Last year when Katie Marocchi graduated from Dover Bay Secondary School, she was living a very comfortable life here in Nanaimo. Today, with $7,500 saved from a summer job plus financial gifts from her family to cover her costs, she's working as a volunteer at Nazareth School in Ghana and her lifestyle has changed more than a little.

Most of the following notes are excerpts from emails she has sent to her family and friends.

"This morning we got up and started the fire in the coal stove on the porch steps, heated a can of beans, and made toast over the fire. Then we cleaned the pots in the bucket water (or "sink" as I like to call it), went down the steep hill to the tap, filled the buckets, and carried them back home where we washed all our clothes by hand and hung them to dry. Later we will take them down and iron everything to kill the bugs."

After being at the school only a few days, Katie realized she and her fellow volunteer, Evelyn, could be most effective working one-on-one with the students, so they approached the Head Master and were given their own classroom --a dirty room with broken tables and chairs, a chalkboard, and a couple windows.

"We drew up a daily schedule," she continued in her email, "found some reading books in the market, made some flashcards with basic words like 'have, had, where, were, that, this, he, her' and made worksheets to help the kids learn and practice writing the alphabet.

"We have been doing this for the last two weeks and we have had so much improvement with the kids. Not only are they learning quickly but they also feel really proud of themselves.

"I work with Bright who didn't know the alphabet and now he only has 8 letters left to learn.

"I also work with Michael Amoa who is ten years old. He is the sweetest boy in the whole world. He was in class 5 but he can't read, write or say the alphabet and he never had a clue about what was going on in class so the teachers just called him stupid.

"On the first day in our special classroom I asked him if he knew the alphabet and he lowered his head and said 'Madame...no.' He was so ashamed of himself and he thought he had disappointed me.

"We have been working together for the last two weeks and now he almost knows the whole alphabet. He is so dedicated because someone is taking the time to help him. Whenever he leaves our classroom he gives us this heart-melting smile as if to say 'Thank you. Thank you for believing in me.'

"The beaches are absolutely beautiful here. You can run for miles on the sand and there are always people playing soccer on the beach.

"Sometimes you have to pay a fee of two dollars to use the part of the beach that is cleaner. It's ironic because for the same price a little further down the beach, they sell children as slaves. Whether you put them to work in your fields, factories, sex trade, or the streets is up to you.

"So two dollars can get you a clean part of the beach, a chocolate bar and pop … or a child's life.

"After being here in Africa I have learned many things. I have realized that in life all you need is your family (whether its your actual family or your family of friends), God, and love. Without those three things, no one could survive here."

Katie Marocchi is an extraordinary young woman. She had a dream, committed to doing whatever it took to make that dream a reality, and made it happen. Do you have a dream? What's stopping you from making it come true?