Education Ghana Project #59657

Build a community school to educate 150 children

by Engage Globally

Project Report | Jan 10, 2024
Traveling to Ghana to meet community leaders

By Heather Heckel | Executive Director

Members of Engage Globally's Board of Directors are traveling to Ghana next week to visit our partners and talk with program participants. We are excited to meet the community leaders of our three new partner villages and to discuss their educational needs with them. After the meeting, we hope to formally transfer land and begin preparing it for construction of the community learning center. This will be the first school the village has ever had and we hope it will significantly increase educational opportunities for the community.

We also hope to discuss possible evening literacy classes, as the adults in the community never had a chance to attend school. We have already begun working with some women in the village as part of our women's agriculture program (see attached photo).

We are very excited about this project and its likely positive impacts, but also recognize that working more rurally has challenges. This will include increased costs for transportation of materials and construction; needing motorcycles for teacher transportation; and taking the time to build trust and a sustainable relationship with community leaders and members. We also need to consider how to ensure that children, once they begin school with us, can continue their educations given the distance to regional primary and secondary schools.

We look forward to updating you again after our trip.

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Sep 25, 2023
Planning for new school

By Heather Heckel | Executive Director

Existing school shared by two villages.

Our partners in rural Northern Ghana are beginning the process of planning to build a new community learning center in one of our most rural partner villages. Currently, this village shares a school with another village. The government provides two teachers but no supplies or construction updates. Unfortunately, the school, pictured here, is designed to serve an estimated 400 children between the ages of 5 and 12.

All of our work is community-led and designed to be sustainable long-term. Thus, our partner's first steps are to meet with diverse community stakeholders about their goals for a new school. This includes discussions with traditional leaders, regional chiefs who have influence over land rights, women from the community, and parents of future students. Whenever a project is being discussed, the first meeting is with the local chief and elders, pictured here.

The local leaders are very excited about the possiblity of having a learning center, because this will provide their students with a real opportunity to attend school. In their meeting they shared that students don't go to the 'shared' school because it is too far to walk and the teachers are often not present or have very large classes. With no adult literacy in the community, the lack of options for students to learn to read continues to perpetuate severe poverty and food insecurity.

The next step in this process will be to work on land transfer to ensure that the land is designated long-term for community learning. Meanwhile, in the US, we continue to work on fundraising for this project which will cost a total of $15,000 including construction, learning resources, local teacher salaries for the first year, a used motobike so that the teachers can reach the school, and purchase of food to provide the students with a daily lunch. We would appreciate your help in sharing this project with any community groups, small businesses, educational/university clubs, or individuals who might be interested. Thank you!

Community chief and elders meeting with partners.

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