This time last year I was approached by one of our parents, asking if we had any old and unused resources which might be useful to a Nursery School that her mother was setting up in Ghana. As a Junior School, we don’t have a lot of Nursery resources, but with help from Whitehorse Manor Infant School and Cypress Primary School, we put together a collection of toys, games and books that our pupils were no longer using, which were collected for shipping. We were all so please to receive a message this week giving us an update about how things are going in Ghana:
‘I am writing to give you a little update following the donations of books and equipment you and your colleague Heads gave me some time ago, in relation to the nursery I am supporting my mum to start. Much work has gone into getting the nursery started. Ghana social services has visited the property and given us the go-ahead. In April / May this year, heavy rains caused damage to part of the property which we are still fixing. This has caused a delay in opening the place up for the nursery. In order to put the resources to use while still getting the premises ready, we have started a children’s library and reading club. This started in October this year and is currently being run from two locations in one of the towns, every Saturday. The person in charge of this project (project manager) runs a day care centre herself and therefore has much experience working with children. The sessions are being supported by volunteers who come and supervise the children. The situation with children in Ghana is very different to the UK. Most of the children, aged from 5 to early teens, move in groups by themselves with no parental supervision. So having a place like this is really good for them to be safe and to learn. The sessions are free for the children to stay and read. I attach a few pictures from the very first sessions that was run. For the volunteers, most do not have jobs and one is in senior secondary school. We are therefore looking to commence a subscription service where the children can take books home for a small monthly fee, the equivalent of less than £2 a month, in order to support the volunteers with transport and meals money and to also pay transportation for moving the books around the various locations. The project manager is in talks to open two other sessions in the coming weeks. One of them will be in my hometown, the very west of the Western Region in Ghana, and I am very excited about it. The club is my idea and is named after my grandmother, my mum’s mother. Her education stopped when she was 8 years and couldn’t continue. I have many plans for the Club and one is to obtain a mobile library van for the remote areas. I just wanted to say Thank you for the donations of items.’
It was heartening to see and hear how our donations are having an impact on improving learning opportunities for pupils in Ghana. Ms Achenbach.
