Welcome to Sahanna's Mission

"To help my village of Karaga and the surrounding community of Tamale, Ghana gain access to a higher standard of living, one project at a time. It is my goal to make a difference, no matter how small, and effect positive changes so that those without opportunities get a chance for a better life."

On December 18th, 2008, I walked into the village of Karaga, (Tamale) Ghana simply to volunteer a bit of my time to teach English and basic math, only to leave there as Chief Sahanna, probably the only Chinese-American chief in Ghana, if not all of Africa. One of the most common questions I get about my trip around the world is, "What was your favorite place?" Obviously, there were my favorite places to eat, favorite places to party, best place to live, etc. But the definitive highlight of my trip was my volunteer experience in Ghana.

My name, Sahanna, means "Opportunity," since I represent to my village the opportunity to help and make a difference.

Many of us grew up hearing the phrase, "There are children starving in Africa," but I think the meaning of that gets compounded exponentially when you see it with your own eyes and actually experience it. Because of this, I can no longer live a life just centered around me anymore and decided to help improve the lives of as many people as possible in Karaga. Welcome to Sahanna's Mission. I look forward to sharing my journey here with you.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Welcome!

For those of you who have been keeping up with me over the past year while travelling around the world, you all probably know that I am a chief of Karaga, a small village near Tamale, Ghana. For a little more background on this, feel free to read my two posts on how it all happened:
http://danielstriparoundtheworld.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

Anyway, my only commitment to my Chief, my friends in Ghana, and most importantly, my people of Karaga, was that I would help out in any way possible when I returned to the United States. Now, that I am back, this blog is the first step I am making in setting up a charity to help my village and my people of Karaga.

Now, I just want to state for the record that I am no Bill Gates, nor do I aspire to change the world. What I am going to do is make a difference, no matter how small. For example, this is the main water source for one of the villages, just to give you an idea what they drink and use on a daily basis. As such, one of my first projects for Karaga is to raise $2,500 for a water sanitation tank. This will ensure that over 300 people in my village will get access to clean water whenever they want!
From Ghana


I will be setting up a nonprofit (501c) for those of you who may want to claim a deduction for tax purposes. But make sure you check with your accountant on deductibility since I'm no tax pro. Also, I am doing that so that you know for every dollar or donated item I send to Karaga, 100% of the proceeds will arrive in Karaga. I know we all donate to various causes and the sad reality about the big charities is that most of the money, unfortunately, goes to paying hefty salaries, unnecessary marketing, and wasteful overhead. Sahanna's Mission has no salary to pay (it's just me, after all!) and the only overhead I have is postage, so rest assured, you are making a tremendous diffference by donating.

I know times are tough for everybody, but I am not necessarily looking just for monetary donations. Clothes, toys, childrens' books, even basic things like chalk and paper for the schools are welcome. Basically, I will take anything and send these off.

Anyway, I hope this finds you well, and look forward to your help in any way possible.

Thanks,
Chief Sahanna

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)