You’re Making a Difference Here
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 122 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 24,000 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 125 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, many primary school students of Zico Basic School located in Anloga, Ghana were taught in overcrowded, provisional structures. The student population is very large, thus most classrooms for grades 1-6 were too small to accommodate the number of students. Overall, these classrooms were in fine condition structurally, however, they lacked sufficient and proper ventilation to create a comfortable environment for the students. Additionally, the kindergarten students were previously attending class in provisional structures with dirt floors and without formal windows or doors. Overall, the lack of space to accommodate the large student body and unfavorable conditions of the kindergarten classroom structures were previously posing 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 Anloga community to complete construction on a six-classroom school. The Zico Basic School build broke ground in April and construction progressed well, thanks in large part to the involvement and dedication of the community. The students, teachers and parents were committed to contributing up to 20 percent of the labor and materials required for construction. Construction was completed in the beginning of December, with an inauguration ceremony taking place shortly thereafter. The community is enthusiastic knowing that their students now have access to a higher quality learning environment!