Project Summary for Axim All-Girls High School (AAGHS)

We’ve done quite a few projects with our associates of Western Heritage Home and local school leaders to help AAGHS thrive. Thanks, "investors"!

What would be nice...

...a cleared, safe trail through the jungle between the Heritage Hostel (dormitory) and the school so the girls can walk the half mile 

 ...a couple of tables and benches in the Heritage dormitory where girls board

...and especially a toilet---a really nice toilet, for these lovely young women...like the kind the Engineers Without Borders built at the Axim junior high earlier this year.

Another "urine diversification/dry toilet" in Axim would serve two causes:

1)  the 100 or so high school young women will have a toilet that works! The little two-seater flush type they have doesn't really work. It's often clogged up... and always needs a bucket of water on hand since the flush mechanism...(you get the picture)
 
2)  and, the girls will spread the knowledge of this toilet design---so much improved over other low-impact toilets, thanks to wizardry of Colleen Mitchell and the others at PNW EWB team!
 
These AAGHS girls come from various parts of Ghana. When they graduate they will be high-school graduates, with a certain status and respect. Their school is putting much emphasis on science. They can put their improved "toilet knowledge" to work in other communities. They aren't going to want to go back to what they came from!

We've done some great projects at AAGHS!

Thanks to Jerome Chandler, our Science Project Manager, we created an entire science resource center, with tables, benches, posters, storage shelves, lot of materials... And Jerome wrote 60 science experiments that fit the Ghana Education Science curriculum "practicums."



Jerome Chandler Science Resource Center at Axim All-Girls High School

 

Secure Science Materials Storage Area
 

AAGHS Students doing Science Practicum

Maryanne Ward and Colleen Mitchell with Eric (Jimpetey Djan) Jim, Science Instructor and students taking science materials inventory, Feb 2014
 

Teacher Eric(blue shirt) showing a teacher how the stethoscope works---thanks to the Skagit County, WA docs...

For math, we provided about 60 non-graphing, scientific, solar-powered calculators (not available at any reasonable cost in Ghana).

Teachers and students opening a shipment of calculators

We sent along an overhead projector for the science transparencies Jerome created, as well as a laptop and computer projector

 

Opening the overhead projector transported by Jennifer Mueller, EWB, along with school officials

 We helped them take this old building on the campus....

And with a lot of help from the girls themselves and the teachers...and local workers...

Cleaning up the site

 

Workers Preparing Floor

 ...Renovated it into a Dining/Study/Assembly Hall

AAGHS Students outside newly renovated Dining/Assembly/Study Building. Tables and Benches are on the way

We put a new roof on the Heritage Building (formerly the Children's Home) and ...
 

Roofers at work. Roofs take a beating in this tropical climate with torrential seasonal rains

...created a high school women's dormitory for those from more than walking distance or other parts of the country!

AAGHS Students who Board at the Heritage, thereby enabling them to attend high school

We have been working with Unleash Kids to equip this AAGHS Information/Computing Center (provided by Ghana Education Service) with Internet-In-A-Box, a learning resource with internet-based resources connecting wireless from the "box" to laptops, much like actual internet service.

IIAB includes Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, reference e-books, global maps, etc. for environments with little to no internet access. It will be installed at AAGHS in Jan 2015.
.

AAGHS Computing Lab---what's missing is Internet Access. Service is sporadic, or non-existent and very expensive

 

Maryanne Ward and Adam Holt (Unleash Kids) setting up Internet-in-a-Box in Maryanne and Rich Ward's home

What is missing? We think a toilet like this one EWB built in Axim in 2014...and by all accounts, working beautifully at a Junior High School...would fit in just perfectly!

 

a

Urine Diversification/Dry Toilet Building by Bellingham, WA Engineers Without Borders

We thank so many who have invested in one way or another in this effort, on both sides of the Atlantic. It is amazing to us what has been accomplished!!

 

Contact us at: info@ghantogether.org

http://ghanatogether.org