ghana, morocco and beyond

1/10/09
Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know, I am heading to Ghana for the spring semester! I am currently a sophomore studying at NYU, majoring in communications. In addition to its primary campus in the heart of Manhattan, NYU has 10 study abroad campuses around the world, and urges all of its students to spend a semester abroad. I have chosen to spend the second semester of my sophomore year in Ghana, a country located in West Africa. I chose to study in Accra, Ghana to continue the HIV/AIDS prevention and education work I began this past semester in New York City. In August 2008, I began an internship at LIFEbeat: The Music Industry Fights AIDS. LIFEbeat’s mission is to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention education to America’s youth by teaming up with the music industry to reach America’s most infected population. (For more information about this wonderful organization, please visit www.lifebeat.org.) My time at LIFEbeat and my taking several classes about historic and contemporary Africa continued to nurture in me a growing, global awareness of the destruction caused by this epidemic. During my four month stay in Ghana, I will be interning with the West African AIDS Foundation, which is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) aimed at providing awareness and education to those who, heartbreakingly, may otherwise be ignorant to the simple prevention techniques. (For more information about the West African AIDS Foundation, please visit www.waafweb.org.)

In addition to studying and working in Ghana, I plan on traveling all around Africa during my four month stay. During spring break, I will spend a week in Morocco with the NYU Navigators (or Navs), the Christian ministry I belong to at NYU. Navs has become my family away from home, and through Navs, I have met most of my dearest friends. Navs is a nationwide ministry with many college branches, and it fosters love and community among its members with a greater goal of helping those in need around us. Living in New York City for 8 months of the year has certainly taught me how many needs are unmet in the poor and hurting community, and as a family, the Navigators and I work diligently to love, like Jesus, those whom the world dismisses.

In Morocco, about 20 of us will be working for a week at the Village of Hope in Ain Leuh. The Village of Hope is committed to establishing permanent homes for orphaned or unwanted children up to the age of 18. The Village of Hope places 10 children each in 10 housing units, where a married couple essentially adopts and provides for their 10 children. These couples have promised to dedicate their lives to raising, nurturing, and educating these children until the reach the age of 18. Because there are 10 children per house and 10 houses, there are 100 children whose lives will forever be changed by these couples’ selflessness! As a team, the Navs will travel to Ain Leuh to help the Village of Hope in the construction of more homes, as well as help with upkeep jobs. We will also participating in sports activities with the children.

As a group, our mission is to:

Serve the poor, forgotten and oppressed
To explore the holistic nature of the Gospel
To explore ministry in a limited access country


For more information on the Village of Hope, please visit www.voh-ainleuh.org.

I am so excited to be part of such a wonderful, important project, and feel called to invite you to join us in helping to make it happen! Some of you share my Christian faith, and I respect that others don’t. But regardless of our faith backgrounds, I strongly believe serving these children is a crucial role we, the very materially blessed, need to take on.

In order to serve in Morocco, I must raise $1,700, which includes the cost of the trip itself (the supplies we will purchase and use, my housing, meals, etc.) and airfare. Ideally, I need to raise $750 of the cost by January 22nd. I am humbly asking you to consider donating whatever you can to help me make my way to Morocco to help these beautiful children. Every little bit helps! If you don’t feel comfortable supporting this particular project, or can’t at this time, I totally understand and please don’t feel uncomfortable! But, I do still encourage you to reach out to the world’s poor and oppressed in other new and significant ways in 2009!

I am keeping a blog to document not only my Moroccan trip, which will take place the week of March 13th-March 20th, 2009, but also my entire journey through Africa. The blog is at:

www.ghanaelizabeth.blogspot.com.

I will be updating it (hopefully!) daily with stories and pictures of my wonderful adventures. I invite you to read it and join me in my journey!

I thank you for taking the time to read this, and for considering a contribution. May you and your family have a blessed and thankful 2009.

Excited,

Elizabeth Shelby


“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

*If you want to donate funds for my Morocco trip, please contact me! :) But prayers are always welcome!