The Rescue: Part 1

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity and of emotions. We are now, extremely happy, exhausted, and most of all, very thankful. As many of you know, we were able to rescue five precious girls from Lake Volta and bring them home with us to Akatsi! We couldn’t be more excited!

We left the house early on Monday morning and travelled via tro-tro from Akatsi to Accra, via airplane from Accra to Kumasi and finally we took another tro-tro from Kumasi to Atebubu. It was a very long travel day! 

We stayed in Atebubu several nights while working with the volunteers who have been on the Lake locating the girls. The events of the next few days left us feeling discouraged and disappointed. Each day brought a new set of obstacles. There were moments when we had doubts as to whether we would be able to bring any girls at all, but in the end Teddy and Bernard worked everything out with the Social Welfare Department and we were given permission to retrieve five girls from the lake and bring them to their new home! (We hope to return to the lake as soon as we are able to bring the three more home).

Before bringing the girls home, we had to cross Lake Volta in a small wooden fishing boat (shown below) to visit the different communities in which the girls were living. We spoke with the chief of the village who had many questions about who we were and where we were taking the girls. He was happy to release them to us after hearing our our plans to care for them and eventually put them in school.

  

We are now all safely back at the Eight Oaks home. The girls are wonderful and they seem to be very happy here! We are excited to tell you all more about them in the coming weeks. We are feeling blessed and grateful to be here.

Due to Eight Oak's privacy policy, we are unable to post pictures of the girls here. We are in the process of finding a way to make pictures available while respecting the privacy of the girls and taking the necessary measures in preventing pictures from being circulated without proper permission. We have plenty to show, and know you are anxious to see so we will make them available as soon as possible!

Thank you all for your love and support. We will post again soon.

Kate and Landon