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, 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 160 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 361,000 community members 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 160 schools in the Volta Region and have also provided teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.
Gagodope-Lave
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With a population of around 1,000, this community is located within the Ketu North district of Ghana. The Gagodope-Lave DA Basic School currently serves 180 students spread throughout grades K-6. The Ewe language is spoken here, and students are eagerly awaiting their new school where each child will be inspired to reach their full potential and promise. |
Jim’s Impact in Gagodope-Lave
At PoP, we strive toward a world in which every child can experience and benefit from quality education. Currently, students in Gagodope-Lave are learning in an abandoned building with collapsing structures, posing health and safety risks.
We believe that a quality learning environment is critical to increasing student attendance, engagement and overall literacy outcomes.
In the current structure students are easily distracted and are exposed to the elements. These conditions clearly pose a hazard to student safety and well-being, as well as to engagement and learning.
A school build is only the start of a transformative education experience, and we are excited to begin our impact.
PoP is excited to be partnering with the Gagodope-Lave community to build a new five-unit classroom block! The community is devoted to providing a valuable education to its students, and will contribute 20 percent of the resources and labor required for construction.
We establish partnerships with communities who are deeply committed to their children’s education. The support of the Gagodope-Lave community ensures the sustainability of the school that it will remain a quality learning environment for generations to come.
Upon completion we will come together to inaugurate the new school and celebrate the extraordinary learning that will take place there!