Projects

July 28th--Oh, what a day!

As part of their Love Week 2024 activities, Elevation Church, Mississauga held a Kids Against Hunger Canada food packing event and we were chosen to be the recipients of all the boxes packed on Sunday!

There were an astounding 420 volunteers from their congregation helping prep the food in 12 assembly lines.

We were given 188 boxes of food!!! 

Let's do some math...

36 bags in each box, a day's worth of nutrition for 6 people in each bag

A new library lid!

Our very first building project was in 2010 when we constructed a very modest-sized library.  In 2015, we realised that the overwhelming use of the library meant that adding a substantial 60' extension to also house an all-purpose assembly hall would be a wise move.  

As you have seen, building materials available in rural Ghana are not the same as what we can source in North America. We did the best we could with what we had. After a decade, it is time for us to do a complete reno.

We are so pleased to offer vacation "summer" school again!

It's a chance for the oldest students at Dekpor Basic to enjoy smaller classes and get more time to hone their skills. Our sponsored students attend--plus any other student who is dedicated to their studies and wants to give themselves a chance to improve.

This year we have the JHS 2 and JHS 3 attending for the first two weeks: two hours of ICT and two hours of math. Then the P6 and JHS 1 students will attend. 

Last year, we were grateful that we could embark on our solar energy journey. First, we started by powering the 4 borehole submersible pumps, then we took on the school campus, next Dekpor Central Shops, and finally the water distribution system.  

As expected, the requirements vary with the seasons in Dekpor, and we needed time to know if the inital installment would suffice.  Two more batteries and 12 more panels were needed for the water system set-up and we are thrilled that Susan and Tony Anderson have, once again, enabled us to proceed without delay!

3 dentists, 2 assistants

We all know that using technology in our ever-changing world is a necessity. We have been proactive in working hard to set Dekpor Basic School up to meet the needs. We have a wonderful computer lab--in fact, one would be hard-pressed to find anything comparable in the entire region.  We have encouraged students to take the ICT path beyond elementary school and we are proud of our graduates.  

When students get to JHS 3, (Grade 9), it marks the end of an era--they are in the highest grade offered at Dekpor Basic School.

We are so lucky that there are many people who like to donate goods for us to ship! 

Yes, it is a lot of work, but goodness, just look in any distribution album to see the happy faces of the recipients!   

Actually, you may notice that some seem rather straight-faced.  Well, that is due to being entirely overwhelmed and also, culturally-speaking, it is considered rude to smile for such a serious event.  It takes some prompting to get most to smile!