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 over 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
The students of Mafi Mediage, Ghana were previously taught in unfavorable learning conditions. 92 kindergarten students were learning in provisional structures with thatched roofing, dirt floors and walls made of thin sticks. Additionally, the P1-6 grade students attended class in small, windowless and poorly ventilated classrooms. These conditions were posing a hazard to student safety and wellbeing, as well as engagement and learning.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
Thanks to your support PoP was able to partner with the Mafi Mediage community to complete construction on a new three-classroom school build, which over its lifetime will serve 918 students. The three classrooms have replaced the provisional structure that the kindergarten students were previously learning in. The formal classrooms will now provide them with a safe and engaging environment for learning. In addition to the new kindergarten classrooms, repairs have been made to the windows fitted to the grade 1-6 classrooms, which will improve ventilation and overall safety and comfort for the students. The build broke ground in May 2017 and was completed in October. The community was committed to providing up to 20% of the labor and resources necessary to complete construction. The parents and teachers of Mafi Mediage are excited knowing their students now have access to a higher quality learning environment.
