Star of the Sea Prep School – School Building
Thaddeus Mensah and Alex Obroni grew up together as best friends in the rural town of Sampa, Ghana, West Africa, Brong Ahafo region. As young men they took two different roads. Thaddeus left Ghana to pursue opportunities of living and working abroad. Thaddeus now resides in Los Angeles, California. Alex stayed in Ghana worked as a male nurse in Sampa and then returned to Buni, his hometown where he started a small clinic. In 2006, Thaddeus and his wife, Joan took a trip back to his hometown, Sampa. At that time, Alex shared with Thaddeus and Joan his vision of building a primary school in Buni that would accommodate an overflow of children who were not able to get into the only other primary school in the area. The other primary school was already at capacity. Alex and the community were able to build a temporary wooden structure with dirt floors. Alex was seeking financial assistance in order to improve the building structure.
In order to assist Alex with his mission of upgrading the school, Thaddeus and Joan collected donations from family, friends and many others. On a trip back to Ghana in June 2007, Thaddeus and Joan traveled to Buni to hand deliver the donations in order for Alex to begin with school building improvements. The donations were presented at the perfect time. On arrival at Buni, we discovered that due to heavy rainstorms the original school structure was completely destroyed. The donations were turned over to Alex and together with the community the school was built – see “before” and “after” photos.