Windsor Rotary Club (1918)
Ghana Project Committee Page
Our Club is Located in Windsor Ontario Canada
Ghana Project Committee Mandate
The Committee shall be in charge of all work undertaken by the Club in its
programme to provide basic developmental assistance to the people of
Ghana.
GHANA TRIP
Please take the time to read this report on a six week trip to Ghana prepared by a University of Windsor student.
Robin's Ghanaian Journey
Many University students volunteer to spend time in third world countries in order to observe and assist in the educational system - view this site.
Overseas Students
Young Graham Ives, at 13 years of age, basked in a standing ovation, after a short talk at our October 18th meeting, in which he recounted how $5,200 was raised for use in the club's Ghana Project. Doctor Godfrey Bacheyie was handed a cheque by Graham and he told the audience how the money would be put to work.
Graham's father is a member of the Dearborn Rotary Club - he said that Graham received his inspiration for the fund raising project after overhearing a dinner conversation about the educational and medical needs in Ghana. He used his parents connections to launch a speaking and fundraising tour focusing on the Ghana program which concluded with this cheque transfer ceremony.
Windsor Rotarian Godfrey Bachaeyie chats after the regular Monday meeting with visiting Rotarians, Clive Osenga and Kwabena Ntim from the Ghana Accra East club .
Ghana Project Committee Activities
By North American standards, Ghana and all of Africa has a long way to go to reach prosperity.
Windsor 1918 and Harrow Rotary Club members have visited Ghana and photographed some of the projects our club members have supported since 1991.
Ghana's population has an average annual income of about $350.00 U.S.. The country has problems with its medical system and water supplies and needs support for its educational network.
In 1995, 1.5 million children in West Africa died from measles. Each child could be immunized against measles for just one dollar. So far, Windsor and Harrow Rotarians have sent $100,000.00 worth of Medical supplies and equipment to Ghana. The money was used to purchase vaccines, syringes and solar powered refrigerators which are used to store the vaccines.
Our local Rotary clubs have combined their
efforts to help alleviate the most pressing problems. We have provided funds
to drill wells and build sanitation facilities. Rotarian medical volunteers
have staffed medical and dental clinics. A library was established and
stocked with books donated by club members.
A
Ghana Solar Refrigeration Project was launched.
Used eye glasses and jewelry were collected and sent to a village in an
area in Ghana where one of our members was born.
On July 22, 1998, we received a visit from members of our co-sponsoring Club
in Ghana, Accra Ring Road Central, at a regular Monday dinner meeting.
Rotarian Bob Gallagher, of the Windsor Roseland Club, presented an
audio visual show outlining Rotary's work in Ghana.
Below are pictures of 1999 project in Ghana. Two systems providing 800 gallons each per day
of clean drinking water to an orphanage.
Click on pictures to enlarge
Building a School in Ghana
An Album of pictures
showing work being done
on Duori School in Ghana
These pictures were taken by local Rotarians during a recent trip to Ghana They are shown in a powerpoint format.
(It will take a little time to download this file so be patient.)
November 17,2008
Visitors from Ghana with Our Rotary (1918) President, Romeo Girardi.
Edwina Thompson-Donkor and Olivia Baisie, are headmistresses at
St. Thomas Anglican school for kindergarten to grade 6 in Anomabo, Ghana.
Windsor Star Story
The University of Windsor Ghana School Project
(although not a Rotary project, this effort deserves community support)
Our Children Africa is a Ghanaian non-governmental organization, which was founded by four dedicated law students. It was during the summer of 2007 in Ghana’s capital city that Gagan, Nicole and Shannon, who are currently second year law students at the University of Windsor, met Kwame, a third year law student at the University of Ghana. Together they embarked upon a journey, which inevitably lead to the creation of the projects outlined on the site. Their shared vision was a greater quality of life as well as increased empowerment, for Ghanaian women and children, currently living in destitute conditions.
View the web site ..... Our Children Africa
--------------------
extracted from the University of Windsor Daily News Thursday, January 31, 2008
Law students committed to building schools in Ghana
Three Windsor Law students have co-founded a non-governmental organization committed to building schools for children in the west African country of Ghana.~
In July 2007, the three Nicole Andreakos, Shannon Kinch and Gagan Sangha participated in a self-funded volunteer exchange program in Ghana. Building on their legal experiences by interning with a local lawyer to understand the Ghanaian legal system, and working in a city orphanage to comprehend the impact of this system on children and women, the trio also co-founded Our Children Africa with Frederick Asmoah, director of the Osu Children’s Home.
According to Sangha, now in her second year of law school, Our Children Africa seeks to narrow the education gap between children in urban centres and rural villages by increasing the number and quality of primary schools in these areas.
Our Children Africa initiated a school building project and has committed to building two primary schools in the Akropong District, just outside the country's capital, Accra. The building of the first school commenced on September 11, 2007; it is expected to open in June of this year.
The existing school is built with bamboo and straw, consists of one room and holds 100 students ranging from ages 4 to 12. The structure is inaccessible during days of inclement weather.
The new school will have six classrooms and one library, with the structure made of concrete so that the students may attend school regardless of weather. It will accommodate upwards of 150 students from various villages in the region at a cost of $22,000 US. Many of the children who will attend this school will travel 10 km to receive an education.
By providing them with a secure structure in which to learn, Our Children Africa is not only eliminating one of the barriers that stand in the way of their access to basic education, but is providing a reason for children to become empowered through education and passionate about their ability to become active members of their respective communities.
..
Sangha notes that if every student at the University of Windsor donated $2, we could secure the funding necessary to build the primary school.
Currently, the group has engaged in a variety of fundraising initiatives to raise the required funds, including bake sales, a social event at The Basement, and a Buy a Brick, Build a School campaign.
Andreakos, also in her second year of law school, hopes for help from the University of Windsor community to enable us to meet this goal in hopes that we can continue our work in the region to ensure more students get access to proper primary education.
To offer help or request more information, e-mail
ourchildrenafrica@gmail.com.
Lily Tekle
Education in Ghana Ghanaweb
Ghana Facts
United Nations Millennium Project
In September 2000, 191 nations collaborated, agreeing that there were major international development and human rights problems that could no longer be ignored, and agreed to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which lead to 8 goals which are to be achieved by 2015 (however, we are not on pace to meet the goals).
The eight goals are as follows:
Third World Education References
Ghana
Amazon Book Club
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Children's Health and Achievement in School (Lsms Working Paper, No 104)
- Jere R. Behrman, Victor Lavy / Paperback / Published 1994
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The Contribution of Formal Education to Economic Development and Economic Underdevelopment:
Ghana As Paradigm (European University Studies, Vol 619)
- Rose Baaba Folson / Paperback / Published 1995
Read more about this title...
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Estimating the Determinants of Cognitive Achievement in Low-Income Countries :
The Case of Ghana (Lsms Working Paper, No 91)
- Paul Glewwe, Hanan Jacoby / Paperback / Published 1992
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Founding Ghana's Adult : A Study in Conflict Resolution and Self Help
- Gloria J. Braxton / Paperback / Published 1986
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Growing Up in Two Worlds : Education and Transition Among the Sisala of Northern Ghana
- Bruce Grindal / Paperback / Published 1983
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Investment in Human Capital : Schooling Supply Constraints in Rural Ghana (Lsms Working Paper, No 93)
- Victor Lavy / Paperback / Published 1992
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Schooling, Skills, and the Returns to Government Investment in Education :
An Exploration Using Data from Ghana (Lsms Working Paper, No 76)
- Paul Glewwe / Paperback / Published 1991
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Adult education in Ghana and Tanzania, 1945-1975 :
socio-cultural determinants of literacy education and extra-mural studies
- E. O. Okeem
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Adult literacy teaching in Ghana : adapting the Freirean approach and technique
- Leonard Kwami Tabernacle Dorvlo
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Alternative language policies for education in Ghana
- F. F. K. Gbedemah
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The development of education in Ghana : an outline
- H. O. A. McWilliam
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Education in rural areas:
report of the Commonwealth Conference on Education in Rural Areas, held at the University of
Ghana, Accra, Ghana, 23 March to 2 April 1970
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A history of education in Ghana 1907-1976
- R. Bagulo Bening
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The history of education in Ghana from the earliest times to the Declaration of Independence
- C. K. Graham
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Ideological education and nationalism in Ghana under Nkrumah and Busia
- Dominic Kofi Agyeman
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Introduction to education in Ghana
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Issues in social studies education
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Non-formal education and education policy in Ghana and Senegal
- Babacar Sine
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Nonformal education in Ghana : a project report
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The origins and development of university adult education in Ghana and Nigeria (1946-1966) :
a comparative study
- Abdelwahid Abdalla Yousif
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The Political Economy of Education in Ghana, 1920-1979
- Kwaku Osei-Hwedie, Yaw Agyeman-Badu / Published 1985
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Prerequisites of manpower and educational planning in Ghana
- J. B. Abban
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Report on the Information Mission on Forest Operations in Africa, held in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria,
Tanzania and Zambia, 21 February - 19 March, 1977
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Teacher motivation and retention in Ghana : the professional teacher in Africa
- Kwabena N. Bame
Education in Ghana
Until the 1970s, Ghana had one of the most highly developed education systems in West Africa. It declined in 1975, with the rest of the economy. Currently, 76 per cent of males and 54 per cent of females can read and write.
The introduction of school fees has led to a decline in school enrolment. Added to this, district authorities and parent-teacher associations, which now have more responsibility for education, impose their own additional charges, which some parents simply cannot afford. The government aims to reallocate more of the annual budget towards basic education and aims to get every child into some form of schooling by 2005.
Ghana has several higher education institutions, including four major universities. There are also six polytechnics and 38 teacher training colleges
Being Influential: law students work to empower African women and children
Editor's note: Third-year law student Lily Tekle travelled to Ghana this summer under the Students for Development Program of the Canadian International Development Agency. She wrote this first-hand account of the initiative.
Our Children Africa: Emancipation through education
This past summer I, along with my classmate Gagan Sangha, had the opportunity to travel to Ghana to implement the good governance initiative developed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The initiative focuses on issues of democratization, human rights, the rule of law, and public sector capacity-building in the developing world.
Gagan travelled to Ghana last summer and co-founded Our Children Africa, a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, with fellow Windsor law students Nicole Andreakos and Shannon Kinch. Armed with passion and thirst for justice in the developing world, the three collaborated with Ghanaian law student Kwame Asamoah and strived to find means to empower women and children in Ghana.
From the start, the group’s focus was on removing the numerous barriers which prevent women and children from escaping the cycle of poverty that undermines their meaningful development. These barriers consist of:
lack of accessibility to primary school infrastructure;
shortage of qualified teachers in rural areas;
shortage of facilities, teaching resources and learning materials to meet the special needs of students;
lack of adolescent reproductive health education among youth.
We focused on the above barriers and worked to implement projects that promote good governance and raise awareness about our initiatives.
The experience we had led us on a journey of self-discovery that reinforced our desire to see justice in the developing world. As racialized students whose origins lie in developing countries, we both recognize the privileged seats that we occupy in our law school. We also believe that every child in the world is entitled to these privileges which are attained primarily through the pursuit of education.
Thus, we are committed to providing access to education as we recognize the opportunities this access has to improve the lives of children. Our ultimate objectives are Poverty Alleviation, Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality, Access to Education, Community Empowerment, and Equal Opportunity for Self-Sufficiency.
Our team was engaged in a primary education project, which focused on fundraising for the building of our second primary school in Akropong District. Although we found difficulty attaining donations from corporations located in Accra, there were numerous contributions from private donors interested in Our Children Africa’s mission.
We also implemented two sexual and reproductive health seminars for adolescent girls and threw a Back2School bash for children from our Tessier Primary School to inspire them to pursue their greatest potential.
Our Children Africa will continue to strive to meet the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. Anyone interested in engaging in this endeavour or learning more about our organization is encouraged to contact us at
ourchildrenafrica@gmail.com
Reference: University of Windsor Daily News, Public Affairs & Communications - Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Third World Education References
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Last Revised: January 7, 2010
Ghana Chat
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