April 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ghana: Disabilities: Knoxville News Sentinel: PCV Chelsea Jaccard is attempting to raise money to add a classroom to Savelugu School for the Deaf in Northern Ghana
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Ghana:
Peace Corps Ghana :
The Peace Corps in Ghana:
April 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ghana: Disabilities: Knoxville News Sentinel: PCV Chelsea Jaccard is attempting to raise money to add a classroom to Savelugu School for the Deaf in Northern Ghana
PCV Chelsea Jaccard is attempting to raise money to add a classroom to Savelugu School for the Deaf in Northern Ghana
PCV Chelsea Jaccard is attempting to raise money to add a classroom to Savelugu School for the Deaf in Northern Ghana
Leaving footprints
Knoxville native raises funds for school for the deaf in Ghana
By ANSLEY HAMAN, hamana@knews.com
April 12, 2005
Caption: Knoxville native Chelsea Jaccard, pictured here in the Sahara Desert, is a Peace Corps volunteer and is raising funds to add another building to the Savelugu School for the Deaf in Ghana, where she teaches.
Knoxville native Chelsea Jaccard teaches at the Savelugu School for the Deaf in Northern Ghana, where she wants to add a classroom to the one-room building.
Jaccard, a Farragut High School graduate and a Peace Corps volunteer who has been teaching art in Ghana since June 2003, is attempting to raise money for the project.
Chelsea wrote an e-mail to her mother, describing the conditions at the school.
"The exposed brick of the half walls and small, shared desks, and plywood blackboards create a stark contrast to the brightly colored, well-lit decorated classrooms of American elementary schools," she wrote.
Soon after she arrived in the West African country, Chelsea decided to raise funds for an addition to the school, said her mother, Donna Jaccard. Her daughter noticed that students at a school for the deaf in Ghana never get to see one another's art because their one-room schoolhouse does not have room to display it.
"The building that she works at has not been added onto or changed or touched in 25 years," her mother said. "Her goal is to bring vocational rooms to the school."
Chelsea Jaccard originally aimed to fund the construction of three separate rooms, but has since changed her goal to the construction of one room before she leaves Ghana in August.
Part of that change was a difference in material and labor prices, her mother said.
"Since then, there's been a change, an increase in gas prices there," she said.
Fund raising from another continent has also been difficult, her mother said. The Peace Corps will not release the money until all the funds have been raised to compensate for every tool, piece of wood and labor hour.
"The proposal was written, approved, and submitted to Peace Corps where it has been sitting online in obscurity for months," Chelsea Jaccard wrote. "Therefore, I am making the effort to share this worthy project with my hometown and ask for help in raising the necessary funds for the special and underprivileged students."
She needs another $350 to complete the project, according to Peace Corps records.
"She hired a contractor there," her mother said. "She was waiting on Peace Corps to OK and send her the money."
Chelsea Jaccard moved to Ghana in June 2003 and will remain there until August 2005, her mother said.
Her mother said she hopes to finish construction before returning to the States.
Chelsea Jaccard's work in Ghana has encompassed AIDS awareness efforts and educating people about the dangers of the Guinea Worm, a parasite common in Sub-Saharan African regions.
"It's more than just teaching at the school," her mother said.
# By mail: Savelugu School for the Deaf Vocational Workshop_c/o Donna Jaccard _12818 Geyser Lane_Knoxville, TN 37922
n Online: http://www. peacecorps.com/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.projdetail&projdesc=641-202®ion=Africa
Ansley Haman may be reached at 865-342-6430.
When this story was posted in April 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
 | The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
 | RPCVs and Friends remember Pope John Paul II
Tony Hall found the pope to be courageous and capable of forgiving the man who shot him in 1981, Mark Gearan said the pope was as dynamic in person as he appears on television, Maria Shriver said he was a beacon of virtue, strength and goodness, and an RPCV who met the pope while serving in the Solomon Islands said he possessed the holiness of a man filled with a deep love and concern for humanity. Leave your thoughts here. |
 | Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
 | Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand
After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's. |
 | RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC
RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
 | Add your info now to the RPCV Directory
Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now. |
 | March 1: National Day of Action
Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ghana; Disabilities
PCOL19809
94
.
