Brooklyn Parish Raises Funds for Childrens Cancer Hospital and Clean Water Projects

Lenten Fundraiser for Childrens Cancer Project and Water Wells for Ghana!

CARROLL GARDENS — In line with the traditional Lenten practice of alms giving, parishioners at Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen’s Church are raising money to build a children’s cancer hospital in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Currently, there is no stand alone hospital dedicated to treating children with cancer in Ghana, although there are pediatric cancer units within existing hospitals.

Even the kids at Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen’s are getting involved in the fundraising effort, said Msgr. Guy Massie, the pastor. Children in the church’s faith formation program will be given mite boxes, small containers where they can put money each day, over the 40 days of Lent. After Easter, kids will empty their mite boxes, and their money, along with donations from the grownups, will be collected and sent to International Help of Missionaries, a nonprofit organization raising funds for the hospitalproject. The organization works with on-the-ground groups in Ghana.

The fundraising effort was inspired by Father Cletus Forson, the parochial vicar for Sacred Hearts and St.Stephen’s, who is a native of Ghana and has spearheaded several water well fundraising efforts in the past, working with various parishes and schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

After Father Forson told Msgr. Massie and parishioners about the effort to build the hospital, “we decided that that would be our Lenten charity,” Msgr. Massie said. Over the past five years, the church has raised money for International Help of Missionaries to help build three water wells in different parts of Ghana. The wells cost an average of $6,000 each to build, said Father Forson, who is a trustee of International Help of Missionaries and works closely with the organization’s founder, Don Magnotta, a parishioner of St. Margaret Church in Middle Village. See article below.