Location of Impact
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 161 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 217,000 lives in Ghana.
VOLTA REGION
The Volta region is located in southeast 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 161 schools in the Volta region and will continue to scale our teacher training and use of educational technologies across PoP schools in the region.
Pre-Build
When our team first visited the Baduli Preschool and Primary school, students did not have access to formal classrooms. Instead, they attended school in a deteriorating provisional structure made with wood, mud, thatch and corrugated metal. These conditions exposed students to distractions. Lack of formal walls allowed conversations from adjacent classrooms and external noise from the surrounding environment to permeate, making it difficult for students to concentrate. Insects during the warm summer months pestered students, while rain during the wet season saturated the ground and seeped into classrooms causing muddy puddles to form on the floor.
Post-Build
Muhannad recognized these hurdles to student success, and responded to the community’s needs by helping PoP and Baduli build a six-classroom school. Now, the school is equipped with fans, formal blackboards, benches, desks, doors, walls and windows. Although the dirt roads leading into Baduli are rundown (which made it difficult to get construction supplies into the community), teachers and community members remained dedicated to the project until the school was completed. In June 2016, we mounted the school plaque recognizing Muhannad’s support in creating a safe, strong structural foundation that will allow the students in Baduli to learn and realize their potential and their promise.