Kingsgate Resources Inc. Donates Funds for Ghanaian Girls' Education: Dream for Children Restored After The Province Publishes Story
Kingsgate Resources Inc., a mining company that was founded by Joseph Kingsley Annan, the nephew of the former United Nations two-term Secretary General, Kofi Annan makes dream a reality for Ghanaian girls.
Abbotsford, British Columbia (PRWEB) July 19, 2007 -- Canadian-based gold mining and exploration company Kingsgate Resources Inc. has donated the requisite funds for a full year's education for 74 girls and has pledged a further five year's funding for 130 young women. The way in which this came about is a bit extraordinary.
On May 25, 2007, the Province published a story about a filmmaker's hopes to help young women in Ghana being dashed by a Vancouver thief. Shannen O'Brian, 25, recently spent 15 months in Ghana, a county in West Africa of 23 million. Six months of her time in Ghana was spent filming and photographing 130 young girls.
Her aim was to produce a documentary film detailing their lives and to use the film to initiate a sponsorship program for them. O'Brian's idea was to approach Canadians to donate the money the girls needed to be educated beyond primary level.
All it takes to pay for one girl's education in Ghana from Grades 7 through 12, she says, is $400 to $500, roughly $8 a month. Each prospective sponsor in O'Brian's program was to have received a video of their sponsored girl. She returned to Canada in February and was working on editing the footage.
O'Brian's plan was derailed within the space of 30 minutes when someone broke into her Ford Explorer parked on Robson and Bute in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.
"They took not only my computer with all my editing on it, they took my backup hard drive, my raw tapes, video camera, camera, pictures, everything. I had nothing left."
Not knowing what to do next, O'Brian contacted the Province and a story was printed on May 25, 2007. "I had to do something," said O'Brian. "I had 130 girls that thought they were going to school in September and their future was at stake. So I contacted the Province in hopes of having someone with some information come forward so that these girls could get an education. I didn't know how I was going to explain to them why they weren't going to be able to go to school."
The project is especially important, O'Brian explained, as girls in Ghana usually stop going to school earlier than boys because they are needed to work at home. Just 67 per cent of Ghanaian women aged 15 and over are literate compared to 83 per cent of men.
What happened next was not something O'Brian had expected.
When Abbotsford resident Satinder Dhillon read the story published on May 25, 2007, he knew he had to do something. Dhillon stated that he personally knows how it feels to be expecting something to happen in a certain time frame and the devastating impact it can have on adults and children living in North America let alone these young children who were looking forward to a different life finally in a third world country.
Dhillon, 29, is the CEO and President of Kingsgate Resources Inc., founded by Joseph Kingsley Annan, the nephew of the former United Nations two-term Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Kingsgate is a company based out of Calgary and its principle focus is gold mining and exploration in Ghana, West Africa.
Dhillon stated that Kingsgate has paid for the first year for 74 of the girls Ms. O'Brian had yet to raise money for, to go to school and the company has pledged to pay for the entire six year plan for all of the 130 girls as presented by Ms. O'Brian.
"We hope this is a stepping stone to improving the quality of the lives of more than just these 130 girls," stated Dhillon. "We have discussed with Ms. O'Brian the possibility of expanding this project to include new water wells for those in need in Ghana and other parts of Africa and assisting more young kids with the education they need to improve their future."
"It is not everyday you meet dedicated individuals such as Ms. O'Brian who are taking time out of their lives to help others. She has an incredible passion for what she is doing and it is very evident and contagious," Dhillon said. "It gives you the motivation to want to help any way you can."
After reading the article published in The Province, Dhillon contacted Erwin Singh Braich, Trustee of The Peregrine Trust, the largest shareholder of Kingsgate and the decision was made to move forward with this project.
"We are so fortunate to be living in a country such as Canada and have the freedoms and facilities we do," stated Braich, a well-known Canadian industrialist and philanthropist. "It is heartbreaking to think of what others around the world have to go through just to survive on a day to day basis. For the price of two Starbucks lattes a young child can go to school for a month and have money left over ... depending on what size of latte you prefer of course!"
Braich added that in addition, "currently one of our Group's Directors of Operations for Africa, Mr. J. Von Hardenberg, has been in the Democratic Republic of Congo for months at a time. This country has recently held their first free elections in over 40 years.
"This recent election was the largest such mission ever taken on by the United Nations and thus far appears for the most part to have quelled the violence that has taken the lives of over 4 million people."
"We hope to be able to assist this very young democracy grow and flourish so that it perhaps can serve as an example of what is possible when people come together and help one another to improve the lives of those who are most in need in the world," added Dhillon.
"Our executive committee has tasked Mr. Von Hardenberg to move forward with some large scale projects. We hope to enhance the quality of life for the Congolese residents by sponsoring similar social projects and acting in accordance with the UN declaration for Human Rights and we are committed to ensuring the well-being of Congolese workers.
"God works in mysterious ways, I am just glad that Ms. O'Brian didn't give up and took the extra step to contact the Province and here we are today. At least these 130 girls will not have to experience the let down of not going to school, God knows their lives are difficult enough as it is.
"Maybe I'm still an idealist at heart and despite the difficulties I have personally experienced in the world of business since I was a teen, after my father, Santokh Singh Dhillon passed away in 1996, I have been fortunate and look forward to assisting others with the knowledge I have acquired and to help any way I can to alleviate the suffering of others.
"Some of these girls are orphaned and have no one to care for them at all. At the end of the day the thief only assisted in making sure these girls got the education they deserved. I guess everything has its way of working itself out for the better," added Dhillon.
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