I suppose a little background is in order. I am working with an organization called the Adaklu Youth Education Committee (AYEC.) Those of you keeping score at home will realize Adaklu is not the name of the village I am living in. You would be correct; Adaklu is a larger area encompassing 54 different villages. AYEC specifically works in nine of these villages. The goals of AYEC are to provide four scholarships a year for qualified students to go to high school (which is not free here) and also to provide school uniforms, which are mandatory, to orphans in the nine different villages. I know I have promised to give information on how to give but that will have to wait a little while some logistics are sorted out, but I promise that information will be coming!
On Tuesday Dela and I traveled to Adadome Senior Secondary School where three of the scholarship winners will be enrolling for this school year. Adadome was about a forty minute ride from Helekpe but definitely worth the trip. When we arrived we went to see the headmaster who is from the village next to Helekpe. He told us that he was very pleased with the scholarship program and would personally meet with the three girls to make sure that they worked hard in school. From there we went to the bank to actually pay the school fees of one of the girls. That process was quite long but eventually we made it back to Adadome and were able to look around the school grounds. I cannot tell you how taken aback by the school I was. It was by far the best school that I have seen in Ghana. The grounds included a science center with full labs, a girls and boys dormitory, houses for teachers and the headmaster (provided by the PTA), and a large cafeteria where boarders will eat. The campus was really beautiful and on our tour we learned that Adadome has 53 full time teachers. Most schools around the mountain have about four full time teachers and a few more that occasionally drop in. To have 53 full time teachers sold me that this school can really make a difference in our scholarship winners lives.
To date we have two students enrolled out of five. This year there are five students because one was awarded a scholarship two years ago but the committee ran out of funding.. In the next week we should get the remaining three students enrolled so that they can be in school when classes for first year students start. I must say there can be a lot of frustration in getting things done here, but when you give the chance for a gifted student to go to school, well, that is truly a good day!
P.S. The beard is six weeks strong!
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