Kinshasa, DRC. Basic learning needs are being met through skills training and apprenticeships for marginalized women in Morocco. Health, nutrition and fertility awareness is being spread through our partnerships with Operation Smile. A greenhouse project in Peru is teaching agricultural techniques so that tomatoes can be grown at high elevations and sold locally. This means that families can thrive in their own villages.

Both Angé and Robert “have witnessed joy and happiness growing in the form of hope and light as understanding comes and as opportunities are presented.”

Beyond the classroom we can share this learning and the joy of learning by sharing our stories.

Community Spotlight, Point Innovate

As we continue our goal of helping communities lift themselves out of poverty and begin to provide for their own basic needs, partnering up with relevant and passionate people who help us extend our vision to areas we wouldn’t be able to reach is essential.

This month’s community spotlight is our partner on Project Kushea, Point Innovate. Created when its founder, Ryan Shepherd realized the great need for high-impact social products like solar power in developing countries during his many years of work in Africa with Tifie and Goal Zero. They currently distribute and develop those products and technologies in emerging markets like Ghana.

With a similar vision of long-term relationships in the communities their role was crucial for Project Kushea’s success. Point Innovate chose Kushea based on their three requirements:

  1. The community is already putting money towards their development.
  2. The community is looking for solutions, not just a hand out.
  3. And the community is looking for a long-term engagement.

As a member of the Tifie community, it is Point Innovates passion that inspires us. “We believe in the Tifie Community, it is part of our core, who we are. With more people, we have been able to do more good. Our group effort has created sustainability, something that is evergreen and that can do good in the world.”

We can’t wait to be part of more meaningful projects with Point Innovate. To learn more about Point Innovate and all the good they do visit them here.

The Kushea ITC center is now complete

When the most basic needs of safety and survival can be met, a person can continue to grow and dream for a bright future. The Kushea Community Partnership came about to provide sustainable power and technology for a community so individuals, families and businesses could lift themselves out of poverty by providing for themselves. Thanks to our partners Point Innovate, Goal Zero and King Nana Pra, we are excited to announce the completion of the Kushea ITC Center, a solar powered technology center.

The Center serves multiple purposes keeping education as the focus. It levels the playing field for the Kushea children and kids from Accra by giving them access to information and knowledge that will allow them to compete in the world. The Kushea ITC Center is the most impactful install that Tifie has done so far. The Center will service five local schools and communities, providing access to technology that opens up the outside world via digital media, books, educational content and the Internet.

Goal Zero handpicked a team of professionals to travel to Kushea to install the solar array for the ITC Center. ” All of equipment in the ITC Center is powered through the new 250 watt solar backup system to ensure sufficient power is available to run all the equipment, power the lights and other essential needs for a functional center. The battery backup will provide the center with three full days of autonomous power and allows it to be independent from the grid.

Watch the amazing video of the trip, the people of Kushea, and what this means to the community.

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Project Kushea

The Kushea Community Partnership is the perfect example of what happens when like-minded people come together with good intent. A partnership created out of our connection and collaboration with Point Innovate, King Nana Pra and Goal Zero. The goal of Project Kushea is to provide sustainable power for the community so individuals, families, and businesses can finally provide for themselves.

Our partner, Point Innovate is a sales and distribution business that creates high-impact social projects in the area, their strong relationship with the local King was essential in creating a long-term relationship that would allow for a single vision. King Nana Pra has been the ideal leader to work with. He invests his own wealth into the projects, but it is his passion for education and the success of the community that is truly inspiring.

Here are some of the projects currently in Kushea:

The Health Clinic – With Goal Zero solar generators and panels this clinic has now turned into a viable community resource.

The Police Station – What was once before a small, windowless, and doorless building that served as the police station is now a central community building where safety and civic pride can begin to blossom after a few improvements along with solar power and light.

The community technology center – This project is the most impactful install so far, the center will serve five local schools and communities, providing access to technology including digital media, books, educational content and the internet.

Cocoa Farmers Empowered – light and power was provided to the cocoa farmers, allowing for increased production.

Join us this month as we tell the story of Kushea!