News Story by Nina Culver | FāVS News
Dan and Lori Houk have spent the last 15 years helping children in a remote town in Ghana, but along the way they’ve also built up the community by launching several local businesses.
They started as simple volunteers helping out once or twice a year, but now find themselves running a non-profit organization as they work to make their project self-sustaining and put themselves out of business.
Dan Houk, who recently retired as president of Wilbert Precast after more than 40 years with the family-owned company, had traveled extensively in Central and South America with his wife. About 15 years ago, as their children started leaving the nest, the couple was looking for a way to help people in other countries. As active members of Northview Bible Church, they prayed about finding a way to help people. They knew they didn’t have specialized skills, but wanted to make a difference.
“We were looking into the future,” Dan Houk said. “We just have a love for peoples who are really, really needy.”
Building a Self-Sustaining Project in Sawla
They happened to meet a man at church who had founded the International Assistance Program (IAP), which ran several projects around the world. The organization sent two people to the village of Sawla in Ghana to see if there was interest in a program to offer small business loans to women. There was such a program already there, but the two men were approached by a local pastor who asked for help with 36 orphaned or abandoned children in Sawla and neighboring villages.
“The chief was trying to take care of them all and it wasn’t working,” Dan Houk said.
The IAP purchased a duplex and created a children’s home to provide the children a place to live. That’s when they approached Dan Houk to ask his opinion on the best way to create a business to help support the children. “I seemed like a likely guy to tap for the expertise they were looking for,” he said.
He went along on the next trip to the area and was hooked. He worked with IAP to raise money to build a children’s home, visiting Sawla twice a year to check on the program. His wife began coming on the trips when their youngest child left home for college.
Sawla is a 12 hour van ride north from the capital city, far from the lush green foliage that grows near the capital. It’s a very poor area with subsistence farming or raising livestock. It’s not unusual for people to live on less than $60 a month, Dan Houk said.
“Things are different in the north,” he said. “There’s no jobs, there’s no manufacturing, there’s no industry. The ones in the villages are the ones who suffer. They live on very, very little money.”
Transforming Sawla: Economic and Social Growth
Fifteen years ago Sawla had about 1,500 residents. There was no hotel, no restaurant, no gas station and no bank. It is located at the crossroads of a major north-south route and a major east-west route.
The idea was to capitalize on being at the crossroads and build a hotel that would help support the children’s home.
“The very first building we built was a laundry in the back and six economy rooms,” he said.
There has been steady growth and expansion since. The hotel now has 18 rooms and a rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking the pool installed two years ago. Many customers are businessmen or with non-profit organizations and there’s enough space to hold conferences. There’s also a bakery.
Sawla now has a population of about 15,000 and the two highways that intersect there have been paved.
“Now it’s a lively place,” Lori Houk said.
The IAP had to switch gears a few years ago when World Vision and Unicef went through the area closing down children’s homes, many of which were poorly run.
“There were a lot of people just stealing money,” Lori Houk said.
The children in the IAP home were sent back where they came from, in some cases to family members who had neglected them in the first place. Lori Houk said their staff kept checking on the children and working with them to find good, safe homes for them to live in.
IAP still wanted to help children in the area and turned to the local schools. There’s often no money, which means no books, no paper and no pencils. Teachers are often untrained. Children have to learn by memorization.
“The ones in the north are dirt floors, maybe a desk, maybe not, maybe two kids to a desk,” Dan Houk said. “There’s just no resources. If they have a blackboard, they probably have no chalk.”
IAP launched a school in Sawla in August 2020. They tried to limit it to 30 students, but it quickly grew to 94. Many of the children were young, of preschool age.
Shifting Focus: From Children’s Homes to Education
“We turned it into a Christian school,” Lori Houk said. “It’s in a predominantly Muslim area, but they want their children to have the best education.”
The school has continued to grow and is now at 270 children. A new grade level is added each year and it’s now up to the fourth grade.
“What we have done since then is build new classrooms every year,” Dan Houk said. “We’ll probably end with ninth grade. We have a way to go with construction.”
IAP is now run in the Houk’s basement after Lori Houk, a member of the board, was asked to help out. “
They asked if I wanted to take over the books and I said sure,” she said. “They didn’t just bring the books, they brought the whole office.”
IAP has downsized and reorganized and the project in Sawla is the only one it maintains, Dan Houk said. The couple use email and What’s App to keep in contact with on-site staff and still visit twice a year.
“Lori and I are deep into this,” he said. “Things keep evolving.”
The hotel and other businesses help support the school, along with donations. Dan Houk said he estimates the school will be fully built out in six years and the project could be self-sustaining soon after.
“When we get the last schoolroom built, our need for funds will go way down,” he said.
Supporting Higher Education for Former Children’s Home Residents
IAP is also paying the college tuition for the former residents of the organization’s children’s home. Nearly two dozen are currently enrolled in college or a trade school. Some have already graduated and have become teachers and nurses. Many have come back to volunteer at the school because they want to help make a difference, too.
“It just makes your heart so happy,” Lori Houk said. “They’re good kids.”
The couple has no plans to stop their semi-annual trips to Ghana.
“Even when they’re self-sustaining, we’ll still go,” he said.
“The people over there are like our second family,” Lori Houk said. “Along with helping, we just want to see everybody.”
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