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 107 communities in Ghana to ensure that students overcome these and other barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 218,000 lives 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 110 schools in the Volta Region, as well as provided our teacher training and educational programming across PoP schools in the region. Over 190,000 lives have been impacted in Ghana through our work.
Before a PoP School Build
When Pencils of Promise first visited Dzoanti, the kindergarten school students were attending class in an old and dilapidated structure. The building showed severe signs of decay, evidenced by cracks in its walls and damage on the corrugated metal roof. These conditions posed a hazard to student safety and wellbeing as well as engagement and learning.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
Through your support PoP was able to partner with the Dzoanti community to begin building a 2-classroom school. The build broke ground in the beginning of September 2016 and is progressing well, thanks in large part to the involvement and dedication of the community, who is contributing to the labor and materials required for construction. We’re expecting to complete construction in the first half of 2017, and to inaugurate the school shortly thereafter. The community is enthusiastic knowing that their students will soon have access to a safe and higher quality learning environment for many years to come.