“My name is Godfred. I am the eldest son of three, I have one brother and one sister. I am from Kwabena Akwah in Atwima Mponua District of Ashanti region. I was born in 1995. My family are cacao farmers. My father died when I was 7. That is why a couple years later, when I turned 9, I started to work in the cacao fields. I was enrolled in school at that time, but I skipped a lot of school as I couldn’t afford the school textbooks and other supplies and so I did not enjoy school. My mum was poor and couldn’t read or write, and I felt so guilty that she worked all by herself to look after me and my brother and sister. My siblings were not going to school either. After a while, I went to live with my grandparents who adopted me, thinking that I would be able to go to school, however things turned out to be even worse there and I ended up having to work on their farm and other farms to afford to go to school again."

After starting the SMILE Ghana project in the Kwabena Akwah community, Godfred was among the children who were rescued and supported with school logistics to continue his schooling work. He graduated from junior high school and attended high school. Godfred got the highest score on the final exam in his district, earning him a scholarship from the Ghanaian government and allowing him to be accepted immediately. Since then he has been studying hard. My dream is to become a doctor. Godfred is in tertiary institution now, pursuing his dream.