Charleston, SC -- Gethsemani Circle of Friends, a North Charleston nonprofit organization and the Family Services Research Centre at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) are partnering with Nkabom Artist and Craftspeople Association of Accra, Ghana to build a centre in Okurase, Ghana that will provide arts-based skills training and formal education for the community and improve the lives of women and children impacted by HIV/AIDS. The centre is called the Nkabom Centre, from the Ashanti word meaning “come together.” The effort is being conducted under the name Project OKURASE.

The three organizations have come together for the single mission of helping save children from the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa by getting children off the streets and helping women develop job alternatives. To date the land for the centre has been purchased, additional land has been donated and the local community in Okurase is in complete support of the project and willing to help in whatever way possible. Construction of the first building will begin next year following an October 27 fund-raising event in Charleston.

The goal of Project OKURASE is to develop a model that can be replicated in communities around the world with the central focus for the centre being on green design, sustainable architecture, job and skills training, family and village-based formal education, and a family-based model for caring for children impacted by HIV/AIDS.

“The relationships that have set Project OKURASE in place grew out of a neighborhood project that was a partnership between Family Services Research Centre at MUSC and the Union Heights neighborhood of North Charleston. Together we have expanded our work to a global extent to address the needs of children impacted by HIV/AIDS in Africa,” says Dr. Cynthia Cupit Swenson, an MUSC psychologist and associate director at the Family Services Research Centre.

“It is very heartbreaking and sad to see so many starving children without clothes or shelter even though they have the talent and strength to create a better life for themselves and become great community leaders,” says Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah, director of Nkabom Artist and Craftspeople Association. “Project OKURASE is guided by my similar experiences as a child and the wisdom of the village elders, community leaders, and the children. Many organizations and agencies are concerned with finding the best ways to support children and vulnerable adults. We believe the best way to help children is to help them provide for themselves through marketable skills training to foster their talents so that they can make a living. We will be empowering children and women through Project OKURASE. Together we can all make it happen” Yeboah, known in Ghana as Powerful, is the visionary behind Project OKURASE and its design.

The hope is that after the first three years of operation, which will be supported by grants and fund raising, the centre will be self-sustainable through the work of the artists, services and research activities. This work includes tours, selling goods, a recording studio, and student and adult exchange programs.

The event to raise money to build the centre will be a gala and photo exhibition of global outreach in Africa. The event will be on October 27, 2007 at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina in the U.S. and is being put together as a collaborative effort of the three partnering organizations, volunteers and community businesses.

Nkabom Artist and Craftspeople Association of Accra, Ghana was founded in 2000 under the leadership of Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah. The organization began facilitating workshops with children around Ghana to address health and environmental issues. In 2002, Nkabom registered as a nongovernmental organization and began to build the infrastructure necessary to conduct work in

Gethsemani Circle of Friends is a nonprofit organization located in North Charleston, South Carolina whose mission is to positively impact children, families and senior citizens by providing quality programs that enhance education, health, and well-being. Gethsemani Circle of Friends is the parent organization for Djole Dance Company, a children’s West African dance and drumming company that has joined with Nkabom to conduct AIDS work. In August 2006, 21 children from Djole Dance Company, traveled to Ghana and worked directly with Nkabom to develop and deliver an AIDS dance/drama in several sights throughout Ghana. A large national event was held at the Arts Centre of Accra in conjunction with the Ghana Dance Association.

Family Services Research Centre (FSRC) of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina is a centre whose mission is to increase the effectiveness of mental health and substance abuse services for children, adolescents, and their families. FSRC projects reach across the globe and typically involve community-based services and research on a treatment called multisystemic therapy (MST). This treatment is a f family- and home-based treatment that strives to help families experiencing some of life’s most difficult problems such as community and family violence. MST has been cited as a best practice for violence prevention by the U.S. Surgeon General. Gethsemani Circle of Friends and Djole Dance Company was the result of implementing an adaptation of MST in the Union Heights neighborhood in North Charleston.