Build a school for 216 underprivileged children

At the beginning of July, the concrete was poured for the foundation of the first floor.

In order to do this, we bought 70 cubic metres of concrete from a construction company.

It took 21 days for the concrete to dry completely. The bamboo supports and wooden planks were then removed.

Then, in August, the conduits for all the electrical cables in the classrooms were worked out and laid. In addition, all exterior and interior surfaces were plastered.

In early September, our workers started to transported bricks to the upper floor, where the first floor will soon be constructed.

Additionally, by the end of September, ceiling moldings were installed in all classrooms, and the ceiling was primed. Corresponding ceiling elements also found their place in the office rooms.

In the washhouse and cafeteria, ceiling panels and moldings were added to conceal the roof structure.

Furthermore, we have already selected windows for all rooms, which will be installed soon.

On the first day of school after the vacations, the pupils had a trial lesson in the new school building and a short tour of their future school.

An active and successful year for Arise is coming to an end. We would like to thank all our members, friends and other supporters. Without your active help, the further development of our project would not have been possible!

We wish you a wonderful and peaceful Christmas season.

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About the Buiding Project

Since May, the roof of the dining hall and the sanitary facilities were completed. As the school is located only a few hundred meters from the sea, the roof had to be made of pure, self-sealing aluminium.

The external surfaces of the dining hall and sanitary block were then plastered and the septic tank and waste water tank were 80% complete. The interior was also roughly plastered in preparation for the installation of ceramic tiles. Cables were laid in the dining hall and two large electricity poles were erected at the entrance for our electricity connection.

Once our surveyor had determined the height of the first floor, we rented formwork (wooden planks) to start work on the first floor.

The plywood used was painted with oil for the soffit. To make the concrete for the first floor strong enough, about 9.5 tonnes of high strength iron rods were bent and laid over the entire first floor. This took our workers about 3 weeks. PVC pipes were then pulled into the ironwork to allow the electrical cables to be run.

The position of the first two staircases was also finalised and fixed.

About the school and our students

Just before the end of the term, we organized a sports and games tournament.

Different teams, consisting of students from each class and teachers, competed in different disciplines. We were inspired by the German toy manufacturer Goki, who donated a large number of toys to us about a year ago. These were used by our children almost every week during the Friday Activities to train dexterity and logical thinking. The Goki Tournament was their chance to show off their skills and compete against each other. There were also events such as sack races, a lime race (known in Germany as an egg race) and a big football game. Both the teachers and the students had a great time, so we will probably organise this tournament once a year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Goki once again for the great toys that we all enjoy so much!

Phython for Beginners

At the end of June, our partner organisation Grow Ghana ran a free two-week workshop teaching the basics of coding with Python. Some of our teachers took the opportunity to attend the workshop to learn new skills to pass on to the students in our weekly IT-classes.

The workshop is held in the IT-lab of the Macina Foundation, a local NGO. They also provide us with the computer room for the IT lessons with our students.

Thank you Grow Ghana and Macina for this great opportunity!

Akwaaba Kolja 

Since the end of May we have a new volunteer in our team. Kolja is from Bremen, Germany and graduated from high school last year. As part of his gap year, he decided to come to Ghana and work with us for 2 months. He is talented in handicrafts and likes to work creatively, so he built two new football goals last month together with our local volunteer Frederick. The net was recycled by the students themselves. They used old water sachets that are used to sell drinking water in Ghana. Now teachers and students play football together almost every break and enjoy the new goals!

Apart from his own small projects, Kolja also helps on the construction site and comes up with new ideas to make our future school even more beautiful.

Thank YOU!

The last 3 months have been very exciting and successful. On Bonus Day in July we were able to raise $1300 which will now be used to buy materials for our new school building. We would like to thank all our donors for their support! We are looking forward to the next GlobalGiving Campaign ("Little by Little") in September 2023 and hope for your support!

Links:

• Get frequent updates on Instagram