George and I have just returned from Elmina for the first of our biannual trips to Ghana. Unlike my 9 week trip of last year we really did not start many new projects. As the economy worsens and donations decrease it was important to make sure everything was going smoothly. Here are a few of the highlights.
Edinaman Senior High School
A Dutch NGO from Gouda gave the school satellite Internet start up and 6 months to get started. They levied the children and can now pay for it. Unfortunately only 14 of the 20 Tomorrow's Stars gave them last year and none of the other machines they have are Pentium 3's which is the minimum speed for broadband.
There are not nearly enough computers so many must share during class.
Tomorrow's Stars donated a new Pentium 4 with lots of memory and storage space to use as a server.
The Library is still open past 3:30 thanks to Tomorrow's Stars paying for a Library Prefect to keep it open until 8:30 each evening and on Saturday mornings. Joyce completed SSS as a science student scoring a 13(very good) on her SSCE Test last year and is trying to save money for university. I always enjoy when everyone wins!
Unfortunately the shelves of the library are still pretty empty of meaningful books. The 150+ novels I purchased for them last year really do not take up much space but are being used. The scholarship students have promised to read at least one novel during their break.
CCPS Nursery - JSS3 (grade 9)
Everything keeps moving along at Christ Cares School. Improvements are slow but increasing. The teacher bonus is keeping th teachers and they are improving. We saw many small improvements that were brought to the teachers last year when Kellie, Katie, Michelle, and Nancy volunteered at the school.
Rudolph (Scholarship Grad with SSCE score11) is teaching this year and he also helps tutor the students in SSS who need it.
Otoo (scholarship Grad with SSCE score 13) has started a reading
program with the weak readers in grades 4-8). While he is not schooled in remedial reading, he can read and is dedicated to helping others achieve. Both are fine young men and need to save for University. I would say another win-win situation.Sound Foundation School Nursery - class 6
Tomorrow's Stars has been helping this school for a year now. We started by putting a roof on a building that did not have one. Last year we did a few small projects and the teacher volunteers spent 2 days and gave some recommendations to the teachers. We were surprised at the improvements. Everyone seems excited. The teachers at this school hope to make a difference in the early years to make learning easier later on.
