Leadership Workshops in Ghana

Recently, you’ve been reading News Updates about toilets, building renovations, and scholarships in Axim, Ghana. This News Update breaks some new ground!

Four of us have just returned from a trip to Ghana: Maryanne Ward, the head of Ghana Together (GT) who travels to Ghana every year; Susan Hirst, GT supporter who has taught science, been a middle school counselor, and was an AIDS educator on three former trips to Axim; Louise Wilkinson, a board member of GT and retired educator from Boeing who has extensive experience working with adult groups on leadership and cultural diversity and who traveled to Ghana twice with her husband, Tom; and Louise’s 18 year-old granddaughter, Alexis Coats. Alexis just graduated from High School in Vancouver, WA, and is headed for a nursing career.

Maryanne Ward, Susan Hirst, Louise Wilkinson, Alexis Coats, and James Kainyiah (Chair of partnering organization, Western Heritage Home)

The three adult women are original “founding mothers” of Ghana Together and have been involved in Axim one way or another for almost nine years.

The purpose of this journey was to work with Ghanaian youth on personal leadership. We had floated the idea for several months among the Head Mistress and teachers of the Axim Girls Senior High School (AGSHS), and to the Director of the Axim Community Vocational Technical Institute (CDVTI) where they teach dress-making, cooking, hair-dressing, electrical work and auto mechanics as well as some academic and entrepreneurial skills.

Louise and Madame Safiatu Seidu, Director of the Community Development Vocational and Technical Institute in Axim, Ghana. They are planning the Leadership Workshop for the coming week.

We also proposed the idea to Kathryn Roe of Cape Coast and Bellingham, WA. Kathryn is the Founder and Director of Anansi Education, which provides scholarships to enable good but impoverished students to attend high school in Cape Coast.

All of these leaders responded with a lot of interest so we developed a curriculum and began scheduling several months in advance of the visit. The Ghanaian school administrators suggested we give the Leadership Workshop the first two weeks of the new term, because we would be working with Form 3 (senior) students. The Workshop would be the perfect orientation, launching them into their last year of senior high school with some new skills to figure out their futures.

And so, after considerable planning, we bravely embarked! We were confident! We had all the bases covered for presentations on Leadership Skills to Ghanaian high school students. Of course, it would go smoothly. After all, Louise is a specialist in leadership and multicultural understanding, Susan in junior and senior high students, and Lexy, in being a real teenager! What could possibly go wrong??

The Axim Girls Senior High School (AGSHS) building---newly opened during the first days we were there

HA! We had forgotten to take into consideration that we were in Ghana!

Little did we or they know that a changed Ghana Education Service policy required the AGSHS girls who were boarding at the Heritage Building to move out, pronto, never mind they had just arrived on campus hours before!

Computer/science/administrative/teachers’ rooms became instant “dormitories” more or less in one day. Mattresses strewn on the lawn. Bunk beds crammed into rooms. Teachers and students carrying desks, tables, chairs, contents of administrative offices, computers, science materials to a newly-opened classroom building.

Mattresses on the grass. The "boarding" students had to move quickly with their meagre possessions---a mattress, sheet, two uniforms, probably one other outfit, personal items...

The school’s electrician, whose Nzema name actually translates as “God the Father” (comforting thought!), had to bravely install the solar panels on the roof of the new two-story classroom building to keep the Internet-In-a-Box and computer lab running, and that only with help with a specialist from Toronto via the shaky internet connection!

Lacking their hastily vacated teacher’s room, which was suddenly filled with bunkbeds, mattresses, and the small bags of personal belongings, teachers were simply sitting in chairs under a tree putting together the new academic year as best they could!

On top of that, there were two national holidays during our two-week window---Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday, and a Muslim Holy Day---that had not been factored in.

But this is Ghana, where everyone somehow manages to cope with grace and dignity, no matter how trying the circumstances.

Headmistress Theodora Appiah, keeping her cool (and demonstrating “leadership under pressure” beautifully!), continued stoically working from her makeshift “office” in one of the classrooms, trying her best to keep some semblance of order and hospitality for her foreign guests.

The "ever-cheerful-no-matter-what" Madame Theodora Appiah, Headmistress of AGSHS. Her motto is: "I would rather try and fail, then not try at all." An example of leadership right there in front of her students.

Teacher Jerry Kwofie managed to pull together the rather frazzled students, who, of course, having just arrived on campus hours before after a month’s vacation, had no idea that they were going to be the first-ever participants in Leadership Training in the entire Nzema East District!

And yes! We DID manage to conduct three wonderful workshops in Axim, and another in Cape Coast, with about 100 students total, mostly in groups of around 25.

One of the groups received six hours of class time. Others had four or five hours, and one group had two hours. Not quite as planned; however, we felt that all the groups appreciated the information and learned something from the presentations.

Leadership Workshop participants at the Axim Girls Senior High School

Louise led the discussions, as Susan chimed in and Alexis wrote information on the board and provided real life examples. 

We started out asking students to name good leaders. They named political figures, local headmistresses, and their local tribal chief. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, was on every list. These leaders all had positions of power. We asked students to list what things made these people “good” leaders and they came up with lists of characteristics befitting these famous leaders.

Louise working with AGSHS girls in a small group

We then asked them to list people in their lives who had influenced and helped them. Parents, siblings, and friends made this list, and these were people without fame or titles who were able to influence others. 

We pointed out that each student there was a leader because they could use their “leadership” qualities to have influence over themselves and others. We asked them to look at the list of good qualities and think of which qualities they now had and which they would like to get. Alexis said that she was very shy and it was hard to speak in front of a group, so she was using these classes to work on confidence. The students were very impressed with her honesty.

We divided the students into small groups, gave each group a different situation, and asked the groups to report out on what they would do in this situation. For example, one group had to decide what, as leaders, they would do if “You see a friend of yours stealing a computer from the school computer lab.” Another group was challenged with “A younger girl you know starts going home with an older man.” The students really worked on these situations and gave great reports.

Susan Hirst working with students at AGSHS

As we worked through the program, Louise introduced the themes of trust, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence, using words and examples that the students could understand. These were presented as leadership skills that provide the foundation for creating good relationships and making good choices, for themselves and others.

Group work followed and the students were again given a variety of situations which related to their larger community: “An oil company opens an office in town. They bring workers from their country. You ask why they don’t hire local people. You are told the local people are not adequately educated and are not reliable or prompt. What would you as a leader do?”

And: “Women cut up fish on the beach. The beach is dirty and some people get sick from the fish. You ask why the beach has to be dirty. People say there is nowhere else to go to the toilet. What would you as a leader do?” Again the students really worked together and gave great reports about how they would deal with these problems as leaders in the community.

AGSHS students. These young woman are probably among the first in their families, and in fact in Ghana itself, to attain a senior high school education. Ghana generally, and Axim specifically, especially through the leadership of Chief Awulae Attibrukusi, has put major emphasis on "girl education." One of the Chief's common sayings is, "Educate a woman. Educate a family."

At the end of each class, students were encouraged to review and affirm their learning by saying together, “I am a leader, I am a leader of myself, I am a leader of others, I am a good leader…..” adding more qualities and ending with “I am a leader!” There was wonderful energy as the students left the room and then waited outside to take pictures of us, and especially of themselves with Alexis.

Lexy Coats assisting her Grandmother Louise by capturing concepts on the board. The students had personal notebooks in which to capture the concepts for themselves. Lexy had the opportunity to make friends among her peers in Ghana---we wish every American teenager could have such an experience!

Adults sat in on some of the courses, helping us communicate well with the students and providing us perspective on how they might be receiving the learning. One adult suggested that we include religion more clearly in the curriculum, noting that prayer is used more than choice when making good decisions. Another said the group exercises were very powerful, enabling students to apply what they had learned. Another, James Kainyiah, told the group that they were very fortunate to have had this leadership learning so early in their lives, and that he wishes he had had this advantage. We felt we had given them some very useful information and, as usual, learned even more from them.

We are working on getting feedback from the students (and adults). These types of class activities---using groups, personal stories, open-ended real-life situations, open discussion, role-playing---are new to them. We’d not only like to know how the classes affected the students, but how they can help us improve! After all, the Municipal Chief Executive (Mayor) of Axim has requested the workshop for his staff! Who knows…???

The Workshop leaders with some of the AGSHS workshop participants. 

The Leadership Class at the Community Vocational Institute. This class included  young men learning such trades as electrician and auto mechanics. 

Maryanne’s role was basically logistical---seeing to introductions, lodging, meals, taxis, classroom space, etc.  She also reviewed a number of Ghana Together projects, including checking up on students on scholarship with Ghana Together, working with the library, computer and science lab people, including delivering a complete half-size human skeleton, visiting old friends in the community and, we understand, giving a very graphic demonstration on how to use the new toilet that had been installed.

A half-size human skeleton (plastic) given to the AGSHS Science Lab, courtesy of the one and only Jerome Chandler, and somehow carried all the way to Africa by Maryanne. And thank you Ghana Customs for having the sense not to look too closely! And there we are...what we do for science!!

We are grateful to have had this opportunity. We thank our Ghanaian hosts for their welcome, and for encouraging their students to participate wholeheartedly. We hope the Workshop made a positive impact on their lives. 

Thank you!

For more information, go to http://ghanatogether.org

To contact us, email info@ghanatogether.org

We are a US-based 501(c3) nonprofit, Fed EIN 26-2182965

We appreciate donations of any size, by check or by PayPal link from our website

Thank you Katie Henderson (and Dad Jeff)

We thank Katie Henderson and her father, Jeff Henderson, of Columbus, Ohio for giving the students at Axim Girls Senior High School (AGSHS) and also children at the Axim Public Library a HUGE BOOST in their Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) and computing skills.

Katie, a student at Columbus School for Girls, is an expert in IIAB, One Laptop per Child computers, and Scratch, a beginning computer programming language that students use to create animated stories, games, interactive art, and simulations.

Katie took her skills and her Dad to Axim this July, and went to work.

From left to right: Jerry Kwofie, ICT teacher at AGSHS; Headmistress Theodora Appiah; Katie Henderson; Jeff Henderson

Katie held workshops at AGSHS in beginning computer coding/programming skills, and also worked with the many resources on the IIAB.

Katie working with senior high school girls at Axim Girls Senior High School

Adam Holt of Unleash Kids coached her mightily across the Atlantic via text, email, voice, WhatsApp, and who knows what else? You remember Adam…we wrote about this wonderful guy installing and training Internet-in-a-Box at Axim Girls Senior High School back in March 2015 (http://ghanatogether.blogspot.com/2015/03/internet-in-box.html).

Not wanting to waste any of Katie and Jeff's skills, Ghana Together found funds to buy another server and other apparatus to set up a second IIAB at the Axim Public Library (thank you, thank you…generous friends).

So, Katie not only held workshops at AGSHS in beginning computer coding and IIAB skills. She also set up the second IIAB at the Axim Public Library, and held about a week of workshops. She worked with the children on Wikipedia, especially, using the 30 or so OLPC XO computers in the Children’s Computing Lab we helped set up in … was it two years ago? (So much happening, we can’t keep track.)

Katie working at the Children's Computing Lab/Axim Public Library on the One Laptop per Child XO laptops, teaching them how to use them to access the IIAB and to work with the many learning activities built into these computers

First let's get the basics under our belts!!

Katie was assisted big-time by Jerry Kwofie, ICT teacher at AGSHS, and Evans Arloo, Operations Manager for Western Heritage Home, our NGO partner in Axim. During the Axim Library installations and workshops, Gaddiel Eyison and James Amrado, staff members, helped out and were themselves trained. AGSHS Headmistress Theodora Appiah and Regional Library Director Mercy Ackah were supportive at every turn.

The on-the-ground team: Katie, Jerry Kwofie, Evans Arloo, James Amrado, and Gaddiel Eyison

And of course, Dad Jeff discovered perhaps somewhat rusty skills as he helped to get all the components working! Thanks, Jeff, for making this all happen.

"I just KNOW we can make this work!!!"

Katie summarized her achievements in an email to Ghana Together:

My experience in Axim was a wonderful one. With great support from Jerry and Arloo (and Adam and team back in North America), we have accomplished a great deal, including:

• Internet-in-a-Box system is installed and fully operational at the Axim Library site
  
  
• 30+ XO-1 laptops have been updated with the latest firmware and software
  
  
• 12 desktop PCs now have new wireless capability at AGSHS, allowing them to connect to the IIAB system in the computer lab
  
  
• 24 fourth and fifth grade students have had a week of training on the use of the IIAB, particularly Wikipedia 
  
  
• 22 high school students at AGSHS have had a week of training on the various tools within IIAB, including Wikipedia, RACHEL, Power Typing, Open Street Maps, and others.

Ghana Together loved facilitating this visit! On behalf of Ghana Together, Western Heritage Home, Axim Girls Senior High School, and Axim Public Library we can only say THANK YOU to the Henderson duo and also to Unleash Kids!

Katie created a fascinating blog for friends and family documenting her experience...neat to hear from her first-hand:

http://technologyforghana.weebly.com/

Prior News Updates: http://ghanatogether.blogspot.com

Our website is: http://ghanatogether.org

Contact us: info@ghanatogether.org

We are a 501c3 non-profit, Fed ID: 26-2182965

UDDT Project Update – Methodist Government School

 

We are delighted to report that the urine diversification/dehydration toilet (UDDT) project at Methodist-Government school is moving right along. The contractor, Mr. Emmanuel Appiah, sends photos every few days via the miracle of "Whatsapp!"

 

Thanks to the Engineers Without Borders team that trained Mr. Appiah’s crew in 2014 on the first UDDT project, the Ghanaians now know how to construct this type of toilet.

Students helping carry materials to the building site

In keeping with their traditional way of handling this, they are building urinals on each end---one for boys and one for girls. Above, you see the girls' urinal, with a separate, semi-private compartment on the right for handling their menstrual needs. A container capturing rain water will also be installed in that compartment, so girls can rinse out their "cloths", wash their hands, etc. The center section (colored bricks) is private "stalls"---each one can handle both urine and feces and provides privacy..
 

 We have been forwarding Mr. Appiah’s photos to the EWB leadership in Bellingham, WA who have helped out by noticing some details that needed to be remedied. Thanks!

This is international teamwork at the local level! For those of us of a certain age, we can only say “Who would have thought?”

Workmen installing the "doors" to the feces compartments. Each "stall" has two such "cisterns", as  the compartments are called. The students use one cistern for an entire year. Then it is capped and the other cistern is used. After another year, the first cistern is simply shoveled out, and the dried feces is hauled away as fertilizer (probably to a nearby rubber plantation). EWB-Bellingham is developing an easy way to test feces toxicity, to ensure safe handling.

While these are sanitation projects, they also are science education projects.

 

Students are gaining a better understanding of their own bodies and how they work. They are understanding the chemistry of urine, the toxicity of feces, and how to handle both in healthful ways.

 

They are learning how human waste can provide precious fertilizer to crops, if handled properly. Girls can handle their menstrual periods at school, without having to miss precious days, through the special accommodation built into the girls’ urinal.

This photo shows the inside arrangement. Students plant their feet on the "foot blocks." One hole will be capped and not used while the other will be used for an entire year. Feces goes down the hole....urine goes forward into the small hole in the center of the basin. The "urine hole" is connected to a pipe, and the urine is diverted to the planted area behind the toilet.

Toilet tissue, newsprint, leaves, menstrual pads, cloth, etc. can go into the feces hole. Anything of plastic cannot. We teach the students to remember that our bodies separate our waste, automatically, and with this type of toilet, we just continue what our bodies already do!

With this second toilet project, about 1000 more children and their teachers are learning about this advanced, low-impact, no-water-no-electricity toilet design.

 

PVC pipe provides ventilation. One of the big advantages of this toilet design is the lack of odor often found in the more common pit toilets. This is especially a problem when one is only 4 degrees from the equator!! The plants shown will be supplemented by many others---avocados, fruit trees, tomatoes, etc. The urine drains through pipes with holes to fertilize the "garden" behind the toilet.

Pipes will be added to the roof to collect rain water, which flows into secure hand-washing containers.

Maybe a bit more than you wanted to know!!

Of course, other schools in Axim are finding out about these toilets and they want one, too. Mr. Appiah has offered to donate his own labor costs completely, and his workers have agreed to donate some of their labor, too, for any additional UDDTs. They want to help their community.

With Mr. Appiah’s generous offer, each UDDT costs about $12,000-$15,000, depending on the exchange rate, terrain, etc. (about a $5000 discount over the original quote). (Note: per James Kainyiah, who does construction himself and is Chair of WHH, our partner organization, this is an honest contractor with honest quote).

So, hey, if you would like a toilet of your very own, you know who to call! We could name it after you. We know an artist in Axim who we are sure can make a truly beautiful plaque… J

Seriously, we have a dream where no one has to use the bush!

 

Go to our blog for previous news updates: http://ghanatogether.blogspot.com/
Go to our website: http://ghanatogether.org
Contact us: info@ghanatogether.org
We are a registered 501c3 nonprofit: IRS ID 26-2182965

 

 

Another UDDT Toilet Going Up in Axim, Ghana! Thank you Axim Youth Alliance!!

You all remember the famous toilet that the Pacific Northwest Engineers Without Borders Chapter (based in Bellingham, WA) built in Axim at a Junior High, in coordination with Western Heritage Home (our Axim-based partner NGO there) with a little facilitating from Ghana Together. It was dedicated and open for use in Feb 2014.

Engineers Without Border UDDT Toilet Built at an Axim Junior High School

We visited this new design urine diversification/dehydration toilet in Feb. 2015—literally. Maryanne can vouch for the fact that IT WORKS, even for senior American females!! She was skeptical, but Colleen Mitchell, EWB engineer extraordinaire, kept reassuring her…

Anyway, Axim is the kind of place where word gets around, and Headmistress Esther Abbey is the kind of woman who goes after new good things for “her students." So, she requested Western Heritage Home to replace the “old” toilet at her Methodist “Government” Primary/JHS school, with nearly 1000 students.
 

Headmistress Esther Abbey, with two of the Axim Library Staff. Her school was also one of the first to adopt the Axim Public Library's Mobile Library to Schools service

 

"Old Toilet"---VERY, VERY Old!!
 

We of Ghana Together loved the idea of building another UDDT, having seen for ourselves how much of an improvement the first one has been for the students (and teachers).

This low impact---no electricity/no water---design is so much better than the old “ventilated pit” type commonly built there. We want the knowledge of this worldwide engineering effort to be spread. What better way than to get another 1000 kids familiar with the concept??

So, we informed James Kainyiah, the WHH Chair, that somehow we’d find the funds, but we requested that the folks there provide volunteer help as possible, keeping in mind that few people there actually have tools like sledgehammers, wheelbarrows, work gloves, saws, hammers, etc. And with the power out a lot, most days are just twelve hours of daylight to do everything, but still…

Indomitable James engaged the help of the AXIM YOUTH ALLIANCE (AYA).

Just this past Saturday (May 23) members of the AYA managed to tear down the old toilet. Wow!!!

 

Somehow these guys found a truck...and got to work!

 

What shall we do with all this concrete?
 

Haul it into town...

 

...and use it to fill potholes!!

Founded in Sept, 2014, this organization of the under-35 age group in Axim has as its mission to work towards the advancement of Axim and its environs in terms of infrastructure, capacity building, and human resource.

We don’t know much about them at this point, but we are very grateful for their efforts.

And we think it’s REALLY great that such a group has formed!! Possibilities here…

Now the new building can commence in the next few weeks. We asked about what the kids are supposed to do with no toilet for perhaps the rest of this term, but we were told that they were not using the old toilet anyway, but were opting for the bush…

Stay tuned...

And if you’d like to help top off the toilet fund…we are:
 

Ghana Together (http://ghanatogether.org)

808 Addison Place, Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Email: info@ghanatogether.org

Please, Books with More Words, Mum...

Our readers know we’ve been focusing on the Public Library (APL) in Axim, Ghana, for some time now---since Feb 2010, in fact, when Maryanne Ward and Regina Lawler---personal friends, intrepid travelers, professional librarians, and Ghana Together volunteers---noticed a distinct lack of children’s books in the APL.

We met with Library Director Mercy Ackah and Western Heritage Home Chair James Kainyiah, who asked for help with the APL children's program. They set up a children's room with help from us and the District Assembly.  But, we needed BOOKS---lots of books!

By 2012 we had a network of dedicated people in place and were shipping children’s books.

By 2014, we had hundreds (thousands?) of books, but the motorcycle they were using to deliver to a few very nearby schools had failed beyond repair. More schools were asking for help. So Western Heritage Home and Ghana Together decided to buy a motor tricycle and outfit it as a mobile library. It was dedicated fall of 2014.



Mobile Library Ready to Launch!!

 

By Jan 2015, the APL was ready to launch a Mobile Library Service to schools.

Maryanne Ward visited in Jan-Feb 2015 and got a first-hand project update.

Library staffers Gaddiel Eyison (right) and James Amrado pack up boxes of books to deliver to schools, via the Mobile Library

 

The Mobile Library visits seven government primary schools in Axim: Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Beamish, Akyinim, Apewosika, and AhleSunna. (Yes, we know it's a bit confusing to Americans. The schools with religious names were founded by Christian missionaries or local Muslims in the early to mid-20th century, and although they are now "government" (public) schools, they retain their original names.)

The Mobile Library also serves five private schools: Morning Star, Augustino, Manye, SADA, and CTK.

When the Mobile Library arrives at a school, the Headmaster/Mistress commandeers some strong JHS students to help carry in the boxes

 

Students pay one Ghana cedi to register for one year (about 30 cents). This is affordable by all, although we’ve let the library staff know if even this is too much for a specific family, we will help.

Students giving their one-cedi bills to Mr. Eyison to register as library members for one year

 

The registration fee helps the library pay for the cards, envelopes,  pens, glue markers, and other supplies.

Students who are registered check out one book per Mobile Library visit. Students are allowed to swap books with other students who are registered (a little pressure here!).

By end of Feb 2015, 2,465 students had registered!!

 

Students gather round to select their book for the week---big decision!!
 

Library members are instructed to “take your book to the house and read it to your mother.” In this way, Moms not only can proudly see their child’s reading ability, but also may learn a little literacy themselves and be able to help younger children not yet in school.

What could be better than this???!!!
 

So far, we have focused on the lower primary grades through about 4^th grade, with “easy readers.” Remember, schools have no or very limited libraries. Kids mostly only read what their teacher writes on the board and what they copy into their notebooks.

Girls read...

 



Boys read too...



 

But Maryanne heard over and over from students that they want “books with more words.” The older children have pretty good reading skills now, and they want something besides “Picture Books.”

SO, DEAR READER…

If you have children/youth books around, you know who to contact!

The guidelines?

 

If you would buy the book today for your child or grandchild, you hit the jackpot! It’s good to go! Think ANY good children's books, but especially story books or children's non-fiction.

Please---no

...textbooks, computer books, old encyclopedias, overtly culturally “American”---zombies, religious tracts, American holidays, cookbooks, Disney, Superman, American literary “classics” (Emerson, Hawthorne, Mark Twain…)---you get the idea! Nothing but the BEST for our kids in Axim!! Fiction or non-fiction, both OK.

HEARTFELT THANKS TO...

--Book donors---every one of you!!

--Ebeneezer Mienza who lives in Maryland, receives our US Postal mailed books, knows a shipper...

--Shipper, whoever you are...

--Ghanaians George Hayford and Ismael Baidoo who live in Accra and go to the port at Tema to pick up the books and drive them in their van to their own hometown, Axim...

--Ghana Library Authority Regional Director Mercy Ackah who launched the project in Axim in 2010 and continues to lead the effort...

--Gaddiel Eyison, James Amrado, and National Service worker Frederick Aman who staff the library, ride the motor tricycle, do all the hard work of packing and unpacking and checking in and checking out...

--Axim Municipal Assembly for fuel for the motor tricycle...

--James Kainyiah and Western Heritage Home for having the Mobile Library idea in the first place and staying on top of everything month by month...

--All the headmistresses/masters and teachers who make it work at the schools!

And, if you are reading this and have connections with other Ghanaian Nzema East/Western Region towns that have libraries, you know who to contact for some ideas on how you can replicate this model. They are asking for some help, but we can’t really expand to their areas.

 

To contact us: info@ghanatogether.org

For more info: http://ghanatogther.org

INTERNET-IN-A-BOX AT ALL-GIRLS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN AXIM, GHANA

As of 2014, The Axim Girls Senior High School (AGSHS) has computers---lots of computers---thanks to the Ghana Education Service! AND, they have an ICT (information/computer technology) lab! This is no small miracle and is testimony to Ghana’s commitment to education, especially girls’ education.

BUT, in spite of all that, Axim is still woefully short on internet access, especially to an entire high school computer lab. And now they have all these nice shiny new desktops and laptops with wireless capability. What to do??

Enter Adam Holt and the computer wizards of Unleash Kids (http://www.unleashkids.org/). They knew about Ghana Together, because in their earlier days they were the folks who helped create the One Laptop Per Child XO computers. We have a nice XO collection in the Children’s Lab in Axim, right next the Public Library.

Adam asked if we’d like them to set up the first “Internet-In-A-Box” in Ghana! Well, YES, we certainly would!

And so, we learned that IIAB is a very small “server”, about 6” square, which contains:   

--all of Wikipedia through 2013, plus simpler versions in English, French, Arabic, and Swahili

--hundreds of Khan Academy math and science videos

--dictionaries, maps, books, medical info

--and much more…  

How could so much fit into such a small box??? (We read recently that Wikipedia, printed out, would take at least 1000 volumes!)

Adam's team took over Maryanne's internet connection for about twelve hours and "loaded" the server from Toronto...
 

See the little square silver-colored "box" on the small table? That's it!! Impossibly small.

 

We contacted James Kainyiah, our Western Heritage Home associate and, conveniently (!), current Chair of the AAGHS Board, and also Headmistress Stella Adjei, who has been transferred.  They were enthusiastic, and current Headmistress Theodora Appiah was no less so.

They connected us with Jerry Kwofie, ICT teacher, who gave us enough technical information about computers and had the technical savvy to give us confidence to go forward.

So Adam and Maryanne Ward were off to Ghana with about 35 lbs. of cables and connectors and lots of other “stuff”. With the help of our wonderful friends George Hayford and Ishmael Baidoo in Accra, found the right solar panels and a 12-volt battery. In Axim, we found the all-important soldering iron.
 

Ishmael Baidoo, George Hayford, and Adam Holt, at an electronics store in Accra, Ghana

And so, with about $2000 worth of equipment, we were ALL SET!



Maryanne with about 35 lbs of components
 

At the AGSHS, with the total support of Western Heritage Home leaders, and wonderful help of Headmistress Appiah, Jerry Kwofie, Eric Jim (science teacher), and Evans Arloo (WHH Operations Mgr), plus the other teachers and the students themselves, somehow we got it all to work!!



The President of the Nzema Youth Association (left), James Kainyiah, and Headmistress Theodora Appiah discussing the IIAB project
 

We used solar power technology as part of the girls’ science training. They can see, on the computers, a screen that graphs the solar power.

They helped set it up and have at least a rudimentary understanding of how it works. Because of the frequent power outages from the grid, we had to have solar power to make it work.



Eric Jim (science), Evans Arloo (WHH Operations Mgr), Adam Holt, Jerry Kwofie (computer teacher) and Maryanne Ward with the solar panels

 

The science class sets up the panels

 

Adam helps them verify that the panels are working!

 

Another class checks...YES, WE DID IT!!!

 

Thanks to the Vodafone staff in Axim who helped set up a minimal internet connection to one computer (plus the amazing skills of Adam and Jerry), we were able to connect with Unleash Kids experts Tim and George. From the East Coast of the United States, these two guys could “see” (literally with Skype) what was going on at the AGSHS and give technical support at every juncture.

 

 

Teachers were trained

Over two weeks, we tried to train every teacher and all 120 students. The girls were amazed to read about the history of Axim! One girl learned what menstruation really is. The literature teacher found the biographies of the African authors she was teaching. The Social Studies teacher had a class on “gender” the very next day, and got more information than she knew what to do with. One girl looked up her friend’s town on the map application....just a few examples...

The computers access the Internet-In-A-Box in much the same way that they access the actual internet---wirelessly, and with protocols common to typical internet use. This is an educational project, for study, and research. One interesting feature is the ability of teachers to post their handouts on the server.

 

Teacher Jerry Kwofie and Adam train the students

The school staff will move the ICT lab with the IIAB into the new two-story classroom building probably in mid-April. They will mount the solar panels on the south side of the roof, where the sun shines the most and where they'll be the safest.
 

New classroom building thanks to the efforts of Chief Awulae Attibrukusu III and the Ghana National Petroleum Council

Adam and his team will continue to give technical support, from the US via a real internet connection on one of the computers, if needed. Ghana Together will stay in contact with Headmistress Appiah and others.

It will take time for this resource to be fully integrated into the school's normal operations, both for teachers and for students. It’s hard to imagine the vast amount of information in this little box.

In 2003, a survey found that only about 7% of women in Nzema East District had a senior high school education. The Axim community founded the AGSHS as a direct response. Started in 2007, the school now has 120 students and is growing rapidly with girls attending from various parts of the country.

This is our 4^th project at the school in the past few years. At their request, we provided about 50 scientific non-graphing calculators (we always need more!). We installed a hands-on science room. This year we renovated and furnished a run-down building on campus that is now an assembly/dining/study hall.

And no, Ghanaians don't speak Swahili, but since it was the ONLY African language offered, we took it just for fun!!!

We can’t think of a better investment! We give all our thanks to all you “investors”, both here in the US and in Ghana. Good work!

 

For more info and prior News Updates, see http://ghanatogether.org

Contact us at info@ghanatogether.org