DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
Our slogan at Human Resources Services Inc. (HSRI) succinctly alludes to our vision and services: “Empowering poor children of the world through education to become the best in whatever they choose to do…and we bet....humanity will be pleasantly surprised with the results”.
None of us, no one chooses the parents to whom he/she is born, the time, or place of birth. We merely play the hands we are dealt. So consider our special children, our interest, and our focus - the children of the very poor, the marginalized, the under-privileged, the voiceless, the illiterate, the outcast. These are children who lead hard desperate lives in villages, cottages, hamlets in the rural areas and teeming slums of large cities in Africa. These are children of the 21st Century! These children have many and varied needs including: food/daily bread, clothes, medicine, drugs and vaccines to counter disease; shelter and security from the elements and human predators. They also need their rightful share of their countries natural resources. Most significantly, poor children also need education because they are human capital- potential that needs to be nurtured and developed for the cultures/societies into which they were born and for all humanity in the global village. For their education, they need qualified and enthusiastic teachers and instructors; they need classrooms and schools that protect them from heat and cold, rainstorm and dust. While they try to learn, they need uniforms, books, labs, lab materials, and educational supplies. Furthermore, they need time to be in school, not in the streets hawking, or on farms as farm hands. When they are in school, they need at least one nutritious meal or snack for the day. The saddest part about the above litany of needs is that even though they largely go unmet and unfulfilled, these children are cynically expected to compete on the same platforms as their privileged counterparts on standardized exams for high school and college admissions, jobs, professions and careers.
HSRI a non-for-profit organization located in Chicago, Illinois, USA dedicated to using education and literacy as a tool for reducing poverty, ignorance, and disease in poor and underserved communities in the USA and particularly, in Africa…without barriers! Our strategy on the two continents is different but complimentary to our vision. In the United States, we work with preschool, after school, and adult literacy programs. In Africa, our focus is providing resources for literacy and education through self-help by leveraging the resources of our USA partners. HSRI provides supplemental educational materials and educational enrichment resources to children and families in villages and slums of Africa, in an attempt to break the cycle of abject poverty, hopelessness, ignorance and disease. We are encouraged by our proven model and approach of service delivery in Ghana, West Africa, and we are currently building our capacity to expand services to children and communities in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We encourage other immigrants from developing countries to emulate our model because communities can be changed through such efforts. In each African country, we partner with the IRS equivalent of not-for-profit, non-governmental organizations (NGO) for advocacy, and make deliveries to the ultimate beneficiaries in the villages and the slums. From 2004 through 2007 alone, HSRI has been able to deliver educational resources to over 30 schools in Ghana, W. Africa. In some cases, fortuitously, HSRI materials became the only ones available in the beneficiary schools for teaching and learning, not supplemental as originally intended. HSRI is also promoting its Community Learning Center (CLC) concept – a one-stop library, technology, intergenerational learning centers to serve rural communities with some of the donated educational materials from the USA. HSRI has been able to achieve these successes on a limited budget annually from its founders’ meager resources and reliance on an all-volunteer workforce in USA and Africa.
As part of its immediate plans, HSRI would like to expand its operations and extend its model and coverage to more children in Ghana and to other countries in Africa. We expect to raise funds from grants, financial donations from organizations and individuals sympathetic to this need. Before you leave our site we encourage you to visit our sponsor and beneficiary pages, and photo/video gallery. Yes, each one of us can make a difference in the lives of total strangers! Help us spread the gift of empowerment and uplift children, youth, and families from ignorance, poverty, disease, and violence through education, literacy, self-help & kindness.
Thanks for this opportunity to share our HSRI vision of empowerment with you.
Sincerely,
Wolanyo Kpo
Executive Director, HSRI
