Helping to make a home

SNOHOMISH —– Stu Schell was looking to find salvation for 250 refugee schoolchildren in Ghana, but what he found was his own. Now he is trying to raise $200,000 to construct a building to house an orphanage, church and school in Liberia.

“Their greatest need is money to build a new orphan school and get the families from Ghana to Liberia,” Schell said. “The United Nations has withdrawn and there is very little humanitarian support. But what they need is a physical structure, a building where they can live. Not another refugee camp.”

Schell has been active in a ministry partnership with Pastor Irvin Kofa, who has been dedicated to the spiritual and scholastic needs of the Budaburam refugee camp children. The camp is home to more than 50,000 displaced people. The unlikely partnership was one of providence, according to Schell. A 14-year partnership all started with a simple letter asking for help.

Kofa had written about his flight from Liberia to Ghana during the bloody civil war that raged throughout the 1990s. Their church had been burned, their village destroyed, and their school looted during the rebel uprising.

“They needed help,” Schell said. “And they needed it right away.”

Gifts and aid packages of money, clothes and school supplies were sent, thanks to the generosity of the church he was pastoring. Soon they began to send regular monetary aid packages to the Ghana camp.

“After fighting severe depression, which caused me to leave my pastoral ministry of 20 years, it gave me a sense of purpose to my life again,” Schell said. “To help people again, to help these kids, it gave me hope.”

Now his family and friends are sending more than $700 a month, and are planning a new building that the school and orphanage can return to in Liberia.

“They need something permanent,” Schell said. “Food and clothing can help, but they only provide temporary relief. What we are talking about is trying to create a smaller, sustainable community.”

Schell believes the $200,000 project can be accomplished. Having seen the results of his sacrificial giving over the years when he visited Ghana in January of 2007, he knows the money is being put to good use.

“Coming up with $200,000 is a lot. It will take a lot of faith,” Schell said. “But people know me and they know I have been to Ghana. They know it is real, that the situation is real. That we can make a difference.”

Schell also said that 100 percent of all donations go straight to the project and, unlike many charitable organizations, there are no administrative costs.

Despite the cost of the project, Schell believes that the building is worthwhile and can make all the difference in the quality of the refugees’ lives.

“We are trying to give them what they need most,” Schell said. “A place to call home.”

Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.

@2. Breakout Header:How to help

For more information on the Schell Family School or to donate to the building fund, call 425-344-6322 or go to www.goldenbenefit solutions.com.

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