From Michigan to Nkwantakese

By Phillip Molnar

As the sun sets in the West African village of Nkwantakese, three young adults from the American state of Michigan and a Bronx school teacher sit on empty water jugs outside a small home pondering how they will feed 14 orphans – plus 100 or more other impoverished children – through the next year. Money is tight for the group, but that is the least of their problems.

The two youngest of the group, Will Schmidt, 16, a junior at Ernest W. Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Mich., and his friend Ben Eveslage, 18, a 2009 Seaholm graduate, believe the headmaster of the children’s school, Michael Van Sowah, has stolen two of their 10 bags of rice.

The leader of the group, Aaron Adler, 26, a Michigan State University graduate, has dedicated the past five years of his life to the children. Adler is the reason why many of them, who are in front of the home playing soccer with a deflated basketball in the 70-degree night, can speak English and have a home, but his faith in this small nation has been shaken. In the past five months, he has seen the life he built here fall apart.

Adler has been kicked out of the massive orphanage he spent two years building, along with the 14 children with whom he lived, and his pregnant 25-year-old Ghanaian wife, Rita. A friend involved with the initial planning of the home, Alison Van Essendelft, 26, of New York, flew to Ghana to try to save the project, but failed. It was only in October 2008 that Adler was embraced and told he was doing a great job by the woman financing the project, 80-year-old Franklin, Mich., resident Gisela Becker.

Becker, who beginning in the late 1990’s poured some $100,000 (by a friend’s estimate) into Ghanaian charities, had by the early 2000’s become distrustful of many Ghanaians, who appeared to care more about money than caring for the country’s estimated 1,100,000 orphans, many whose parents died of AIDS, and abandoned children. Instead, for over two years she relied on some 50 teenagers and young adults from Michigan, who had little to no experience working in education or construction, to build a 9,000-square-foot home.

Becker has spent $80,000 and Adler around $8,000 to build the home, but conflicts and allegations eventually tore the pair apart. Now, two southeast Michigan-based charities – one sponsored by Becker and the other by Adler and Eveslage – are operating independently in a small, isolated area of Ghana in sub-Saharan Africa, less than a mile apart.

Now, just down the dusty dirt road from the tiny home the children and volunteers are currently living in, the home is empty. Surrounded by the lush vegetation of bushes and trees, the former home with its imposing turquoise roof, is no longer the happy place where children once played and studied. Rooms are filled with dead birds, the walls and lawn are filthy, and the only activity there is local tribal chiefs who sometimes come over to make sure no one trespasses on the property.

The story began in Birmingham, Mich., in early 2005 when Adler’s mother cut out a newspaper article about a Michigan woman, Becker, sending money through her Christian-based charity, St. Paul Nonprofit Charitable Organization – SPANCO – to Ghana.

Adler had a fondness in his heart for Ghana after spending a semester studying at the University of Ghana, where he met his friend, Van Essendelft. They were both interested in education and charitable work and found an outlet for their interests north of the capital, Accra, at an orphanage in the impoverished neighborhood of Madina.

When Adler contacted Becker a few weeks after reading the article, she asked him to help build an orphanage. He decided it was time to go back to Ghana and convinced Van Essendelft to come with him. They spent the next few months driving around Ghana scouting land, negotiating with tribal chiefs, and struggling to speak the local language, Twi.

They found a spot north of Ghana’s second-largest city, Kumasi, in the village of Nkwantakese, and laid the first brick of the home in June 2007.

Almost two years later in 2008, the SPANCO House, as it was called, dominated Nkwantakese’s landscape. Street names and addresses are rare in Ghana, but the home was given the title of “Two-Story Nkwantakese.” It was the only structure in the village with more than one floor.

Adler and another friend, Mike Wagner (also a Birmingham native), along with local contractors, didn’t just build a home but also a public library, a junior high school, a basketball court, rooms for volunteers, and, in the bottom floor of the SPANCO House, two large rooms – dorms – for some dozen or more children. Many of the children came from the town in which he started his orphan work, Madina, to live in SPANCO House, along with nine others from all over Ghana. The home buzzed with excitement.

Adler ran several programs, including “News Hour,” which invited the children, from the SPANCO House and the village, to watch and discuss the news. The children had to take notes while watching nightly news broadcasts and ask questions afterward.

Becker was thrilled. She had been donating money to Ghana since the late 1990’s and felt she was finally making an impact. “The building and everything was super,” she said. “To tell you the truth, I could not have got that far without them.”

Becker began donating money in 1995 after meeting a 14-year-old Ghanaian orphan on a bus during a vacation in Turkey. “He was going to find some of his late parents’ friends, but he didn’t know where they lived,” Becker said. “I felt sorry for him.”

Becker, born in Germany in 1929, and who grew up in a German boarding house during World War II, came to the United States in 1953. “I went through some pretty bad times,” she said. “That’s why I can relate to kids in Ghana.”

While bombed-out Germany was being rebuilt, Becker left for the United States. She worked for a few years in New York City at a packaging company and then as a nanny. Eventually, she met her future husband and moved to Michigan where he began his career as a doctor. She now uses her late husband’s pension, and money she saved over the years to fund SPANCO. The rest of the money SPANCO uses comes from fundraising and donations from SPANCO board members.

For the children who came to the SPANCO House, Becker’s money drastically changed their lives. Valentina Lawson, 9, used to walk through thick traffic in Accra selling beef stacked on her head, a common practice in Ghana. After watching her mother die of a heart attack two years earlier, Valentina – who does not know who her father is – was sent to live with her grandmother, who put her to work in Accra.

Such work is common in Ghana, where nearly 30 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day and unemployment is estimated to be as high as 20-25 percent.

Maneuvering through cars selling goods is common in the congested city of nearly two million residents. The job is made more dangerous because driving like a maniac seems to be the only way to get around, made worse by the reality that in many cases the only way to get a driver’s license in Ghana is through bribes, not through showing driving proficiency.

When Valentina’s brother Divine, 15, who is also abandoned and lived at the SPANCO House, found out what his sister was doing and refused to go to school for a week. Working through Divine’s former caretaker, they were able to rescue Valentina. After getting the approval of her grandmother, Valentina came to live at SPANCO House.

After only a few months at the house, Valentina found a new life. She scored fourth in her class’s end-of-the-year exams and excels in English. In her spare time, the girl enjoys “jumping and clapping.”

By the beginning of 2008, Adler was recruiting other young people from his hometown of Birmingham, Mich., to come to Ghana and help with the SPANCO House. One of his recruits was Eveslage, a tall, blond-haired, and ambitious Birmingham student that came in summer 2008 after he heard Adler speak at Seaholm. He was greatly affected by his time in Nkwantakese. “I didn’t just want to come home and forget about it,” Eveslage said.

Back in Birmingham, Eveslage started a group called Volunteer Africa. Working closely with Becker, whom he was helping send care packages to Nkwantakese, set up the group with the goal of raising African awareness. People in Birmingham “just don’t understand” conditions in West Africa, Eveslage said.

Eveslage also created a program called “I’m Hungry” to donate food to needy Ghanaians (the program now provides food for the children’s school), and organized Africa Fair at Seaholm high school to promote volunteering in Africa. Eveslage, and his friend from Seaholm, Jessica Forzano, 18, spent $400 for the event out of their own pockets.

The faculty at Seaholm was worried about liability issues with students going to Africa so they did not allow Volunteer Africa to become an official school group. But, they did let Adler speak to the students and host Africa Fair. Instead, Eveslage set up the group as a non-profit organization separate from Seaholm.

The beginning of the split that would rock Nkwantakese occurred at Africa Fair in November 2008. Becker was invited, but left when she saw the Volunteer Africa flyers Eveslage created. Volunteer Africa had a picture of the SPANCO House with a caption that read: “SPANCO Ghana office building.” Although Becker had already approved the brochures, she decided she had been betrayed by the text calling SPANCO House an “office building.” “It is not an office building and they used it in their thing,” Becker said. “That is wrong! This is what got me upset.”

Becker felt like Adler – through Eveslage – had gone over her head to create a new organization and steal the home from her. “This cancer in her head grew, grew, and grew,” Adler said.

In Franklin, Mich., Becker called a meeting of the SPANCO board. Much to the shock of Adler and the board, she demanded that Adler leave the house. The board disagreed but put him on probation. Current SPANCO board member Pete O’Leary said that Adler deserved a second chance. “Aaron had done a very good job,” O’ Leary said. “He was pretty much running the charity” for SPANCO.

By April 2009, Becker decided probation was over and the rest of the board decided to support her. Adler had to leave the house.

Despite Adler’s prominence in Nkwantakese, Becker was still able to influence politics in the small village. President Barack Obama may have praised Ghana’s democracy in a speech from Accra’s convention center on July 11, but in Nkwantakese, and many places in Ghana, it is tribal law that governs – not the Ghanaian parliament. Becker had been sending money for years– although she would not say how much – to the local Ashanti tribe, who sided with her.

Throughout summer 2009, chiefs and sub-chiefs were constantly at the SPANCO house. One sub-chief, Nana Kosi, interviewed the children and determined that they had been brainwashed by Adler. Kosi came to this conclusion because he said the children were too opinionated and talked back too much.

With the situation looking desperate, Adler wrote a long email message explaining his case to stay to the SPANCO board. One of the board members, Joanne Von Mach, accidently replied to everyone in her email response, including Adler. She wrote:

“He is looking to own the Spanco building if Giesela is not around some day. I would get our ducks lined up legally and leave Aaron in his fantasy world.”

In early June 2009, Becker allegedly told all the residents of SPANCO House (by phone) – the children and the staff – that they were “sacked” and had until Aug. 1 to leave. Becker denies this, saying the children were told they could stay, but Adler, Eveslage, and Van Essendelft remember it differently. In the closing weeks of July, Adler moved his wife and the children to a Habitat for Humanity community down the road. The children, and two volunteers, jammed into a home the size of a small shack.

As the group moved to their new home, tensions grew. Adler seemed to blame Eveslage for getting kicked out. Eveslage thought Adler was being too harsh. Van Essendelft, who gave up a trip to Barcelona to see the running of the bulls (which she often reminded the group) to help with the move, seemed angry with everyone.

Schmidt, a stocky, red-haired hockey player who had been kicked out of his high school league for fighting, was the only calm member of the group. As the group unraveled, Schmidt became a favorite of the children by frequently playing Frisbee and soccer with them.

It was only three months earlier that Eveslage, who came to Ghana in May for a 13-month stay to work on small projects (like a penpal program) accepted responsibility for 14 children that needed a home. “I didn’t know that I’d be living with all these kids,” Eveslage said.

In early August 2009, Adler had to go home to work on his business, Going Green Travel LLC, which operates bus stations in East Lansing and Toledo. “He is a good father,” said orphan Anthony Kusi, 15, who was worried about him leaving.

On the plane to Accra, where he would catch a connecting flight to America, Adler seemed to relax after the stressful move. “The hard part is I don’t blame him,” Adler said of his aversion to Eveslage. “I know it isn’t his fault. But, it’s hard for me to say it and live it.”

A few weeks later in late August, the board of Volunteer Africa met in Birmingham, Mich. At the meeting were Adler, his mother, Schmidt, Foranzo and both her parents, and Eveslage’s mother. Adler, now an official member of Volunteer Africa, was dressed to the standard of the large two-story bungalow home: a green and blue polo with khaki pants.

Eveslage participated in the meeting from the Internet program Skype. He attempted to chime in. “What motion are you talking about?” said Eveslage. “I’m in the dark over here,” referring to the five-hour time difference from West Africa.

The board discussed building a new home for the children, the upcoming Africa Fair, funding the I’m Hungry program, and raising money.

Adler, at ease and happy, was too exited about the upcoming birth of his child to lament over the home he built. “I’m excited for him to run around and be a Ghanaian kid,” he said, “They are so happy.”

Despite all the good intentions gone wrong, both groups are continuing their charitable work in Ghana.

For example, Becker plans to reopen SPANCO House through her Franklin-based charity sometime in 2010. She intends to staff the home with three Dominican nuns and only recruit orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. Forzano’s parents, Rick and Julie, were planning to visit Nkwantakese in December to meet with Ashanti chiefs about building a new home.

When the motion to allocate money to the building of a small office in the children’s school came up, the whole board approved. Adler’s mom, asked again to make sure there were no objections. A silence fell over the room. “Gisela objects,” Adler said. The room erupted in laughter.