The Soroano Book Drop

Book Boxes, a project that GHEI staff have been planning for months and dreaming about for years, finally became a reality on Monday in Soroano. Every last detail of the event was planned out, and somehow it went perfectly. As promised a few weeks ago, here’s what went down.

Parade of the Boxes

GHEI staff met early in Soroano, picked up our newly made boxes from a local carpenter, locked the new books inside and carried them to Soroano DA Primary School. The boxes were stacked in a nice pyramid, a white sheet was placed over them and teachers lined their students up to begin the presentation ceremony.

Once everybody was ready, GHEI staff went first, and then the chief, head teacher and an elder took turns speaking to Soroano’s schoolchildren on the great value of books.

It was an impressive sight; topped only by how excited about book boxes the Soroano community really is. Hearing their leaders’ statements and speaking with teachers, PTA members and others, you get the feeling that everybody truly believes this project will make a great positive impact.

Soroano Chief Speaking to Students

GHEI Staff, Soroano Chief, Elders and Teachers with the Book Boxes

Primary 1 and Primary 2 Students

After the ceremony, it was time to bring each classroom their box and explain how to use them. To go with each of the six primary classes, GHEI staff split into groups of two to hang posters in classrooms, go over the sign out sheet, unlock the boxes and start reading.

"Readers are Leaders"

Once the boxes were opened, everybody was reading. Students took breaks only to whisper to each other about their books.



One of these  photos is the contents of the store closet for the Primary 2 classroom. The second is the Primary 2 Book Box which was added to that closet yesterday. While students in Soroano have a school to go to every day, resources are scarce.

Ghana is one of less than a handful of African nations which has achieved universal primary education. The challenge for Ghana now has turned to quality. Even if children are going to school- it is possible that they are not learning anything. While the situation here is probably not that bleak, educational quality still needs to be addressed. With the new Junior African Writers Series books, our hope is that the creation of a rich-text environment will improve schools and make an actual impact in Soroano’s children’s education.

It was absolutely amazing seeing a school full of students immersed in books, with their whole community behind them. While this is just a pilot program that has not been evaluated yet, there is no question that Soroano’s students will benefit from these books.

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As always with our outreaches, don’t forget to check our Facebook where more photos will be posted soon!

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A New Look for SSL

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” –Benjamin Franklin 

Sitting at Sister Comfort’s, our two literacy volunteers did not know exactly where the quote came from, but they could both recite it verbatim. While the Malaria Prevention and Girls' Empowerment sessions remain untouched, the GHEI Summer Serve and Learn (SSL) program has undergone a partial restructuring this summer. Our SSL volunteers have always been deeply involved and appreciated for their work with GHEI and in the community. We are now simply asking the question of how to further extend this for volunteers. How can we best use their skills and expertise so that everybody gains the most from working together?

Photo by John Schaidler

Our newest volunteer, Dan Doverspike, explained the question perfectly. “How can one make a lasting impact from a two-week internship? How can one truly contribute?” As a Library Intern focused mainly on overseeing the upcoming 2nd Annual Quiz Competition, Dan is joining our Soroano Book Box aficionado, John to round out the first session of SSL. Both Dan and John bring their experience as teachers, book lovers and experts in the field to the specific project they are each focused on.

Even with just two volunteers, the children know to come by all the time and these guys are constantly reading, playing football and engaging them with other fun games. Volunteer season is upon us in Humjibre. 

Last year, the community-wide 1st Annual Quiz Competition was a major hit. This year, GHEI hopes to build on that success by doing away with the Read-a-Thon to allow students and teachers to focus their efforts on the Quiz Competition’s assigned texts. Depending on their grade-level, classes are either assigned Keith Whiteley’s Kagiso’s Mad Uncle, Revenge of the Gods by Richard Moverley or Azasu Son of the Hunter by Nico Kofi Adiku. Each of these books has been hand-picked by GHEI staff to be at the appropriate reading level, culturally relevant, and interesting to the students. Copies of the books were dispersed to classrooms, with extras available for the most determined competitors at the GHEI library, and students are now busy preparing for the Quiz Competition next Friday.

Photo by John Schaidler

As part of his role in overseeing the coordination of this event, Dan has been diligently crafting the all-important quiz questions. Beyond their specific projects, he and John spend time learning about education in Ghana and helping out with the Humjbre Community Library and GHEI’s Reading Club and YEP English classes. In conversations with Ghanaian teachers, they point out that no country has a perfect system and everybody still has a lot to learn. Working with educators here, both sides can find ways to make improvements in their classrooms.

No matter how small, these improvements will have a lasting impact. 

To see more pictures from this year’s SSL Literacy Projects, be sure to check our Facebook where they will be posted in the next few days!

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Thank You from an SHS Mom

Toward the end of our weekly education staff meeting, a woman walked into the classroom, introduced herself and said that she wanted to tell us something. She was a little nervous about speaking to the group, but sure of what she had to say. Her feet were firmly planted, arms were tight at her sides and she held her head high.

Her daughter had received a scholarship for senior high school from GHEI about four years ago. She recently graduated, and now her mother was here to show her gratitude.

After her statement, the woman relaxed. She was proud of her daughter, and excited to be in the room with all of us. Warmth radiated from her face as she personally thanked each one of us and shook our hands.

In this woman’s eyes we were miracle workers. We were actually just the education staff and volunteer teachers finishing up a sometimes boring meeting. GHEI is proud to organize our SHS Scholarship Program, but the thanks ought to go to our donors who fund 100% of it. And the woman’s daughter should be congratulated. She worked hard, studied every day and graduated. We just put our trust in her.

As a whole, our scholarship recipients are enormously successful. The program boasts a 98% retention rate and several former scholarship recipients have continued their studies at the tertiary level. There are currently 13 students participating in the program and in total 72 scholarships have been awarded to deserving students in the Humjibre area since the program’s inception in 2005. While GHEI works to help as many students as we can, each year there are many more who unfortunately do not go on to senior high school due to a lack of available funds.

Mother (front right) with the full GHEI Education Staff

The woman’s statement illustrated the powerful effect that these scholarships and GHEI’s work can have. It’s amazing thinking about what unknown impact that extra push may have on our students, their families and the community as a whole.

The Soroano chief last week talked about how he dreamed his children could be more educated than he was. For this woman, those dreams had come true.

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Introducing the Soroano Book Box Project

GHEI is proud to announce that the Soroano Book Box Project is officially in motion! Headed by Summer Serve and Learn 2012 Alumni John Schaidler, this unique pilot program is designed to improve literacy in the GHEI community by targeting young readers.

Yesterday John, Happy and Shantie traveled to Soroano to propose the idea to the Chief. Moving past the regular proceedings, John and Happy explained the plan: conduct an outreach program and then donate a set of carefully chosen books to each primary school classroom. Making culturally-appropriate, high-interest books available will improve students’ reading abilities by keeping them engaged in the material. Once students learn to read, they can read to learn and continue to expand their education.

 The Chief was immediately receptive. “You see for education, I take it as very important in my life. Though I could not go as far as I wanted, I want my children to go even further than is necessary. Without education, no country and no village would be able to develop. With education, you see that the town develops rapidly; so I am very interested.” In Returns to Investment in Education: A Global Update, George Psacharopoulus of the World Bank concludes that primary schooling remains “the number one priority.” For each additional year of schooling in developing countries, a student’s lifetime earnings are increased by 12.4% for girls and 11.1% for boys (Psacharopoulos, 1994).

With the Chief’s blessing, we made our way to Soroano’s schools to discuss the project with their teachers. The team explained that the donation would be comprised of all new books- mostly Junior African Writers Series and some useful textbooks. Passing around a few example JAWS books, one teacher admitted that he was so engrossed he had to read the whole thing through.

Soroano Head Teacher and Primary Teachers, John, Soroano Cheif and Elders, Shantie and Happy

JAWS books are unlike many of books that make their way to libraries in rural African villages. Children see themselves in JAWS characters, and can relate to them, their settings and their experiences. There is plenty of research showing that if children can imagine themselves in a book, they are going to spend more time reading it. So, if you want to teach a child to read for pleasure and instill the value of reading, that child needs a book that they can relate to. As John explained afterwards, “If you’re sitting here in Humjibre and everybody is White and drinking tea and playing croquet and doing things that have nothing to do with your life- of course you’re going to feel not engaged and not pay that much attention to that book.” These JAWS books however, will be cherished.

Sorting Some of the Books for Donation

This isn’t a concept that is new to John. You may recall his guest blog “They Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham” about his failed attempt to introduce Dr. Seuss to Humjibre children last summer.

This time around will be a “step forward.” The Book Box Project was created specifically for the Soroano Community and they are excited about it. At the end of the presentation for Soroano’s schools, the one question the head teacher asked was “So when can we begin?”

“Monday.” The pilot will begin with a baseline survey to assess students’ current literacy levels and an outreach program using songs and other activities to teach them about proper ways to use and care for books. Once this has been completed, the book boxes will formally be presented to classrooms and the evaluation phase of the project will begin.

Be sure to check back in a few weeks to see the presentation ceremony!

Sources:

Psacharopoulos, G. (1994). Returns to Investment in Education: A Global Update. World Development, 22(9), 1325-1343. Retrieved June 7, 2013, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1222150.files/Session%207/PsacharopoulosGlobalUpdate.pdf

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