By: Chrissa Percival

I had been working in the rural village of Adaklu, Ghana, West Africa for a few months before I met Verone.  She is a woman in her mid-20s with a bright smile and a kind heart.  As a mother of two daughters and one son, guardian to her niece, and receiving little help from a husband struggling with alcohol abuse, Verone works tirelessly to maintain their one room dwelling, provide enough food to eat and be able to send the children to school.

At a young age, her family pulled her from school to work on their subsistence farm and help her mother at market.  Without an education, Verone is unable to get a job with decent pay or properly manage a small business of her own.  The consequence is that her family often goes without and her daughters and niece are frequently out of school for…