Community Center and Solar Energy in Bompaso Ghana

For many of us, we don’t spend time thinking about turning on the lights or charging our phones because electricity is so readily available. Certainly, we have all endured blackouts that have lasted for hours or even days, but the power always comes back on and we are able to plug in and power up. Thus, it is difficult for many of us to imagine living our daily lives without easy access to any source of electricity.

For people in the community of Bompaso in eastern Ghana, living without electricity is an everyday reality. They have no electricity supply and the nearest reliable source of power is several miles away. PACE Ghana, in partnership with the Bompaso community, is striving to change this situation by helping the people build a community center with solar panels that will provide electricity for their essential needs and activities.

Bompaso is located a few miles from the community of Worawora where Pace Ghana has been working successfully for over 20 years to build schools, provide medical supplies and services to the local hospital, and construct and operate a library and a recent cross cultural book club with students participating from the US and Ghana.

PACE-Ghana began working with Bompaso about 8 years ago when it established an adult literacy program and helped improve irrigation for farming. Since then, we have continued to support ongoing adult education programs and agriculture enterprises.

Just prior to the COVID pandemic, we had engaged with the community members about their need for electricity as well as a community center where students could study in the evening and where a small clinic could be set up to offer basic health services to people of all ages. Despite initial setbacks due to restrictions during the pandemic, substantial progress has been made over the past two years. The people of Bompaso are enthusiastically engaged in this effort. They provided land for the community center (a 75 x 100 square foot lot) and many local volunteers cleared the space, made thousands of building blocks, and built the foundation and walls for the new building. When Kofi Addai, Executive Director of PACE-Ghana, visited the area this past summer, he witnessed firsthand the progress that had been made. To complete this project, we need to purchase additional materials to install the roof, solar panels, and a back-up battery system. We have partnered with a non-profit organization of solar experts known as Twende Solar (https://twendesolar.org/) to size and design a solar system to support refrigeration for medicines and health clinic activities, lights for studying and group meetings, and charging capacity for cell phones without having to walk miles to Worawora. To this end, Twende Solar has been actively seeking donations for solar system parts from their international network of suppliers.

Our goal is to complete this project by the fall of 2024. To date we have raised $10,500 that we have used to buy supplies locally such as cement, sand, rebar, and gravel as well as paying for local skilled masons and carpenters. We estimate another $25,000 must be raised to purchase materials for the roof, installation of doors and windows, plastering and painting, and the components of the solar system that we cannot get donated by Twende.

The Community 

Bompaso is a rural community of 500 farmers and ranchers in the Oti Region, in eastern Ghana. Educational infrastructure is limited and students walk many miles to attend school. Bompaso has no access to electricity and residents depend on kerosene and wood for all energy needs and walk several miles to charge their cell phones. Bompaso’s people are inspiring. While facing the daily challenges of poverty, they approach new opportunities with hard work and commitment.

Rice farming micro-enterprise project in Bompaso, Ghana

Twende Solar

PACE Ghana will partner with the nonprofit Twende Solar, which has completed similar projects in communities across the world. The program will draw on Twende Solar’s expertise in technical design, logistics, and installation training and leverage its access to reduced pricing on reliable solar panel system components.

Twende Solar Installation in Cambodia

About PACE Ghana

People in Action for Cultural Enrichment, (PACE-Ghana) is a BIPOC led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has partnered with rural communities in Ghana's Oti Region. Its mission is to strengthen educational and health services, support economic development, and promote cross-cultural relationships

Since 2002, PACE Ghana has built, and staffed, the region’s only library; provided health screenings to community members; built two schools serving thousands of students, managed adult literacy programs and delivered micro-enterprise projects. PACE Ghana is guided by a volunteer board and employs six staff in Ghana.

Middle School in Worawora funded and built by PACE Ghana