School Development Fund - Ghana
I am an experienced international teacher with over 7 years experience and have been fortunate to work at many top schools in the UK, Africa and the Middle East.
I possess a MA from Oxford University and a MEd from Cambridge University, and have experience of working with international development projects in the past, specialising in educational development in cooperation with indigenous and international NGOs as well as governmental agencies.
Since 2010 I have been involved with an orphanage (Misthy Cee Development Centre, MCDC) and school in Akomadan, rural Ghana, called Misthy Cee Educational Complex (MCEC).
I have visited the project twice as a volunteer in 2010 and 2012 as a self-funding volunteer and will be visiting again between April-August 2017.
I have been fortunate to have seen considerable growth and improvement. I have previously overseen and part-funded the painting and decoration of classrooms and construction of school toilets.
The school now has extended to Junior High School, educating children aged 3-16 years, and totals well in excess of 250 pupils. A lot of work however still remains.
During my last trip disaster struck when a heavy storm destroyed a construction project...
The considerable amount of funds raised for this project was therefore effectively lost and an application for an insurance claim is ongoing and must realistically now be written off.
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I am therefore seeking funds to complete the renewed building project (£5000).
The construction project is for a much-needed school dining and assembly hall.
Children cannot currently congregate anywhere as a school for assemblies or indoor activities and must eat on the floor either outside or in their classrooms.
In addition, the cooks have to prepare meals on an outside fire, whatever the weather as there is not an adequate indoor space. This obviously causes considerable problems and challenges, especially in the wet season.
The total cost of construction will be £12,000.
£7000 has already been raised to get it to the current stage and a further £5000 is needed for completion.
The money will be used to lay a smooth concrete floor, fit doors and windows, lay wiring and piping, plastering of the walls and painting throughout. It will also go a long way to make long dining tables to eat at and benches/chairs for the children to be seated.
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Other items on the school wish-list include:
1) School Bus (£2500)
Currently the vast majority of children are bussed into school every day in one small privcate taxi bus (see photos). The children come from a consiserable catchment area and some travel many miles on foot every morning. This small bus must multiple trips each morning to distant and isolated areas so all children and families can access an education. This means that some children must make an extremely early pick-up as they must wait for all children to be collected for school to start.
The bus is often crowded with as many as 50 children crammed into a 15 seater bus. This is obviously far from ideal and far from safe. 
£2500 will go a long way to paying off the remaining balance to secure the release of a replacement, larger, and more suitable school bus on a lease agreement.
2 & 3) £750 for painting of 12 classrooms and £750 for painting of school buildings.
Children currently sit in bare concrete classrooms, at basic wooden desks. There are bare walls and floors, with a total abscence of learning resources.
£1500 will go a long way to paint every single classroom and school building to make the leanring environment brighter, more welcoming and more child-friendly.
During a previous visit in 2012 I was able to paint 3 classrooms and enclose the before and after photos below:
4) Library (£500)
The school has been donated many books by Opportunity Education, but at the present time there is nowhere to keep and display the books where all children can access them. £500 would allow me to decorate a room, build bookcases and shelves so that all children in the school from Nursery to Junior High School can share in the wonder of books.
This is how donations were spent to complete the library project:
5) Library Books & Teacher Textbooks (£250)
With a recent election of a new government, the school curriculum and school textbooks are about to change. Teacher Textbooks are essential to help support and guide every class teacher as many lack formal training and access to lesson materials and resources.
This should hopefully help ensure that an age-related curriculum is covered in its entirety by all teachers.
I purchased a previous set for prescribed governmental textbooks Preschool-Kindergarten to Year 6 for around £250, but since then they have become out-dated, worn out through use and are also insufficient in number to the number of teacher and classrooms in need of such texts making sharing now not a ideal or feasible situation.
Any excess from the requested total will go on reading books and other learning/teaching materials such as chalkboards, chalk, art materials and excerise books for children who are unable to supply their own.
6) PE & Games Equipment (£250)
Sports and games provide a considerable source of enjoyment and motivation for all pupils in Ghana. Regretably such equipment is in short supply, hard to source and as such can be extremely expensive meaning many children and schools must go without even the most basic equipment.
£250 will allow me to source and purchase a range of sports equipment; especially a set of football posts, netball posts, bibs and kit to allow participation in local competions and a good supply of quality bats, balls and other apparatus.
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I myself am a volunteer and am committing 4-5 months of my time (April - August 2017) and experience this immensely worthwhile project and I ask nothing for myself.
I will also personally guarantee that the money raised is directly delivered to the charity during my stay.
100% of the money raised will go to the project and towards helping achieve the described goals.
I will personally pledge an additional 5% of all donations. This means that any GoFundMe commission and related banking fees will be paid by myself (on the asked amount of £10,000 this would be £500).
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I will personally oversee this during my stay and am able to provide updates and photos on request and will ensure that rigorous and transparent accounts are kept.
If you provide your email address I would be delighted to keep you updated with photos and progress reports!
I can also forward letters from the children to thank you or a person of your choice as a genuine expression of their gratitude.
Your help will be of immense help to children from a relately small, isolated and rural community in the Developing World. I have found the people to be immensely warm and welcoming and have seen the immense value they place in education. Their genuine gratitude and appreciation of any help offered is without question.
Without your help many of these children would not be able to access and attend school as the existing state system is oversubscribed and ill equipped to meet the demand and I can only ask that you can give whatever you can to help the children and families of this village community.
I realise that times are hard in the financial climate.
When you however see what many families make do with (and make do without) it is an extremely humbling experince. I have felt this myself and am dedicated to do all I can whever I can to maintain my commitment to this project and the people I have met through this immensely rewarding experience.
