I’d like to tell you a story about Akosua*.

Akosua, a young mom, lives in Edukuma, a rural farming village in the central region of Ghana and the home of our 2021 Framework project.  

Edukuma is a village in transition. It’s what the locals consider a “drive by,” as it’s a small town off a main road with nothing much going on in it. Cassava, similar to a potato, and maise, which is like corn, are the main crops of this village and families can earn up to $2 a day harvesting them. Because of the village’s proximity to the beach, women will often buy fresh fish and walk these to nearby towns and villages to sell. It’s a hard way of life, always working to just make ends meet.

The youth, once they are done with their free government schooling, don’t often stay. They leave for the bigger cities, to find better paying jobs. But this opportunity isn’t always available for the girls, as Edukuma has a high rate of teenage pregnancy. When a girl gets pregnant she doesn't leave. Her life becomes the village.

This is what happened to Akosua. Without a school in the village, girls, like Akosua, aren’t allowed to travel to neighboring ones to continue their education. They are left at home and, unfortunately, left vulnerable to the advances of men. Akosua is a lovely woman, with a megawatt smile and a can-do attitude. She’s not unhappy. But, she wants different opportunities for daughters. And she wants her village to prosper.

What is one way we can help Akosua provide a hope-filled future for her daughters and for her village? 

Edukuma is in desperate need for a primary school. Let's build them one.

Edukuma’s six-room primary school is crumbling. It was built in the early 90s, out of wood and tin, and is located in a valley between two hills. When it rains, all the rain ends up in the valley, flooding the school. Because of the rain damage over the years, the school is destroyed – wood rot, crumbling foundation and torn roof sheeting.

A Framework built school will help ensure that Edukuma’s children complete primary school and go on to junior high school and beyond! And the residents of Edukuma believe that having a new primary school will encourage its former residents to come back and make Edukuma their home again. The community sees school as a critical step in reshaping a hope-filled future!

Let’s build Edukuma a six-room school that will accommodate up to 350 kids (pre-K through grade 6), with administration, storage rooms and bathrooms. And the cost of this new school build is $60,000 or approximately $200 per student.

Since 2004, we’ve been building schools in Ghana. The Edukuma Primary School will be our 10th school project and the eighth one we’ve partnered with Building for the Future Generation in building. Right now, our school buildings are providing a safe and secure structure for over 2,000 Ghanaian kids in which to learn.

We all want to provide hope and make a difference. Building the village of Edukuma a primary school will do both. And Akosua, she can’t wait for her girls to go to school – in a newly built Framework one.

Yours in empowering Ghana’s youth, 

Seth Prickett

Framework Founder and Board Chair

*While Akosua is fictional, she is based on numerous true stories we have heard across Ghana and is a representation of what a girl in Ekukuma can experience.