Thank God the spirit of caring is still alive in Ghana!

In the first part of this article, the author told us how a group of young hikers became concerned when they discovered – upon making enquiries – that a school on their regular hiking route was so poorly equipped that it had no computers at all, in its computer room. How could the students be competitive in today's world if they left school without being computer-literate? The hikers couldn't tolerate the idea. They decided to help. But how? PLEASE READ ON:

The debate about a practical way of helping the school to buy computers for its students went on for a long time. And then one brilliant hiker hit on an idea that everyone immediately agreed was “doable”.

“Let us do a special “WALK” to raise funds solely for the project!” he said.

It was an inspired suggestion, for they all said “Yes!” to it.

But the originator of the idea wasn't finished with it. Encouraged, he said:

“Let's call it a “Madness Walk!” When people hear of what we propose doing, some will think we are “mad” to hike for a school we do not attend ourselves. So let us pre-empt their contempt by calling it a “Madness Walk”! Before they do it for us!”

Everyone laughed at this ingenious idea of psychologically short-circuiting anyone who might think the walk was a ridiculous thing to do for people the walkers would not even be acquainted with.

The next thing the hikers did was to choose a route, date, and time. To give the “madness” aspect a bit of authenticity, they even decided that the hike should be done at night. And that the route should be a spectacular one, which would enable a lot of people to encounter them and wonder who they were.

The route eventually chosen for “The Walk” led from Dansoman, in Accra, to Koforidua. The distance would be about 50 kilometres. The main Accra to Kofordua road would be crossed at Ayimensah and some of the former toll-booths on the route.

Now, let me disclose the the name of the hiking club: it is the “Tsenku Hiking Club”, named after the Tsenku Falls, [GOOGLE FOR INFO] near Dodowa. The Club did as proposed and carried out It carried out its hike successfully -- and entirely safely-- a few weeks ago.

Participants of the MADNESS WALK took great precautions to ensure that they stayed together at all times and that they carried with them, water, first-aid medicines, and other supplies that they could use in case of accidents, or if the need somehow arose. They also rehearsed walking the route and selected “rest stops” which were manned most of the time.

The club members utilized their personal contacts to obtain financial sponsorship for individual hikers who took part in The Walk Appeals were also directed at selected corporate bodies for support. To the pleasant surprise of the club members, quite a few corporate organisations were responsive to their appeals and at the time of writing, a sizeable sum had already been raised, with further figures pledged, awaiting collection.

In a country that is often inward-looking to the extent that the needy are not “seen” or “heard” nor talked about in “snobbish circles”, the altruism of the Tsenku Hiking Club ought to be an eye-opener to everybody. In reality, a few determined people who are moved to take notice of a distressful situation can unexpectedly loosen the strings of generosity action that leads to the solution of problems that at first appeared unconquerable.

Individuals with leadership qualities are thus worth more than diamonds, for once their convictions enable them to provide a practical disentangling of a complex difficulty, they transmit an electric feeling – empathy -- to others who would normally be impervious to other people's suffering. Once such an “infection” of generosity enters a group, the “impossible” becomes achievable.

The lesson such a situation teaches is that good people should not fear that they would be criticized as “do-gooders” or “holier-than-thou” fellows. The opinion of anyone who does not possess fellow feelings is not worth considering, is it? Good people who are deterred from assisting others because of such short-sighted considerations should rather enjoy their ability to stand out of the crowd of unfeeling people and be proud members of that part of humanity that gives meaning to the word, “humane”.

When a student is using a computer to do skillful work for his/her country and in later life, will it matter whether some selfish complacent person somewhere regards him/her with smirks and says, “That computer was mastered through charity”?

A person with such an attitude would betray himself/herself a small-minded person!

Me, my hope is that some computer suppliers, upon hearing about the Tsenku Hiking Club's “Madness Walk”, will give the club a whopping discount, when it turns up on its door-step, hunting for good computers for the school the Club has voluntarily “adopted”.