Last Chance to Be…

My mate Hagan. He doesn’t know I am writing this page about him. I hope he doesn’t mind.

As you may know, I was supposed to train a teacher at my placement. Hagan was my trainee, unfortunately, nobody asked him if he wanted to be a teacher except me, when I got there. Guess what, he doesn’t.

Hagan had Polio as a kid and now has a resultant physical disability. He has not let that stop him becoming the well-rounded, good laugh, loyal and totally dedicated great friend of mine that he now is. If anyone is going to make a difference to the way Africa responds to people with disabilities, it will be more likely to be Hagan, than a VSO volunteer.

Here he is..

The bicycle is called Jerry.

Hagan has now left the school, where he was working as a teacher, to study in University. He will tell you he is there because of me, the truth is, however, he would have got there anyway.

Here are some words from the man himself.

My name is Hagan . I am 27 years old. I have a disability but that is not a limitation. I am the last child of my parents. I have five brothers. Three of them are farmers and two are working with private companies here in Accra the capital of Ghana and at the same time studying. My dad hails from the Volta Region of Ghana and my mom hails from the Eastern Region of Ghana.

My father and mother were both farmers until Eleven (11) years ago when I lost my father. My mother retired from her farming five (5) years ago due to old age and associated health problems. They were still married until my dad died.

For the past two (2) years I have been teaching in a vocational school for persons with disability where I met Jonathan Barrat. I taught English, Maths and Computing and I was an advocate for disability where I have been educating the local community about issues of disability. Currently, I am going to study Telecommunication Engineering, a four years course leading to the award of a Bachelor Degree at Ghana Telecom University College.

So why am I teling you all this? Well if you feel kind of helpless in Britain, working, busy, wanting to do the right thing but not sure what the right thing is, then I can assure you, helping Hagan is the right thing. I have committed to pay half of his university fees for the next four years. I would love your help.

Because Hagan never got the chance to get to Senior Secondary School, he is attending a private university at the cost of $2600 per year, for four years. He has already obtained sponsorship for $1000 per year and I am making up the rest. I have until February to get together $1600 dollars.

So your chance to help is to assist me raise the $1600 per year (apx £800). You can donate using paypal, just click on the link below. I will keep a running total on this site. I have also posted a digital camera to Hagan so he can keep us up to date on how he is getting on and I will try to get regular written updates from him.

If Thank You becomes a cliche, it will be my fault, as it is the most used phrase on this site. Cheers!