I am the Project Coordinator for the Dumakyi and Nantan villages. These are farming communities, and I watched the people in Dumakyi go without light until the solar lanterns were distributed last September. The pupils are now able to undertake all their assignments they bring home from school. Also, the cost that the parents had to incur for flashlights and batteries, kerosene, and other sources of light are now going toward books and other school expenses. As a teacher in t

The village of Dumakyi goes dark when the sun sets. There is no electricity in this small farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, and flashlight batteries are hard to come by. It’s hard to imagine the depth of night time darkness in a place where no light exists. The children in this village have no way to read, study, or prepare for school the next day after the sun sets, about 6 p.m., so we decided to find a group of people who might be willing to help the childre

Today is World Malaria Day! For many people, it's just another day, but at Rising Village we're celebrating because three families in Dumakyi, Ghana have received bedding. They join nine other families in nearby villages who are now sleeping safe under bed nets. Last week, two Rising Village interns in Ankaase, Ghana walked through their home village and the village of Nantan to visit families and assess the bedding they were given. We wanted to be certain the families were s

What if you decided to give up something up so that vulnerable families in a low-income country could rise? Mamuna Moro is a mother of three children who lives in the village of Nantan. She carries the responsibility for the income of her family. Her husband, Ali, was in a motorcar accident two years ago and his foot had to be amputated. After the accident, the couple had to give up farming and Mamuna now supports the family by selling porridge. She buys all the ingredients f

March 31st was our Ghana director, Isaac's, birthday, so we started a birthday campaign to raise money for bedding. We set a goal of $500 to provide bedding for families in Dumakyi, and look at that total! We are grateful to donors for allowing us to not only provide new handcrafted bed frames, mattresses and bed nets to three families, but also add to our ongoing bedding fund. We continue to need funds for future bedding to provide safe sleep for families with young children

Today is Isaac's birthday, and we're celebrating all week with a birthday bedding campaign! Isaac, our Ghana director, has identified more families in the village of Dumakyi who are in desperate need of bedding. He continues to meet families who are sleeping on the floor, or on bedframes with no mattress and only fabrics and clothes under them. They have no way to connect bed nets, and the bed nets they are attempting to use are damaged and useless to prevent malaria. It's a

​Kwadwo is in fifth grade and lives in the village of Dumayki, Ghana. Each day, he walks through farm land, crosses streams, and climbs hills in order to get to school. His village has no electricity, and the houses are constructed with mud and finished with thatched roofs. Everyone who lives in this tiny village is a farmer, including Kwadwo's mother, who farms cocoa. His father died when he was a little boy. He and his five siblings live with their mother. At night, Kwadwo

by Lisa Tresch, Rising Village Executive Director Many years ago, when my husband and I were deciding whether to give to a large nonprofit that worked in lower-income countries, we focused on three things to help us make our decision: 1) a clear and passionate communication about their mission and purpose, 2) transparency about how they used our funds, and 3) stories about the difference our money was making in the lives of real people. In two previous posts, I wrote about ou