About Us

New Life International Children's Home was started by a Ghanaian nurse/midwife, Ruby Ayivorh, in 1998, and has been established as a licensed NGO in Ghana since that date. Derrick Gaisie, Jackline Hinson (left, above), James Doughan (right, above) and a dedicated staff (below) of caretakers and teachers have given much in the last twelve years to create a good life and education for orphaned and needy children in Ghana. Currently, 200 children attend school at the Home's primary school. 40 children live at New Life permanently, and range in age from 2 to 18 years old.

Several former volunteers at New Life are helping organize the fundraising efforts on the United States side. Andrea Johnson (right, below) and Shallee McArthur (left, below) volunteered originally in 2005, and have been back several times since.

Amanda Malzacher's original visit was in 2006, and she has since returned as well. She established Literacy for Life in 2007 (official 501c3 status since 2008). LFL has provided funds to hire 3 teachers at Abura Literacy School, provided funding for computers at New Life, and set up a sustainable farm for Sankofa Children's Home. In addition to the Reach for the Stars project, LFL is currently working on further sustainable projects for Sankofa. To contact LFL, email Amanda at literacyforlife [at] live [dot] com

For questions, comments, or concerns regarding Reach for the Stars, please send an email to shallee.mcarthur [at] gmail [dot] com or to nlyffe [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk.

Thanks to Catherine Franks, Tue Nielsen, Saffron Brown, Zoe Reiches, and Emily Yeomans for letting us use their pictures!