“Project OKURASE” is a 501 c 3 nonprofit in the United States and an NGO based in the rural village of Okurase, in the Upper West Akyem District of the eastern region of Ghana, West Africa. The mission of Project OKURASE is:
While honoring Ghanaian arts and culture, collaborate with the village of Okurase, Ghana to develop sustainable, replicable solutions to life’s biggest challenges and share lessons learned with other disadvantaged villages.
Project OKURASE started long before the NGO or nonprofit were formed. It started with independent work being done in Ghana and America.
Ghana
In 1998 in Ghana, Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah (called Powerful in Ghana) a drum maker, master drummer, and performing artist had started an NGO called Nkabom Artiste and Craftspeople Association. Nkabom was conducting work with street children through the arts. Samuel was teaching and making drums. He was buying drum shells from a village called Okurase in the eastern region. He saw the great need in Okurase and had in mind to help the village and to then reach out to many villages with what was learned. The leaders in Okurase had ideas on how to change their plight but the resources to do so did not exist. Samuel received a contact and a drum order from Drs. Cynthia Cupit Swenson and Ida Taylor with Djole African Dance and Drum Company in Charleston, South Carolina.
America
In 1998, through a Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Healthy South Carolina Initiative, Dr. Cynthia Cupit Swenson of MUSC’s Psychiatry Department joined with Ida Taylor of the Union Heights neighborhood and Gethsemani Community Center to carry out a community violence prevention project called Neighborhood Solutions in the Union Heights community. Over the next three years and as a result of this project, the Union Heights neighborhood experienced dramatic reductions in substance use and criminal activity and increases in school attendance among youth and families who participated in Neighborhood Solutions and an 80% reduction in calls for police service. The community started a nonprofit (501c3 called Gethsemani Circle of Friends – named for the local community center) to sustain their activities. During the Neighborhood Project, the community desired positive activities that resonated with their Gullah-Geechee culture that is based on a West African heritage.
Around 40% of enslaved Africans who were trafficked to the United States during the transatlantic slave trade entered the country through Charleston. Many enslaved people remained in South Carolina which thrived under a slave economy for roughly 200 years. During the last three years of the middle passage, all slave ships came to Charleston. People who were enslaved in Ghana were brought to Charleston and their culture added richly to the current fabric of the city and the region. Embracing the West African heritage, the Neighborhood Solutions project began West African dance and drumming lessons for children. The children rapidly learned the dances and rhythms and showed talent. The children’s group needed authentic, professional drums. Todd Chas of the Coastal Community Foundation introduced the group to Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah, a drum maker and performing artist in Ghana who is known as “Powerful” and was described as an excellent instrument maker and a good soul. A drum order was placed with Samuel’s business called Powerful Drums. The drums traveled from Ghana to Charleston, South Carolina. The children formed a professional dance and drumming company called Djole and began to perform in many places including the United Nations partnering with children from Rwanda on a reconciliation tour. The drums and the relationship with Powerful established a key connection with Ghana.
Check out his video by Adam Parker of the Charleston Post and Courier:
The United Link
Through drums the link was made. Samuel invited Djole to come to Ghana. In July 2006 a group of 21 children of whom the majority had never even been to the Charleston airport and 19 adults flew to Ghana and spent 18 days working with Samuel and Nkabom Artiste and Craftspeople Association to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS through dance/dramas that were conducted in many cities in Ghana. Samuel took the group to a village called Okurase. The Djole children were struck with the needs of their same age peers who were much smaller due to malnutrition and they wanted to help.
In 2007 Project OKURASE officially became an nongovernment organization and the ongoing work started as a partnership of the village of Okurase, Nkabom Artiste and Craftspeople Association, Gethsemani Circle of Friends nonprofit in Charleston, the Union Heights community, the Medical University of South Carolina, and Project OKURASE NGO in Ghana. This link continues to be multidirectional – helping people in America, Ghana, and many other countries that span 5 continents to date.
