Opening of Hanukkah

Opening of Hanukkah, 1 March 2008

Marjo and Gerrit (Mariëttes parents) travelled to Ghana in April 2008 to attend the opening of the new orphanage Hanukkah. After they returned to The Netherlands they found it difficult to answer the question: “What was it like?” in a few words. “A lot of emotions passed that week” is what Marjo says.

During the opening, approximately 300 guests were present. Various invitees, including Chiefs, a Queen, tribal leaders, principals, the fire department, police and Social Welfare. Mariëtte and Moses were particularly pleased to welcome the minister of the Sunyani district! The opening was fantastic, being the realisation of a dream through the hard work and efforts of many people. Besides a number of speeches, children from nearby schools and from Hanukkah performed traditional dances. A tree was planted and the children made themselves a bench to thank and commemorate to Marjo and Gerrit, in appreciation of the work they did. It has a special place in front of the orphanage. It was a long and festive night, with drumming and dancing going on until deep in the night. Sweat equity

The day of the opening was one full of pride, joy and admiration. Admiration for Mariëtte, Moses and, above all, the volunteers. They worked very hard in the weeks before the opening to get everything finished on time. This has never been easy. Two days before the opening of the orphanage, the waterpipes burst  causing the tiles in the ‘girl’s unit’ to fall down. In Ghana it is hard to trace the responsible plumber in such a short time, a decision was made to hold the tour at the opening in one of the other buildings.

Thanks to the efforts of volunteer Cock, together with the local blacksmith, a splendid playground has been constructed. Volunteer Margriet took the responsibility of supplying the shops with the help of several kids. All the cleaning was done by Aafke, Jorien Sanne and Anique. Because of all this hard work, the kids were able to move in time to their beautiful new home.