Answering needs in Ghana

A couple of weeks ago, Dick Shanks sat in the second-largest marketplace in Africa. The barking of vendors, the smell of freshly-slaughtered poultry, and the bright colors of shoppers’ clothes all contributed to the setting.

But 84-year-old Shanks didn’t make the long trip to Ghana just to see the sights. He was there offering free blood-pressure screening to shoppers. The health awareness center where he volunteered is one aspect of a larger ministry to touch the lives of poverty-ridden residents.

“People there are hungry, and they need hope,” he said, referring to the spiritual more than the physical.

Shanks, along with Jeff Jordan, Rob Phillips and Mo Gress, spent more than a week in Ghana, working at the health center, a hospital and a prison. They hoped to establish relationships with locals and determine the feasibility of a microloan program for poverty-stricken families.

“It’s just life changing,” said Mo Gress of his trip. The owner of AU Dental Ceramics on South Monroe Street, he’s a longtime supporter of the Spokane-based International Assistance Program. IAP offers financial help for businesswomen in countries such as Ethiopia, Mexico, Romania and Ecuador.

Gress spent most of his time in Ghana meeting with bankers and missionaries. “Building relationships and networking,” he said, were his focus.

This was Shanks’ fifth trip to Ghana, but the first for Gress. Because Gress had done similar work in Ethiopia, he quickly recognized the needs of Ghanean women in poverty. He was amazed at “what they have to do just to exist. We noticed this same thing in Ethiopia – the amount of effort just to put food on the table and clothe their families.” Such women, he said, do backbreaking work from early morning until late in the evening.

One goal of this recent trip, said Gress, was to “come alongside women to be able to fund small businesses so they can support their families.”

While Gress worked on the financial end, Shanks focused on the physical and the spiritual. In the marketplace at his health awareness booth, a translator would explain the process of checking blood pressure to a passerby. Then Shanks would slip the blood-pressure cuff on and give a reading. The translator would provide brochures explaining how the person could improve their health through diet and exercise.

Before the person left the booth, Shanks and the translator would offer Christian literature and answer faith-related questions.

When Shanks wasn’t at the booth, he took excursions to nearby villages to assess local needs. He recalled a shocking situation in one tiny town in northern Ghana. “Thirty-five homeless kids lived on the streets,” he said. “Two had recently been sold for child labor.”

Another trek – this time to a hospital – opened Shanks’ eyes to a different kind of need. “In hospitals (in Ghana,) you have to pay your bill before you get out,” he said. “Over 150 people wait to get out because they can’t pay their bills. We met two boys who’d been there a year.” He said his group is trying to pay the hospital to have them released.

Shanks, who owns Able Label in the Spokane Valley, donates a large portion of his profits to humanitarian efforts such as these. The company supports numerous Ghaneans who serve in their own country as missionaries. To Shanks, “It’s not a game over there. We’re serious about the job.”

Their focus of time, energy and finances is a springboard to deeper needs. Ultimately, said Shanks, “their real hope is in Jesus.” That’s why this tireless octogenarian isn’t slowing down. “Because,” he said, “there’s so much to do in Ghana.”