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
Currently, the primary students of Kpando Torkor are being taught in a school with unfinished classrooms. On top of the rooms all being unfinished, there is severe overcrowding with insufficient space. The first and second grade students are currently learning in one small classroom. These conditions pose a hazard to student safety and well being as well as engagement and learning.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
Through your support, PoP was able to partner with the Kpando Torkor community to begin building a three-classroom school. This school will provide the appropriate amount of space for all students. In addition to the new classrooms, we will also build walls, windows and doors for the rest of the school. The Kpando Torkor EP Basic School build broke ground in the beginning of December and is progressing well, thanks in large part to the involvement and dedication of the community, which is contributing to the labor and materials required for construction. We’re expecting to complete construction in 2018, and inaugurate the school shortly thereafter. The community is enthusiastic knowing that their students will soon have access to a higher quality learning environment.