BAP Helping Hands’ Impact in Akosombo Ketem, Ghana

You’re Making a Difference Here


 

WHY 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 142 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 35,000 students 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 130 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


 

Previously, the Akosombo Ketem community had no formal school or classrooms for their students. All classes were held under a bamboo structure that had a metal roofing sheet. These conditions posed a hazard to student safety and wellbeing, as well as to engagement and learning.

 

Your Impact with a New PoP School


 

Through your support, PoP was able to partner with the Akosombo Ketem community to complete construction on a three-classroom structure that will now serve the lower primary students.  The Akosombo Ketem Pre and Primary School build progressed well, thanks in large part to the involvement and dedication of the community, which contributed to the labor and materials required for construction. We officially completed construction in May of 2018, concluding tireless hours of hard work and dedication. The community is enthusiastic knowing that their students now have access to a higher quality learning environment!