Gisela Becker charmed the women gathered at the Birmingham Athletic Club to celebrate International Women’s Day with her life story and her work with her foundation, St. Paul Non-Profit Charitable Organization (www.helpforghana.com). Becker, who will be celebrating her 87th birthday this year, travels to Ghana four times each year to bring aid and provide oversight of her foundation.
Becker was born in Germany and lived there as a teenager during the 2nd world war. She recalled the devastation of warfare with the simple story of how she walked home from school with her best friend one day and how that friend was killed in an air raid that night. She said that there was no time for mourning or counseling.
After the war, she wanted to leave the heaviness in Germany and come to the United States. She borrowed money from a family friend and travelled to New York against her parents’ wishes. She immediately found a job as a packer and worked long hours to pay for her room and board and make enough to repay her debt to the family friend. She paid off that debt in less than two months.
The woman who owned the boarding house where she stayed recommended that she find a more “appropriate” job as a nanny. Within days, she began working as a nanny for a family with two young children. She still remains in contact with those “children”, who are now retired!
Becker kept in contact with a family in Germany that had a son, Paul, who was studying medicine. Gisela returned to Germany to marry Paul Becker, and then returned to pave the way for him to come here. Paul did not want to work in New York City, so Gisela contacted some friends that she had made on the ship during her initial voyage to the United States who lived in Detroit. She came to visit those friends and found that the salary for an intern was higher in Detroit than in New York at the time. She relocated to Detroit, rented an apartment, obtained a translation job in legal department for herself at Parke Davis and arranged for her husband to have an internship at Harper Hospital. Just before his ship arrived in New York, she flew there on Pan Am, purchased a green, used Chevy Impala station wagon for $500, and drove her husband back to Detroit.
The Beckers had three children who have all gone on to have distinguished careers. Gisela said that she always encouraged them to learn languages because it opened up their world view.
Gisela worked in her husband’s medical office once the children were grown. From 1958 to his death in 1990, he was a Beaumont Hospital internist.
After his death, when she was picking up the pieces of her new life, Becker decided that she would travel since her husband’s work obligations did not allow for much time away. She started exploring different parts of the world. Then, one day in 1995, she was traveling in Turkey and was supposed to fly out of Bodrum airport. To her surprise, the Bodrum airport was closed for one month to lengthen its runway, so she and other passengers were transferred to a bus for a 14 plus hour ride to Istanbul. None of the other passengers near her spoke English except for a young boy, Uriah, from Ghana who sat behind and kitty-corner from her.
On the way to Istanbul, the bus stopped so that passengers could go to a rest-stop and eat. Gisela noticed that while everyone was streaming into the cafeteria, Uriah stayed outside. She asked him if he was hungry. He told her that he was but that he did not have an money so Gisela offered to buy his meal. He was so humble that he took some brown beans and white rice and a slice of watermelon. He meekly pointed toward a can of Coca-Cola which Gisela told him that he could have.
As they ate, Gisela learned that Uriah’s parents had died in an accident and left five children who now lived with a grandmother. He had left Accra in the steerage of a ship to work as a galley helper to make money for his family. The boat docked on the island of Kos where he went to look for a job. The authorities told him that child labor was illegal and they were sending him home. He was 14 years old. That fateful encounter impelled Gisela to find out how she could help Uriah and his family. She contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit who put her in contact with a young priest from Ghana who was studying in Ohio. He assisted her in contacting the Baptist church in Ghana where Uriah’s family attended. It was through the church that she was able to communicate with them because they did not have a street address. She provided a sewing machine for Uriah’s brother who wanted to be a tailor and a knitting machine for his sisters. She gave Uriah and his younger sister an education.
But Gisela did not stop there, she went to visit Uriah’s family with the young priest, Fr. Louis, who returned to Ghana after having earned his Ph.D. in the United States. Fr. Louis invited her to visit his family who lived near Kumasi in the Ashanti area. Gisela was struck by the poverty of the people who had once been proud warriors and who now tried to farm arid land. She felt called to build an orphanage for abandoned children. Fr. Louis told her that she was too old to do it. She proved him wrong.
Becker began the St. Paul Non-Profit Charitable Organization in the United States and in Germany. Not only has Becker built an orphanage, she has build a hospital and dental clinic. She proudly recounted that the hospital served over 9,000 new patients in 2015. She has also provided funding for high school and college education for poor children. Her organization has paid to have wells dug for villages. She is in the process of collecting clothes, bicycles, medical supplies and other items to fill her 14th 48-foot shipping container for Ghana. One hundred percent of monies received by her organization go to the poor. In fact, Becker herself and her children, pay for her travel and other expenses.
Gisela’s demeanor is quiet and unassuming but she has a fire for her work. It is difficult to have her talk about herself because she would much rather talk about her people in Ghana. Many of the first orphans that Gisela helped are now helping her in her mission because she always impressed on them the need to “give back.” Gisela paid for the graphics art education of one young man, Richard Darko, who is now an accomplished artist who has created many wood carvings and paintings that have been used to raise funds for the organization. Dominican sisters from Africa but educated in Ireland, one of whom is an orthopedic surgeon and the other a pediatrician, run her hospital. Gisela believes that God has been at work through her and has helped her in the process. She radiates a joy that only true alignment with one’s purpose in life may bring.
After she spoke to those gathered to celebrate International Women’s Day, many in attendance waited in line to speak to her. For her part, Gisela was grateful, stunned and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from the group and the monies raised for the cause.
If you would like to make a financial gift for the poor of Ghana, please make the check payable to SPANCO and send it to care of Petrella Brown, PLC, 26211 Central Park Blvd., Ste. 207, Southfield, MI 48076 and we make sure it gets to Gisela Becker. Thank you in advance for your support!
Petrella Brown PLC 