Regan Hillyer & JuanPa Barahona’s Impact in Gbefi Hoeme, Ghana

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.

Gbefi Hoeme

With a population of around 1,500, this farming community is located within the Kpando Municipal district of Ghana. The Gbefi United RC Primary school currently serves 381 students spread throughout nine classrooms. The Ewe language is spoken here, and students are excited for their new school where each child will be inspired to reach their full potential and promise.

Regan & JuanPa’s Impact in Gbefi Hoeme


At PoP, we strive toward a world in which every child can experience and benefit from quality education. Previously, several classrooms at the Gbefi United RC Primary School were cracked mud structures with rotten iron sheet roofs, proving dangerous to students’ healthy and safety.

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 are exposed to the elements. These conditions clearly posed a hazard to student safety and well-being, as well as to engagement and learning.

PoP has partnered with the Gbefi Hoeme community to build a new four-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 Gbefi Hoeme community ensures the sustainability of the school that it will remain a quality learning environment for generations to come.

We are thrilled to celebrate the extraordinary learning that will take place there!