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 quality education.
In Ghana, 17% 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, 2018). Additionally, over 14% of the Ghanaian population is illiterate (UNESCO, 2018).
PoP works with over 150 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 42,000 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 160 schools in the Volta Region and have also provided teacher training and educational programming to PoP schools throughout the region.
Matse Dzopke
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With a population of around 1,000, Matse Dzopke is located within the Ho Municipal district of Ghana. The Ewe language is spoken here. |
Sam and Anna’s Impact in Matse Dzopke
At PoP, we strive toward a world in which every child can experience and benefit from quality education.
We believe that a quality learning environment is critical to increasing student attendance, engagement and overall literacy outcomes.
In the previous school structure, students were not allowed to attend school during the rainy season because they would get sick. These conditions clearly posed a hazard to student safety and well-being, as well as to engagement and learning.
With Sam and Anna’s support, PoP partnered with the Matse Dzopke community to thoroughly repair and renovate a three-unit classroom block, and provide a functioning roof. The community was devoted to providing a valuable education to its students, and contributed 20 percent of the resources and labor required for construction. The school renovation ensures that every student in the community has equal access to a safe space to learn.
We establish partnerships with communities who are deeply committed to their children’s education. The support of the Matse Dzopke community ensures the sustainability of the school and that it will remain a quality learning environment for generations to come.
