Why Ghana?
While Ghana has experienced unprecedented growth and development over the past few years (IFAD report; African Development Bank), the country still faces many challenges, especially when it comes to access to education.
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 over 150 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 40,000 students in Ghana through School Builds, Teacher Support and WASH programming.
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 over 150 schools in the Volta Region and have also provided our teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.
Botoku
 |
This farming community, located within the Volta region of Ghana, currently serves 164 students spread throughout eight grades. The Botoku population primarily speaks the Ewe language. Students are eagerly awaiting their new school here, which, once complete, will support each child in reaching his or her full potential and promise. |
Chris’ Impact in Botoku
Previously, the preprimary students of Botoku were learning outside under the shade of trees. Students were left exposed to environmental elements, which posed both a safety hazard and a distraction from learning. These conditions were clearly detrimental to everyday learning experiences, and did not support the children’s full potential.
Pencils of Promise is excited to have had partnered with the Botoku community to build a new two-unit classroom block! The community is committed to providing quality education to students and contributed 20% of the resources and labor required for construction. After months of hard work, the new Botoku E P Primary School was completed in August of 2019 and inaugurated the structure shortly after. The entire Botoku community is so excited that students have access to a higher-quality learning environment.
