PROJECT SUMMARY
The Free-School Orphanage Program is divided into three phases. The first one consists of building the orphanage and related facilities (including dometries, class rooms, office, kitchen, community room).
The second phase of the project consists of offering free school and feeding to HIV orphans and other orphans and vulnerable children of the district so that they can attend school.
The third phase of the project will consist of offering free year-round boarding school to HIV orphans and other orphans from the Central Region on a continuous basis.
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Rationale.
Education is one of the most important aspects of child development. One of the main barriers to education is the struggle for meeting one’s basic needs. It is challenging for children who face difficulties of having enough money to feed themselves and buying clothes and other essential materials to attend school.
Moreover, those who attend school on empty stomachs and with many worries related to their conditions at home are not in the optimal setting for proper and effective learning. HIV orphans and other and vulnerable children are more than likely to be facing these situations.
Most of them are out-of-school, and those who have the opportunity to attend do not benefit from optimal conditions for their learning and often drop out of school early to earn some small income.
The advantages of a free-school orphanage are invaluable. In addition to offering orphans the possibility to attend school free of charge, they will also have a place to sleep as well as the assurance of eating well everyday.
This environment will ensure that these needy children will experience the best conditions for their personal development, as well as increasing the likelihood that they will become important contributors to their community development after completing schooling. Offering basic education within the orphanage ensures that the learning experience will be tailored to their specific needs.
Special vocational activity-oriented programs will be offered so that the children will eventually leave the orphanage with a strong baggage that will allow them to sustain their needs.
These vocational activity-oriented programs will include soap-making, clothe- and dye-making, arts crafts, agriculture, etc.
Moreover, the free-school will be a year-round school, the first of its kind in Ghana. Offering year-round school has the advantage of increasing the child’s learning experience. It will also allow for the possibility of combining learning of vocational activities with self-development learning in addition to the regular academic curriculum.
It will also make possible for children to generate some income for the orphanage with the fruits of their learning (selling the clothes, arts crafts, etc. they will have learnt to make through their classes).
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Location
This project will take place in Central Region, focussing on Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese and Cape Coast Municipal Districts. The Free-School Orphanage Program will reach orphans and vulnerable children from the entire Central Region. Central Region, along with the northern regions, are the poorest regions in Ghana.
Central Region’s ranking of Poverty Incidence (PI) oscillates between 36 and 68, with a mean of 55.3. Abura Asebu Kwamankese District is the second poorest district in the region after Agona, with a Poverty Incidence of 63.
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Program Objectives
- Give boarding and food to 100 orphans from Central Region of Ghana.
- Offer free year-round school to 100 orphans (up to junior secondary school).
- Offer vocational activity programs (soap making, bead making, dye and clothe making, arts crafts, and agriculture) to orphans at the orphanage.
- Provide education adapted to the needs of these vulnerable children by offering schooling within the orphanage.
- Educate orphans on a wide-range of health related issues through a community outreach programs.
- Educate the community about important health issues through activities organized by children at the orphanage.
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Your Support Needed
We will need your support to make this program a reality. The organisation has been able to acquire a land with the help of individual friends of AYD and the community leaders. Financial support is needed for the construction of the orphanage.
Clothes for children between the ages of 1 – 19years (both males and females), writing books, reading books of all grade to high school, pens, pencils, school bags, erasers, markers, rulers, soccer balls, toys and games and any other educational materials.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the Executive Director for more information on the programme.
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