Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I greet you from Accra, the capital of Ghana, a country struggling to free itself from human misery. Characteristically, the country lacks a water supply network, even in the capital, and has no drinking water. By way of example, I will tell you that in Metropolis we have two reservoirs and buying water costs us about EUR 700 a month plus the drinking water that we have to buy. Deaths from contaminated water are in the hundreds every day, even in Accra. Also, the waste runs along the roadsides and the risk especially of hepatitis is high. Clergymen have died of hepatitis and also many children. In the countryside things are much worse with the biggest “disease”, hunger, mowing down entire families and combined with the unfit water being the worst; not only do they have nothing to eat but also nothing to drink.
The situation is even worse with the economic crisis in Europe and especially in Greece and Cyprus, where you are the main supporters of the Missionary Work. The truth unfortunately is hard and hurts.
We are trying with all our strength, all of us in Africa, to keep the Metropolises and Dioceses alive in every way and not to say goodbye to the Mission.
We try, without donations anymore, to keep our schools and institutions open. For this reason, I would like to ask you to help us if you know of any schools in Greece that have school buses that are not necessary for their use. We are saying this so that you can containerize them here in Ghana and we can route them so that on one hand, the people who are facing a great shortage of transport can be served and on the other hand, the Metropolis can have some revenue. It is also necessary to purchase water trucks to transport drinking water to the Parishes and Schools. In this way we will get rid of the high cost of transportation and also the frequent contamination of students by the unfit water. I would request you to publish this in the next issue of your magazine “Foreign Mission”, hoping that someone will be sensitized to offer even a little help. In this way we will be able to keep our work alive and thriving, because unfortunately there are no other solutions and we are on the verge of collapse. Thank you in advance. With the love of Christ
+ The Akras Sava