Stepping Stones for Africa

We are very happy to announce that we received a very large donation of €20.000,- from Stichting Fonds De Trut, destined for the International Health Care Clinic (IHCC) in Accra, Ghana.

In the form of the Focus on Aids initiative, we already worked together with this clinic in a lot of different projects. Opposed to what the name seems to imply, the International Health Care Clinic is a small, privately funded clinic in the capital of Ghana. IHCC provides free or almost free medical care to the poor. A large number of the patients are HIV positive or have fullblown AIDS. They are coming to the clinic from all over the country and even from over the borders of neighbouring countries, and their only hope is the care provided in this clinic. The clinic is run by the Dutch-Ghanaian doctor Naa Ashiley Vanderpuye. The clinic is 100% funded by donations.

In the winter of 2005, we were contacted by Stichting Fonds de Trut, a foundation that owns a non-commercial gay and lesbian club (’De Trut’) in Amsterdam. The revenues of this club are used to fund mainly AIDS and/or gay related organisations or projects. Stichting Fonds de Trut asked us if they could help the clinic with this donation. With this incredible news, we went to Ghana in january 2006 and talked to the founder of the clinic. Together we made a plan for creating the biggest possible impact on the care for AIDS/HIV patients in the clinic with this money.

You can read more about what the money is used for in this article. The donation in itself was a big stimulus for us to found Stepping Stones for Africa. As a foundation, we can be a much more professional partner in this and future projects. Stichting Fonds De Trut also helped us financially with the formalities involved.

On Christmas eve, 24th of december, there will be a festive evening in De Trut, on which the donation will be presented to us. You can read a report of this evening on this site, somewhere after Christmas.

More information about the IHCC clinic can be found on these pages of the Focus on AIDS website (in Dutch), and on these English pages. More information about the driving force and founder of the clinic, Naa Ashiley Vanderpuye can be found here (in Dutch).

More information about projects in the clinic for which we seek funding, can be found here (in Dutch).