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Juliana Ferguson-Yasnowski’s dream helps children in Africa
hermitage, pa.
Juliana Ferguson-Yasnowski’s dream is launched — in 598 boxes in a 40-foot-long container that’s on its way to Ghana, Africa.
She and her husband, Dan, are on their way there, too. They’ll travel to Ghana, where Juliana is from, at the end of July.
The container, full of clothes, shoes, toys, bookbags and toiletries, will arrive July 11.
When the Yasnowskis arrive two weeks later, they’ll stay with Juliana’s sister in the city of Accra and visit villages and orphanages to see what children there need.
All About Children’s Needs, the charity Juliana formed in 2008 to help poverty-stricken children in Africa, will soon be on the ground there and making a difference.
With a lot of help from the Hermitage-area community, the charity has collected the goods and raised $21,000 in three years.
It’s how Juliana, who came to the United States on a college scholarship, attending Waldorf College in Iowa and graduating from Thiel in 1999, gives back in thanks for her good life.
“God has a plan for my life,” she said last week at the Yasnowskis’ home on Rombold Road. “It’s very important we give back.”
Juliana has always taken an interest in children. She studied early-childhood education as an undergraduate. After getting a master’s degree from Westminster College, she is now a behavior specialist and mobile therapist who helps wraparounds, which are aides for special-needs kids, with treatment plans.
She married Dan, a Sharpsville native and a crane operator at United Steel Service in Brookfield, in 2005. The couple have two children of their own.
Nonetheless, she never forgot the children she saw living in poverty in Ghana.
“They put on the same clothes seven days a week,” she said, adding that she’d like to see them have a clean T-shirt for every day.
A longer-term goal, she said, is to give the villages money to build wells so that children don’t have to draw water from river areas that are infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
“That’s how they all get sick,” she said.
She said AACN will pay the $100 yearly tuition for five children this year so they can attend school. “My longtime goal is to build a school of my own,” she said.
“This is my passion, my calling, and I have a good husband who’s very supportive,” she said.
Businesses, churches and organizations who have helped include the Second Baptist Church in Farrell, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Family Dollar and Beauty Plus, both in Farrell, The Good Shepherd Center of Greenville, the Prince of Peace Center in Farrell, the Radisson Hotel, Sam’s Club, Daffin’s, Quaker Steak & Lube, Staples and Laskey’s Furniture in Sharon.
The Second Baptist Church, which the Yasnowskis attend, and an organization called Men of God helped pack the container bound for Africa on June 6 at Uncle Bob’s Self-Storage on Snyder Road.
When the Yasnowskis return from Ghana in mid-August, they’ll start gathering supplies all over again.
“We are always looking for donations,” she said. “We are going to be making frequent trips to Africa.”