Another year is gone and a new one is here! What a year it was. We started the year 2020 with rumours of a global health crisis and by March 2020, it had been declared a global pandemic by WHO. We had no inkling that our way of life was going to be changed drastically. We had to learn new ways of doing things. New ways of communicating and even living our daily lives. Many sacrifices were made to ensure our personal safety and the safety of those around us. We were physically muzzled, our movements restricted, all to ensure our safety. The future may seem uncertain. The future is always uncertain come to think of it but somewhat predictable in the more mundane things in life. 2020 changed all that.
It is cliché that every cloud has a silver lining. So also it was in 2020. Our silver linings; The world slowed down its frenetic pace and families got to spend more time with each other as they hunkered down in their homes. Those given to introspection did a lot of that. We hopefully learnt to understand what is important in life; Relationships, our health, our spiritual and emotional well-being were paramount. In the midst of the chaos, death and other events that destabilized our wellbeing and way of life, we learnt to grow closer to God. We learnt to trust Him and to depend on Him to bring us through to the other side of the year.
SAFE HAVEN
For us at Safe Haven, 2020 proved to be a milestone year. Of most note is that we opened our physical space in Accra on October 24, 2020. We had always had this goal as a medium-term goal, however, God had other plans. In the midst of the pandemic, He made a way! We have been open to the public since November 2020. We have served clients who have accessed our services mostly to obtain mastectomy brassieres and prostheses which we provide free of charge to those who cannot afford them. The services we provide include peer counselling, spiritual and emotional support, cancer awareness education and help in managing life during and after cancer treatment. We ask that everyone spread the news about our services so that space will not be underutilized.
We also expanded our information and cancer awareness education sessions to people everywhere by holding the sessions virtually by zoom. We plan to continue doing this so that we can reach more people with the life-saving information provided at these sessions.
We had our first ever 5k walk to raise funds for the organizations and the opening of the Centre in Ghana. The walk was very successful and we plan to make it an annual event. All in all 2020 was a great year for Safe Haven despite the global crisis.
THANK YOUS
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters, social media followers and well-wishers. Thanks to everyone who attended our virtual sessions and who shared our posts. Thanks to everyone who has supported us in cash and kind.
Thanks to Elizabeth's mastectomy who have donated bras and prostheses to our organization and all the other businesses that have supported us.
I wish to thank the Ghanaian Association of Durham which helped us to host our first ever 5k walk fundraiser. I thank all those who walked and everyone who donated to help us raise the funds.
Last but certainly not least, with much gratitude, I thank the Board of Directors, Patrons, Social Media volunteers of both Safe Haven Cancer Support Society in Canada and Safe Haven Cancer Support Centre in Ghana. It is impossible to run these organizations without your selfless support, contributions of your resources, skills, talents and time. I remain forever grateful to you all!
There is much to do going forward but I do not doubt that with your continued support and the help of the Almighty, we will accomplish much to His glory. We will help to save lives and continue to spread the word that a cancer diagnosis does not have to be the end of one's life!
On behalf of all of us at Safe Haven, we wish you a blessed, healthy and prosperous 2021. Thank you so much!
Janet Brakohiapa
Founder/Director
Safe Haven Cancer Support Society Canada
Safe Haven Cancer Support Centre Ghana