Point Hope Village. For many years it was just a name.
An idea that was in the mind of the popular nationwide radio host Delilah who is heard on thousands of stations each evening all across North America. In 2004 she went to Ghana in West Africa. She visited the refugee camp in the town of Buduburam. It was overflowing with refugees from the war in Liberia. She was moved with compassion and wanted to help the refugees. What could be done? She started working with people there to help care for the children. Clean water was provided, skill training classes were taught and lots of work was done to improve life in the refugee camp.
In Delilah's mind she had another dream, a bigger dream. It was to build a village near this camp to care for the widows and the orphans who lived there. It is a place where those whose spouses died, can live. It is a place for children whose parents are no longer there. It is a place they could call home. It was an idea, a dream, but Delilah did not know if it was possible. The dream lingered for Delilah and never went away.
The Director of Point Hope Jan Haynes, the charity founded by Delilah met with The Exploration Group in September, 2010. She talked about this dream that was waiting to happen. She said, "Can The Exploration Group help Point Hope figure out if building a village for widows and orphans is possible?
We asked lots of questions to understand the dream and what they hoped to build. Then we went to work. We made contact with architects in Ghana, with organizations that were caring for orphans across Africa and around the world. We checked on agriculture options and construction materials. We brought others into the exhibition with real estate insight and knowledge of program development for children.
The discovery Point Hope desired was clear. Was it possible to create a village for widows and orphans?
In the report presented to Delilah, Jan and the Point Hope board, the answer was yes, it was possible to build this village. In order to do it lots of questions needed to be answered. Those questions were part of the presentation.
Delilah's dream was possible, now Point Hope had a plan to get there.