 Our history is rich. We come from a people that were warriors. Our land was staining. Our riches were stolen. And our culture was subject to banishment. Jennifer, are you nervous? Not really. Not really? Yeah. I mean, when I met Jennifer yesterday, she had been in cry, man. Meeting with Amaya for the first time. Yes. I've been watching my videos for so long. Since when? From China, I think 2015. 2015? Yeah. We were meeting for the first time. That was yesterday, not today. Yesterday she couldn't even get close to me. She was like, oh my God, that's what Amaya. I was like, someone please pinch me because it's a dream. It's a dream. But I have been saying that it's time for each and every African out there to be part of a solution. Yeah. I mean, the story that I'm going to share today deserves a 10,000 shares. If you are watching this video, first of all, like the video and share the video. I mean, I have to create a channel for Jennifer so that when I live in here, Jennifer will continue telling you guys the story. Jennifer, some people don't know who you are. Yeah. So I ask you, who is Jennifer? What are you going to say? Oh, thank you, Amaya. Welcome to WadaMaya's channel. I'm so pleased to meet the whole WadaMaya. The Maya have been dreaming to meet and it happens all of a sudden. And I'm so glad to meet WadaMaya. I am Jennifer. As WadaMaya asks me of who I am to the subscribers. If you're watching, hi. Hello. I'm Jennifer and I can never tell you the full story of mine, but I will tell you a few about what happens to my life. I am very fortunate when I met a woman named Madame Don Sutherland and we started an organization called B2African Connection, which we showed you through BTSC, which we're working with many kids here. And then as I'm talking, we will show you the kids soon, but I'm going to tell you who I am. I am a girl that I lost my father at the age that I wasn't expecting. And I thought all of us were lost if I'm to speak honest. But thanks to her, she met me. She saw that something important that is in me, that I am living and I thought all is gone. I'm going to start a new journey, which is not the case. So she helped me out. And look at me now. I'm here. A testimony to everyone out here there. And I'm going to show Maya our amazing children that we started developing and we build. And we have many of them. We can't make them all here because there are many. And we have almost 300 kids that we have been supporting here. So Maya, are you ready to meet our kids? I'm really ready, but she is talking about a woman called Dawn Sutherland. She's an African American. And then she moved to Ghana to start the change that we are all looking for. I really want to meet your kids. All right, all right, all right. I'm ready to meet with Maya. And who Africans are? Let's go. Our history is rich. We want to go. Our history is rich. We come from a people that were warriors. Our land was taken. Our riches were stolen. And our culture was subject to banishment. We are chocolates. We are dark. We are rich in color. We are rich in nature. We try to destroy our people. They were guarded and taken across the rusty water to be torn apart, torn from one another, torn from their heritage. But today, we say, never again. We will never allow our land to be robbed. We are modern dark people. Our simple circumstances. We are rich again. Yes. We are educated. We are troubled. We are bold and righteous. We are bold. We are fearless. We are shameless. We will not go before anyone. No. We have wins. We have wins. Chocolate drugs can fly. And we will fly high and win. Forward ever, backward never. Welcome, Wadamaya. Thank you so much. They said, backward never, forward ever. Jennifer, let me understand. So you mean until Don Sanderland is taking care of all of them? Yes. She is taking care of all of them. And these are even the little minority of what we have in this house. Mostly when we host in the Christmas party or all the scholars that we have here, it's about 270. And as you can see, these dresses that they're wearing is one of Auntie Dawn's friends. Her name is Madame Mualimu Vamputi. She came with an idea that Ashe. Ashe is a Nigerian language which is good. And it is good for us to know our culture. It is good to listen and hear the wisdom of all the faith people that came to the land. And it's good to learn. It's good to understand. And it's good to grow. So she told her that if this is what they need to learn, we should also learn as well. Wow. So she came up with an Ashe. And Ashe is under a Pan-African culture celebration which is called Kwanzaa. And I hope you've heard about Kwanzaa. If you're African-American out there, I know you understand what I'm talking about. Kwanzaa is a Swahili phrase and it's a Swahili word which starts from the word. It means ya tunda, ya kwanzaa which is the first fruit that they've been celebrating by every African-American in abroad. And it started from the 26th of December to the 1st of January. Let me ask you. Do you know who an African-American is? Now I know. Before, did you know that? No, please. How many of you know who an African-American is? Before. Before? No. You all didn't know who an African-American is? Yes, please. Now, if I should ask you who is an African-American, what are you going to say? An African-American is just like me who has been taken from here to a land that they did not know. They have no idea where they've been going. They traumatized before they've been there. And then their generations has found trace their race and then their generation back here and even to all African-countries, not Ghana-specific, but every country or every continent, Africa. You know, this is what comes closer to me. This is what I've been saying all the time. Like, most of us never knew our history when we were in school. I mean, there's no teacher that would come to class and come and tell me that, oh, these are African-Americans. No, please. Distance cousin in another continent who never knew anything about it. That's what I've been telling people that don't blame us all the time. Like, let me tell you something. The first time I met an African-American, that was when I went to China. I didn't even know there was somebody called an African-American. So, I don't blame you. So has us. We. But anyway, one more time, I want to meet your mother. That's Auntie Don't Saddle. Okay, so I just want to say thank you so much for talking to me. Who's going to take me there? We. Everybody, right? Welcome to you. I'm a very good-looking guy. Only today, I lost my face. Mommy Sanderland. It's nice to see you. And all of them are telling me great things about you. And I would love to speak to you in person. You're welcome to come and speak to me now. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Now it's time to talk to your mom. And I'll see you when I'm back. Thank you. Thank you, Maya. Oh, nice. But my name is Wada Maya. And we all know your name is Don Sanderland. Let me know why you moved to Ghana in the first place. And how long have you been here? Well, I've been wanting to move to Ghana since I was a sophomore in college. I came to Ghana, West Africa for the first time with Operation Crossroads Africa as a student volunteer. We were in a group of about 500 people from the U.S. going to different African and West Indian countries to do volunteer work. And when I set my foot in Ghana, I felt like I was home. I felt like I found the peace of me that was missing. And I've yearned to come back. And one of the things that hit me the most was that there were mostly white people in my group. And there were very few blacks. In my group itself, we had 30, and five of us were blacks. And I was wondering why all these white people come into Africa. And one of the things I learned is that they were more prepared for Africa than the blacks were. I was scared of lizards. I was scared of not bathing in the river. I didn't want to sleep outside. And white folks was fine. So I said, if they can do it, I can do it. But most importantly, a couple of my white friends in that group taught me how to collect African art. I didn't, I mean, I knew about art because we had art in museums in the U.S. But they were coming to Ghana to learn about our art and artifacts. And I was like, shoot, she said, Dawn, these things are worth a lot of money. And so I went with them wherever they went to try to figure out what they were learning. And I was amazed at our brass pieces that they found in villages, the wood carvings, which kind to collect, how you make sure they're aged, they're antique. And I learned a lot during our free time from my white friends. But what I also learned is that they were coming to Africa to give back. They were coming to build boreholes, to do things, which I knew that's what I was coming for, but I didn't know what I was coming for. I just wanted to go to Africa. So when we saw the science, when I saw the science at school, I was like, I'm signing up for this program. And one of my black history teachers encouraged me to sign up, and so I came. So I was building boreholes, but I was scared. But they were like, and so after the end of the program, I said to myself, if they can come back, why can't I? Because if our African people don't see people that look like them come in to help them, then we can't complain. And as I grew older, I'm like, why are we complaining that white people in Africa, Chinese are in Africa, we should be coming back. And so I literally lived my life wanting to go to Africa. Which year was this? 1977 is when I came. So I'm not going to try to, don't try to guess my age. I was a sophomore in college. 1977? Yes, way before he was born. I think my parents will know he didn't think about me. So since then, of course, I finished college, finished graduate school, and then I started working. I was fortunate to work for a company that was very, very progressive. And so I used my vacation every two years since 1995 to travel Africa. So I've been to 40 African countries. 40 African countries? I've traveled Africa. And my friends, we have the African Art and Artifacts Travel Group. So I would convince my friends to travel. And we would travel all over Africa collecting art and artifacts. So I have literally pieces that I've collected since 1977 to there. So I literally planned my life to move back to Africa. In 2006, about, I think, 12 of us came to Africa. We went to all my favorite countries. We went to Mali, Senegal, Gambia, traveled to Timbuktu. We went to South Africa. And then some of them left because they only had three weeks vacation. And a couple of us came back to Ghana. And when I came to Ghana, I said, guys, this is our last trip. I'm moving back. I'm going to plan to move back. I wanted to retire when I was 40, but I didn't. So I said, by 55, I'm going to retire. I'm going to take early retirement and I'm moving back. And so I said, I'm going to look for a house. And first I wanted a land to build a house. But a lot of my friends come here from Africa. And they've been building a house for years. And it doesn't get finished. So when I came back in 2006, I hadn't been to Ghana since 1998. And once I realized that Ghana was home for me, I felt at home with the people here. And I also did my DNA and I'm a con. So that made it even more. And I'm into art and culture. So I wanted to come to Kamasi. You mean you plan to move to Africa? Yes. I planned my life to move to Africa. I worked for a Fortune 500 company. I was the vice president of finance for all of western United States. And I had a great job. I had a beautiful home in Southern California in Los Angeles and Baldwin Vista Hills. I had great family, great friends. I literally did a lot of work in the community. But something was calling me to go back to Africa. I mean, nobody told you you were getting crazy? Oh, they told, they thought, my friends thought I had lost my mind. They couldn't believe that I was going to leave all of that. But at the end of the day, you know, as I was getting older, I wanted to make sure I had, I left so that I could have time to still have life and live a life in Africa. And I also was having a lot of expenses in LA. I mean, my mortgage was high. I mean, super, super high. My car note, my insurance. And I said, if I go to Africa, I can use this money, buy what I need, cash and live. And then give back somehow. At the time I said, I didn't know what I was going to do. But I knew I could live a better life. Everyone thought I was nuts because they didn't understand what I understood. But traveling here since 1995 and coming at 1997 and seeing how my friends were living, I'm like, it's the only place I can go and have me some help and a peace of mind. And so I did. So I moved from Los Angeles. I moved here. If you moved from Los Angeles to Kumasi, not even Accra, why are so many African-Americans relaxed time to move to the continent or even visit? Because they haven't visited and they don't know what we have. They've seen just what they see on TV and they're listening to someone else's story. But if they travel, most of my friends now for the last five years since I've been here, when they come, they want to move back. They are looking for land. They're looking for investment. Or they want to come for vacation. How many friends have they visited since you've been here? I've had over 600,000, 600 visitors since I've been here. 600? 600 of my friends or friends or friends, circle of friends and visited. And when they come, they want to help. If they don't help sponsor children, they help me to build a toilet. They help to build a borehole. They help to renovate a school. They help to build a library. They help clinic. We have a clinic that they help to build. So, and they help to do something. Sometimes we have to feed families. We have to pay for electric bill and they help me. There's one thing that you're doing. That's what brought me here about taking care of these kids. I just want to know what really inspired you to start something like this in here? You know, I always wanted to give back. And I wouldn't be who I was if I didn't have mentors. I had a lot of mentors. A lot of people who were white, black of all colors, women, men who took a liking to me, who helped me to focus on my history, understand where I came from and knowing that if I didn't know where I came from, I wouldn't get anywhere. And so, I wanted to help Africa. I always helped children in America. I was always volunteering in my community anyway. But I wanted to help Africa's children because I felt that if we help the children, we can help them to restore Africa as a whole. Ghana, but Africa as a whole. If we can help our children to want to like Africa, to learn about their history. It hurt me when I traveled and I saw the children, all of them want to go overseas. Mom, could you take me to America? Could you take me to the UK? And I'm like, but your country's beautiful. I want to come here and you want to leave. And I said, I'm going to figure out how I can help these children to learn where they love and learn about where they live so that they would want to be there. And so, when I came, really, when I moved here, I knew I wanted to do something. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I needed to rest first because I had a very stressful job and I wasn't feeling well when I came, I was sick. And so, when I came, I literally gutted my house, rebuilt it over and spent a lot of time healing myself and learning about the people. And as I would walk the streets and saw the children and saw their plight, how dirty they were, but they were still going to school, they were still happy. And they just wanted one CD, which at the time was a quarter. And I said, that's all you need to go to school? And I would literally, I wouldn't give them the money. I would go to school with them and ask the teacher, is it true that you sacked them? Meaning not getting them out of school? I said, because of one CD, yes, because they needed to pay this and they can't take the exam or they didn't pay it. And I'm like, shoot, so I started helping the children. And then some of them asked if I could be their friend. And coming from America, being a grown woman and a 10-year-old asking if you're a friend, you're like, well, what's a friend? Mom, you just want to be your friend. And sooner or later, culturally, you understand what it means. They just want you to help them. And they grew to about 12. And I said, OK, stop, I'll help you, but I wanted to figure out how I was going to help them. And they were all girls, I was focused on the girls, because my philosophy, if you change a girl, and you know it's an old age, if you change a girl, you change a woman, it's an old village. And so they would, I told them, I asked them what church they went to, because they were dirty, so I knew on Sundays when they went to church, they'd be clean. And I said, well, after Sunday, come to my house. And I would, we would talk. And so they started coming to my house and they became the Sunday morning girls. And then, you know, as time went on, they would come and then a group of my friends from the African Focus group, which is a travel group that I'm a part of in Los Angeles, came to visit. And one of the women was a dancer, and she taught African dance in Los Angeles. And she says, Don, I would love when I come, if you can give me some children, that I could teach to dance so, you know, I could feel that I've danced on the continent and teach them something, and they taught me something. And I was like, where am I going to find dancers? And at that time I said I hadn't done anything. I was just beginning to do things in the community. And I said, huh, I could use my Sunday girls because they love to dance. And we were having a welcome dinner for them at my house. And I told the girls that they were going to be taught dances, etc. And the lady came and she taught them that morning. And by the afternoon, they entertained the entire group of visitors from the U.S. and everybody was so impressed with them. And my friend said, Don, what can we do to help? I was like, I don't know. And one of them said, Don, can we just sponsor a child? I like this little girl. Can I sponsor her? And it just clicked in my head. Let me just have my friends when they come sponsor if they want to. So you mean like the people that are taking care of their kids, they are you and your friends? Me and my circle of friends. And most of them sponsor the children. We asked them for $100 for the whole school year. And that not only takes care of their school things because most of the children that we sponsor go to government schools. And school is truly free in Ghana, but it's not free because they still have to buy uniforms. They have to get money to eat. They have to pay different fees because the schools are provided by the government but they don't maintain them. And the whole RJ of being in a government school. So a lot of them weren't going to school because their parents didn't have money to buy uniforms or didn't have money to send them a transportation or something. Embarrassed because their uniforms were dirty, whatever. And so that's what we started to do. So we feed them in all ways and we even give them personal clothes because a lot of their clothes is not up to standard. So my friends would send barrels for them with clothes and hygiene products. Deodorant. Deodorant soap. Toothpaste. Toothbrush. Because we found out that one family was using one toothbrush. I was actually part of that family too. We used to have only one toothbrush. I'm telling you. Just to confirm what you said because people will now understand my senior brother will finish. You'll be the third person to use it and give it to your sister. Just one toothbrush. When I heard that, I literally cried. I said one toothbrush. I said cry out to my friends. That was me before. So I definitely understand what you say. That's why I really wanted to do this story because I feel like the people that are here are living the life that I used to live. Because it took me to where they live. And literally that's the place that I was born. Something like that. I just wanted to say you did an amazing job. You built a library. You're not telling them that you built a library here. We built two full libraries in Ashanti region. We built a library at schools so the children can have books to borrow. So they can learn how to read story books. They can learn about other cultures. They can learn about life through children's stories. We built two libraries and all my friends are supporting the library. The library we built in New Coca Brico was built by Regina Latrice Bryant. And a good friend of mine. She loved books. She's a teacher. And she spearheaded that library project. We renovated schools. We built clinics. We built boreholes. A young girl. She's 30 now. She started when she was eight years old. And when she heard what we were doing just like you heard what we were doing Auntie Dawn, I want to help the girls. Because they're like me. She came and brought boreholes. Auntie Dawn, I want to sponsor 10 kids. Perfect. Personally. Thank you. So let me know what I'm supposed to do. I want to sponsor 10 kids. Me sponsoring 10 kids I know my subscribers out there. We are over 500,000. Almost 600,000. We are 600,000 subscribers. I am taking 10 kids. It's a must. And I'm just going to tell them it's by force. To, I mean, sponsor. So I need like, I'm one of you guys. So let's say I need 100 people. So I need 100 people. Give us a number. That 100 people will reach out to you and say that we are sponsoring 5-1. One child. It's okay. One child is enough. I'm going to take 10. All right. But we need like one. One. So 100. One, one, one. So we need 100 people. And all they have to do is give us $100. Fantastic. And the child, the entire needs of taking care. So 10 times 100. So I need to pay $1,000. Yes. Okay. Good. I'm going to give you the money. Please. There's so many people watching us. Why do you think they should help sponsor these kids? A lot of people think you have to be rich to help anyone. But you can start by helping in your community. But most of all, the children in Africa, one of the beauty of these children is no matter how poor they might be economically, they are rich in spirit. They want to learn. They are obedient. They don't cause issues. If you ask them to do something, they do it. They respect their elders. And they want to get out of their poverty state. And it's not because of anything other than the fact that their parents are born poor in the villages and they were farmers. And now they're trying to seek a better life through education. And you can do it by making your own legacy. You don't have to make millions of dollars. $100 is a pair of shoes for most people. And it's movie tickets. It's a meal. It's a hairdo. So just look in your heart and ask yourself, if you want to do something and you didn't do it before, and you want a child, and this is not a child that you're going to just get. You can see if you visit Africa, you can touch that child. You can see how that child grows and that child will talk to you, send you letters. Because we as Africans in the diaspora in particular, because that's the bulk of the people that are watching this, if you feel that you want to be connected to Africa and you want to see Africa develop, we can only do it by changing and working with our children. We can teach our children to love themselves, love their history, love their country, so that we stop looking outside and saying, oh, the white people are coming, the Chinese are coming, the Japanese are coming, they're taking over Africa. No one has to take over Africa if you love yourself and you help the children to love their country so they don't have to run away from it to find better opportunities. There's lots of opportunities in this country and we can help our children to do that. And I would love for my diaspora, the diasporans who, whether you are at retirement age or almost ready to retire, don't just stop your chapter in the U.S. and just hang out. Come back, visit, travel and come back and do something. If you're young and you want to invest, you can come back and invest and develop something. Or you can just come back, visit and give back and make this place better for the young people so that we can help ourselves as a whole African diaspora.