Why did we decide on building a house instead of renting?
During the first years when Silas and his wife fostered the children, they lived in rented houses. As there is no security for rentals, the rent can easily be increased every year. Furthermore the landlord is able to cancel the renting contract at any time. Those things happened to Silas, Sanatu and the children. Also inflation causes price increases for houses. In order to give stability and security to the children, we decided rather for building than for renting a house.
How did we manage to build a house in Ghana?
As there not all materials available in Ghana and also water is a raw resource, especially during raining season, it was a long building process. We hired local companies in order to build a house and bought local material. Silas got the estimates, prices and informed us about every new on the construction ground.
How much money did we spend for the completion of the house?
All in all the costs for the house were about 30.000 Euro. We started building when we collected 10.000 and continued afterwards from time to time. Next to the main building, there is also a second small building as well as a place for the chicken and guinea fowls.
What happens with the house, when the children are adults?
As our youngest boy, Joshua is 8 years old now, we are going to support the children at least 8 to 10 more years. We want to make sure that all of them are able to feed themselves. As Silas and Sanatu built up the whole project by themselves, even before we supported them, they will stay at this place as long as they want. In Ghana it is very common to live together with several generations. That is why we also expect some of the children staying there permanently or temporary with their families. The house should be place where everybody loves to come for a visit or a stay.