Ebenezer is 27 years old and one of many young men and women from Ghana who have been deceived by misconceptions about life in Europe.
In his home village of Ada-Kolouedor, located in the very south of Ghana between the capital Accra and the border with Togo, Ebenezer finishes high school and works on a small farm with his parents. But competition from other small farmers in the area is fierce. Motivated and encouraged by reports in his personal environment about Europe, Ebenezer leaves Ghana in the summer of 2016 and arrives in Germany in the autumn of 2017 after making his way through Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya.
In Germany, Ebenezer works as a warehouse helper in a company near Stuttgart. „My boss liked me, I worked very hard, I was always punctual, I paid my rent, I paid taxes, I had my social insurance card”, Ebenezer tells us.
When his asylum application is rejected and Ebenezer loses his work permit, he learns about the possibility of voluntary return through a social worker. He contacts Julian Akomolafe and Fyodor Vologodski from the AGDW return counseling service in Stuttgart and decides to return to Ghana voluntarily.
Together with Julian Akomolafe, Fyodor Vologodski from AGDW and Ismael Santos from our network partner Social Impact, our colleague Oana Brenner and our Ghanaian advisor Dr. Kwabena Obiri Yeboah, Ebenezer draws up a plan on how to use his funding, develops a business plan for the implementation of his agricultural business idea and learns how to preserve vegetables easily and cost-effectively even under difficult climatic conditions.
After his return to Ghana in March 2022, Ebenezer takes part in a self-employment training program supported by the GIZ advisory center in Accra, during which he also receives equipment for his farm.
Ebenezer invests the grant money from IOM and ERRIN in the lease for a plot of land, seeds and fertilizer.
In October 2022, our colleagues David Badu and Nora Quaiser had the opportunity to visit Ebenezer in his village in Ghana. He has returned to his home village and now lives on his parents' property. With the grant money he received, Ebenezer has leased a plot of land where he grows corn, chili, tomatoes and okra, among other crops. The beginning in Ghana is not easy for Ebenezer, heavy rains destroy his plants. Shortly before our visit, it rains so hard that he cannot visit his farm for several days due to heavy flooding.
It was all the more rewarding for him and for us to see that Ebenezer's hard work had paid off. He had painstakingly fertilized every single corn plant by hand. During our visit, this work was bearing fruit in the truest sense of the word. In the meantime, he has harvested his plants.
Although the work is hard, the farm is far from his home, and it is also uncertain how work in the agricultural sector will develop for him due to climate change, which is strongly affecting Sub-Saharan Africa, Ebenezer is happy to be back home:
„I am glad that I could make the decision of going back. I would advise everybody not to go, to stay and to learn a handwork and they will be just fine”.
He has many plans for the future, he wants to start a family, build an irrigation pond on his farm and build his own house near his farm.
We are impressed by the motivation and passion Ebenezer is putting into his planning for the future and into his farm. We remain in contact with him and wish him all the best for his future.
