You’re Making a Difference Here
GHANA
Ghana was, until very recently, one of the poorest countries in the world. Over the past few years, the nation has experienced unprecedented growth and development (IFAD report; African Development Bank). Although the lives of Ghanaians have improved greatly, the country still faces many challenges, especially in the education sector.
In Ghana, 18% of primary school age children are not enrolled in school and of those who are in school, 28% will drop out before completing primary school (UNESCO, 2012). Additionally, over 28% of the Ghanaian population is illiterate and out of all the current primary school classrooms, the government estimates that almost a quarter need repairs (World Bank, 2014; USAID, 2009).
PoP works with 109 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 222,000 lives in Ghana.
VOLTA REGION
The Volta Region is located in southeastern Ghana, to the west of the Republic of Togo and just east of Lake Volta. In many of our partner communities in the region, PoP couples school builds with literacy programming in order to create sustainable change.
To date, we’ve built 98 schools in the Volta Region and have also provided our teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.
Before a PoP School Build
Before the PoP school build, pre-primary school students of Atsrulume attended classes under a tree. When the rainy season would come, attendance suffered greatly because of the lack of covering. The 1st, 2nd and 5th graders were taught under a thatched roof, which was much too small for the class sizes. Additionally, the furniture was too small and could not accommodate many students. This combination of poor conditions posed a hazard to student safety and hindered classroom engagement and learning.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
You recognized that these conditions were not conducive to learning and responded by helping PoP and the Atsrulume community build a new school. The community members, parents, and teachers fully supported the project and contributed up to 20 percent of the labor and resources necessary to complete the build. After months of hard work, the PoP team and Atsrulume community inaugurated the new 3-classroom school equipped with new whiteboards and teacher desks. Your support made this school build possible, creating a safe and strong structural foundation that will foster an environment of educational growth and promise for the students in Atsrulume.
