Congratulations to Charlotte & Philomena, Senior High School Graduates!

Good friends and classmates Philomena (left) and Charlotte at their Nsein Senior High School in March 2016, ready to start their last term before graduation

We’re really proud! Charlotte Armah and Philomena Mensah graduated from Nsein Senior High School in Axim, Ghana this June!

For this outstanding achievement, Philo and Charlotte each received Leif Pederson Graduation Awards of $300—enough to launch them into their adult lives. (Note: Ghana Together presents this award to our Western Heritage Scholars upon graduation from senior high school, in memory of founding Board member and good friend, Leif Pederson.)

We've known (and supported) Charlotte and Philo for about ten years now!

Charlotte Armah, 2007

Philomena Mensah, 2007

The girls used some of their Award funds to buy clothing that is not a school uniform(!), and set themselves up to sell earrings, bathroom slippers, gari (cassava), sugar…and some other items in “the Axim market.” This is a temporary move to support themselves as they prepare for the next step. They reported just this morning that their sales are going well.

They are in the process of applying for jobs teaching primary level students. In Ghana, if one graduates senior high with a good record, it’s pretty common that you will be called upon to teach the youngest primary students.

Photo from last week, as they launch their business in the  market in Axim. One of the wonderful things for girls who are no longer students is that they now can grow and style their hair! Fun!!

Achieving a senior high graduate level is no small accomplishment for these two young women. They spent their early primary and junior high school years living at the Western Heritage Children’s Home due to very difficult family circumstances. Ghana Together, in conjunction with Western Heritage Home, supported them entirely in those years.

At the Children’s Home they were helped greatly by Barbara Davis who, as the “senior sister”, as the children called her, ensured their school attendance at Manye Academy every day, saw to their homework, made sure their uniforms were clean and pressed, managed meals, and made sure they got enough sleep every night. Thank you, Barbara!

Barbara Davis, their "senior sister". Thank you, Barbara!!

Senior high school is not tuition-free in Ghana. Thanks to their academic excellence in primary and junior high, their obvious financial need, and to the efforts of their Paramount Chief Awulae Attibrukusu III, they were each awarded Ghana National Petroleum Corporation senior high school scholarships covering their tuition and boarding at Nsein Senior High School. We of Ghana Together provided funds for the “supplies”---uniforms, textbooks, lab materials, photocopies, health/hygiene supplies, snack money, etc.

You may wonder why graduation from senior high school is such a big deal!

We did a little research. According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2010 Census data for the Nzema East Municipality, of 8375 females 3 years and older who had attended any school at any level in the past, only 550, or 6.4% of had attended senior high school. And of the entire female population, only 32.5% had ever attended any school at any level. Of the female population over 11 years of age, 46% were classified as literate in 2010, meaning they could read and write a simple sentence in some language, maybe not learned in school, but somehow picked up.

That’s why this is such an achievement! With the establishment of the new Axim Girls Senior High School, which had 191 students enrolled at end of March, 2016, when we last visited, this picture is changing!

Philo and Charlotte are the 3^rd and 4^th Western Heritage Home Scholars to graduate Senior High, having been preceded by Gifty Essien and Dorothy Armoo. They are indebted to James Kainyiah, founder and chair of Western Heritage Home (our associate organization), who established this local Axim-based NGO to support children exactly like these four.

And they are indebted to YOU, dear friends, who have supported these two beautiful Western Heritage Home Scholars for 10 years, and so many other children (73 at present, in one way or another)! Thank you.

For prior News Updates, see http://ghanatogether.blogspot.com

Contact us at: info@ghanatogether.org

Website: http://ghanatogether.org