their idea: build schools for at-risk kids in
Accra, Ghana
$50 Buys a school uniform for one student
$120 Buys three large whiteboards for a school
$280 Furnishes an entire classroom with desks, chairs, and notebooks
$6,000 Buys a school bus that drives 30 students/day to school
$10,000 Builds an entire school for 120 children
the power of their idea
Project Details
There are currently thousands of children living in the slums of Accra, many without adequate opportunities to receive health care or even a proper education. Out of this group, those particularly at risk are children. Having lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, and often left to fend for themselves, these slum children often end up in gangs or worse. By providing quality primary schooling, coupled with the residency layout of a foster care home, this unique education project enables these children to learn the skills and forge the relationships necessary to improve their lives and leave the slums.
In partnership with Sovereign Global Mission, a local organization founded by Reverend Eric Annan, Groundwork Opportunities has begun building private schools that provide scholarships for street children to
live and learn at the educational centers located outside of bustling Accra. By leveraging a private enterprise model of education, where students who have the means pay for the operational costs of the school, we are now able to provide quality education to the communities outside of Accra and also offer scholarships to the street children who could otherwise never afford this type of education. Since the first school opened in 2009, the accolades of the school have been piling up and the waiting list to work at the institutions have grown quickly. Each school will be able to teach five hundred children when all the structures are fully completed, and has the capacity to provide a solid education for children between the ages of two and fifteen years, by teaching nursery school classes all the way to the junior high level.
the impact of our support
Kesia's Story
Kesia's (left) first day of school was on September 9th, 2009 and she was one of the very first students at Grace Home International School. When she began Nursery school back in 2009, she had just nine peer students in the entire school. Though perhaps too young to fully realize the power of the experience she was receiving every day, she has now been witness amazing growth from a small idea that now changes the lives of hundreds of children every year.
As she prepares for 2nd grade in the Fall of 2011, she will return to a school growing just as fast as her. With over 120 children in her graduating class of Spring 2010, her school has literally doubled in size, and in the Fall will educate nearly 250 children every year. Not only that, it will employ nearly a dozen staff as teachers and care-takers that will provide a lasting supply of good jobs for the community.