The end of the year is a time for celebrating achievements, reflecting on things we learned, as well as making plans for next year. It was an honor to work side by side with our friends at Lexplore Sweden, Mirai Partners, KDSL Global, Lexplore UK, Lexplore Inc, and our Advisory council members where we share ideas on literacy skills, cross-cut edge and to contemplate and be thankful for all that can happen when organizations and individuals work together to build strong programs in this community. At this special time of the year, we especially want to give enormous thanks to all that made a commitment throughout this year making our programs possible and our organization stronger in the year 2020.
The COVID-19 “mess” for education is a unique one and would go down to history. Our entire educational system in Ghana and many parts of the world experienced absolute school closures and stakeholders not knowing where to start, what to do and how to tackle the already existing literacy crises in the country. We were glad to be able to go on with our planned project activities by taking the very difficult but necessary decision to procure some PPEs to help curtail the spread of the virus. This was necessary because looking at how pupil’s compatriots in USA, Europe, Australia and many other developed countries opted for remote learning while they were left here in Ghana to their faith to be in the house. What strike us most was that our young and adolescent girls in our clubs were likely to be out of school in crisis situations and face greater barriers to education and vulnerabilities such as domestic/gender-based violence when not in school or get into early marriages which expose them to child given birth to a child or being infected with sexually transmitted infections.
My 2020 highlight was an interaction I had with a young girl named Chentiwuni who was featured in one of our video interview sessions. During the Lexplore assessment, she didn’t want to be screened because she feared her colleagues would make fun of her since she could not read. But through our constant engagement with her at the club, she reads with ease. Through my chat I asked her what she wants to be after finishing school, Chentiwuni said it was her dream to be an electrical engineer to bring electricity to her home and her community. I felt short of words that a girl from such a poor home in the Bulpiela community had strong aspirations, and she said she had the idea from a story she read during the read with me series at the club session. “That’s where I got the idea”.
I am elated that our students are inspired and motivated, and I am very humble that we have 75% female representation in our clubs and our trusts that this will have a ripple effect on their lives in the community and their future family.
As we look into the coming year 2021, we would like to expand our programs into more deserving rural schools in the Nantong District and Tamale South constituency with a focus on resourcing these kids whose literacy is seriously in crises.
We are very much grateful to Lexplore and all affiliates, KDSL Global and to our advisory council members Brittany and Melanie.
Signed
Abdul-Razak Issah
Managing Director, LING Project, Ghana