The charity Angels of Hope was founded by Cooper, commonly known as @coupe_dc, a personal trainer and active vegan lifestyle consultant. He first came across Angels of Hope - the orphanage his fundraising project has been set up to support - on his travels in Ghana when he met a truly beautiful woman. This is Cooper's story of how this woman helped him to discover his mission in life.
"Victoria Bekye, lovingly known as Aunty Esi amongst the children, is the woman who has solely taken responsibility for Angels of Hope. She currently looks after 57 children and counting all on her own!
"Most of the children who live at Angels of Hope are under the age of four years old and are discovered on the streets, in the bush, or in the nearby forest, totally abandoned by their parents.
"Medicine in Ghana is expensive but most of these innocent children need some form of treatment after being left, sometimes for weeks, in these traumatic situations.
"Most children have been physically beaten by the parents who abandoned them or bitten by insects and other predators before and after their abandonment.
"Aunty Esi has managed to provide all of these children with food and medicine and has even put 27 of the older children into private school by selling her own house and personal possessions.
"I'm thankful for women like Aunty Esi who put their lives aside to help others and because of this I want to assist her with feeding the children.”
What are Cooper's plans for the future?
“My plan is to hire farmers to use Aunty Esi's land where Angels of Hope is located and to teach the children how to grow and harvest their own fruit and vegetables so they don't have to depend on foods which are leaving them hungry and further causing the illnesses.
"I am a vegan I know that good found comes from the ground! Ghana’s climate is tropical and it's soil is rich and anything from mangos, coconuts, and bananas to plantain, cashew, and sweet potatoes can be easily grown there.
"There is no reason the children should be consuming a nutritionally deficient diet and continuing to live undernourished and, furthermore, no reason Aunty Esi should be struggling to afford to feed the children on her limited funds. I want to create a lifestyle that can be maintained with or without funds.”
How can you help?
We are launching a very special Christmas collection and we will be giving a percentage of our profits to help fund and support the Angels of Hope charity. This collection will be a whole range of pieces, from African print dress to jumpers. This will launch on 13th December 2017.
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Love Grass-fields XXX
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