Adaklu Education and Orphan Funds
Children in Ghana work hard at an early age and are relied upon to help keep their homes functional. Families are often large, and even before children reach their teens they provide the family with daycare for the infants, carry out innumerable household chores, and provide a significant helping hand on the family farm. The cost of keeping children in school is often an extraordinary burden. School uniforms, sandals, supplies, and school fees add up to about $20 a year for one child. This may seem like a small amount of money, but to rural families it can be an unreasonable tax in the face of daily realities. In addition, the time that children spend in school is time that they are not helping to maintain their household.

Abravi helps her brother get dressed.

The Adaklu Education Fund was established to help keep students in school and provide opportunties for students to learn more skills. Some of the goals include:

     •  Building a local library and stocking it with books.
     •  Repairing three school rooms at the Junior Secondary School.
     •  Increasing the number of of trade school opportunities for         students in the villages.
     •  Providing a scholarship fund for outstanding students who wish to         attend Senior Secondary School.
     •  Provide school uniforms and pay school fees for the needist         students.

 

The Adaklu Orphan Fund is the first program under the Education Fund and was initiated by BRIDGE board member, Fran McDonald. The fund is designed to assist children who have lost either a mother or a father. For the past three years the fund has kept 150 orphans in school by providing the following services:

     •  Sewing new school uniforms.
     •  Providing school sandals.
     •  Providing school supplies.
     •  Paying for school fees.

The seamstresses and tailors of the Orphan Fund Committee with a group of students who received their new uniforms and sandals.

Doris Adade at Senior Secondary School.

Youth Scholarship Award

In addition, the Education Fund has provided a scholarship for one outstanding student, Doris Adade, to attend Senior Secondary School in a nearby town. Doris received straight A's in Junior Secondary School but didn't have the means to further her education. For the past three years she has attended Senior Secondary School in Taviefe and will graduate in 2004.

 

Anyone interested in finding more information about these projects and how to get involved, fund a project, or provide ways of advancing new projects can contact us at
Jon@bridgingdevelopment.org