Ghana is a coastal country located in West Africa, bordering the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Its excellent geographic location played an essential role in gold trading, which made Ghana to be known as “The Gold Coast”. Today, the agricultural sector is the most representative of the country with 14% of the GNP.
A few weeks ago, I participated in a collaboration project at a school and orphanage in the eastern part of the country. The center was built in 2000, approximately, and since then, it has made the life of many kids in the surrounding areas easier. Today it is the home for around 50 kids and offers academic education to the children of the neighboring villages.
The orphanage embraces kids who have been left orphaned for different reasons: some do not have any relatives alive, others do but cannot live with them, usually, due to low-income levels. Thus, all the children in the orphanage form a family. They consider each other siblings and many of them use the last name of the center’s founder.
The survival of the center is not guaranteed. Its construction was viable due to a generous donation and its activity since then depends largely on private donations: since big ONGs and government subsidies don’t reach this zone, it depends on the support of the private sector.
A relevant subject for the future of the students is informatics. After understanding the course structure a bit more, we identified that the students had no access to hands-on training, it was based on books and screenshots. Then, an idea was born: At Clariba, due to our line of work, our consultants need the latest laptop models. This means that we have devices that aren’t potent enough for us, but that certainly are more than adequate for normal and daily activities. Why not give these laptops a second life in Ghana and collaborate with the education at the center?
With over 100 students distributed in primary and basic secondary education I decided that the best approach would be a “train the trainer” approach. This is what we do for our clients as a consultant, so why not also apply this at school? Therefore, the informatics classes were taught to secondary school students so they could then be the teachers of their classmates in the lower levels.
This way, we transformed the knowledge that was exclusive of one person into shared knowledge that can be spread easily. Plus, the students assume the responsibility of learning, teaching and enhancing their skills at the same time. Nowadays, thanks to this initiative, young students receive a practical education that enables them to aspire to more opportunities and knowledge.
It has been a pleasure, for me and for the whole Clariba team that collaborated with this initiative, to support the progress in this region since education guarantees a better future.
If you are interested in learning further details about our initiative or to travel there, write us!
Daniel Sagrera