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 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 over 160 schools in the Volta Region and have also provided teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.
Agbozume Sonuto
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With a population of around 1,200, this farming community is located within the Ketu North district of Ghana. Agbozume Sonuto currently serves 244 students spread throughout eight grades. The Ewe language is spoken here, and students are eagerly awaiting their new school, where each child will be inspired to reach his or her full potential and promise. |
Brian Rose and London Real’s Impact in Agbozume Sonuto
At PoP, we strive toward a world in which every child can experience and benefit from quality education. Students in the Agbozume Sonuto community were previously learning in an unstable structure, built by the community years ago. The rooms were open, lacking separation from the environmental elements, and supported by pillars that were nearly collapsing. The structure’s roofing provided little protection, as it was flimsy and completely detached from all of the dividers which substituted for solid walls. The old and barely standing pavilion had leaking roofing, where children were exposed to extreme wind, heat and rain.
We believe that a quality learning environment is critical to increasing student attendance, engagement and overall literacy outcomes.
In the previous structure students were easily distracted and exposed to the elements. These conditions posed 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 get going. We broke ground in early October 2019 and completed the structure in April 2020.
PoP has partnered with the Agbozume Sonuto community to build a new three-unit classroom block! The community is devoted to providing a valuable education to its students, and contributed 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 Agbozume Sonuto community ensures the sustainability of the school that it will remain a quality learning environment for generations to come.