Helping yourself by helping others

Joycelyn with some OLAF beneficiaries

Joycelyn Siaw, Founder of One Life Aid Foundation shares how her circumstances inspired her to become a philanthropist.

Running a non-profit organization is a passion I have nurtured while growing up. It is something I love to do with all my heart. At the core of what I do is a personal inspiration that I put in a quote: “Helping others make a difference in their lives is how we make a difference in our own lives.”  This is what drives me to look out for the less privileged children, women and youths in the rural communities in my country in the area of education and health. Aside this, is my passion to write books and songs.

I come from a humble beginning. My mother left me at the age of three years and relocated to another place. My family didn’t have everything but we were happy as my Grandfather did his best to cater for our educational needs. He always inspired me to learn hard and would always give me a bottle of coca cola as an award for doing well every term in the primary school. Oh, what a joy it was to study just for a bottle of coca cola, until my grandfather passed away. My dad tried his best moving from sibling to sibling to ask for assistance as he was in school at the time.

It was a difficult season in my life not having access to the things I easily had before.

At a point, I realized that my situation was not an uncommon one. Many children and teenagers in my locality had similar problems. I told my friends at the time that I would one day help people to get the things that would make them become better.

I sold ceramics with my grandmother. I have sold iced water, pancakes, and oranges before. I remember when I took a break from school to sell fufu with my maternal grandmother. That almost got me kicked out of school as I was selling during school hours.

My experience has sparked a desire in me to do what I can to help other children who find themselves in a similar situation. As my coach, Emmanuel Woyome of NGO Focus would say, “We must all aspire to be change makers in our generation”. For me, I just want help even if it’s in the smallest form, I am glad I am able to put a smile on a face and also transform minds with the projects we are embarking on. We are not doing everything but we are doing something.

When God puts a dream in the heart, He also makes provision for what the dream requires to be a reality. The initial stages might not be smooth and sleek but sometimes it is just so He will deal with what needs to be dealt with. One must not sit and wait for his dream to come to pass on its own. Every dream needs hard work, focus and tenacity.

It is against this background that I set up the One Life Aid Foundation (OLAF). OLAF literally means giving assistance, one life at a time to the less privileged children, women and youth in our world.

Countless number of children, women and youth around the world are confronted with issues that challenge their health, growth and ability to educate themselves and become useful in their communities.

OLAF works to promote education, health and to collaborate with other organizations in initiatives that help further the development of children, women and youth. Our slogan, “For our growing generation, a better world” is what drives our mission to contribute to the development of children, women and youths.

Some of our initiatives include free health screenings, provision of educational materials, support for brilliant but needy children, provision of free sanitary towels to young girls and women, donations to orphanages, donations to communities, provision of veronica barrels to encourage hand hygiene in basic schools, advocacy and the newest addition to our initiatives is 2 hours to read (2toread) for children in rural communities.

Operating a non-profit organization in a developing country such as Ghana demands a lot of sacrifices. Every successful project requires a lot of brainstorming, planning, researching, organizing and field work in rural communities.

In my observation, one cannot merely succeed in any entrepreneurial endeavor without making time for the core activities that ensure success. Sometimes this means going beyond the normal to do the extraordinary; this could be staying awake when everyone is sleeping to draw a project implementation plan. To get what you want, one must be willing to sacrifice.

Joycelyn Siaw Asamoah, Founder of OLAF