During Lent 2019, the DSHA community participated in its global project entitled "Goodness for Ghana." As an almsgiving effort, the goal was to raise $10,000 to support the health of mothers and children in rural Ghana, who have limited access to quality healthcare. Through the annual Student Auction and bottle battles — where students deposited loose change in baby bottles — the DSHA community raised $22,704.97 to provide services and supplies to multiple maternity wards. 

This summer, Catholic Relief Services sent DSHA a report detailing how its contribution has impacted healthcare in Ghana. The funds raised provided:

• Three latrines with changing rooms for privacy.
• Three bathing rooms for bathing post birth. 
• Three medical waste incinerators for safe disposal of medical waste.
• Nine medical waste bins given to three health facilities to separate medical waste.
• Six health facility staff members across three facilities trained in effective water, sanitation, and hygiene practices.
• Twenty-one water and sanitation members across three facilities to ensure constant and sustainable water availability.
• Improved water, sanitation, and hygiene services. 
• Critical equipment and supplies for health clinics including a vaccine refrigerator, beds, couches, bedsheets, scanning equipment, a medicine trolley, an instrument tray, and more.

"Working on this project helped me understand how blessed I am to live in a country where women are educated about pregnancy and motherhood," said Reegan Schmidt, DSHA '19, who worked on this project as a Campus Ministry officer. "I am currently studying nursing and because of this project I want to someday seek out an opportunity to serve the people in an underprivileged country such as Ghana using the skills I learn. I hope that the help from the Lenten project can support Ghana in a small way to make it a safer place for mothers and their children."  

Click here to read the full report from Catholic Relief Services about the impact of Goodness for Ghana.