A new “dream” is about to break ground in Ghana!
And it will be happening in a rural village we know and love – Small London!
Just outside of the suburban area of Ghana's capital city, Accra, along the West African highway is the small farming village of Small London. When we first visited this village in 2010, Small London’s nearest school was over two miles away, and only a portion of the 150 or so school-aged kids in the area were able to attend it, as the journey was difficult, especially during the rainy season when their one dirt road was washed out.
Whenever we visited Small London, throngs of kids would come running over to greet us – just so excited at the prospect of being able to go to school! And in 2012, they were finally able to, as we had built them a six-room elementary school adjacent to their village that could educate 180 to 360 children.
When we visited Small London again in 2016, during our annual in-person check in, we met with teachers and the village chief to get a building update. To our delight, the school was proving to be a success! But this led to a new challenge: they had run out of room. They pleaded with us to build an additional three classrooms to accommodate their booming attendance, and we were able to complete these in early 2017.
It’s been eight years since Small London opened their elementary school, and the children who started then are about to graduate from seventh grade. But this leads to another new challenge: there is no junior high in their village.
These families are facing a tough decision: do they pack up and move, so their child can receive a junior high education, or do they stay put, and their child will only have an elementary one?
The students at Small London are just as enthusiastic about learning today, as they were when we first met them, probably more so. This village is desperate for more classrooms, and the Small London teachers and village chief have asked us if we would consider building them two classrooms to serve their, soon-to-be, junior high students.
And we are so thankful that we could say “yes!” to them. It is because of your faithful support of Framework International, together, we can make this “dream” come true for a village that values an education for their children. And for children, who are so enthusiastic to learn!
These classrooms will be built in three months – circumventing the raining season of June and July. This month the foundation will be laid, and in August the two classrooms will be finished, just in time for the new school year.
And I can only imagine, after the early closing of Ghanaian schools to combat the coronavirus, what kind of off-the-chart enthusiasm these Small London kids are going to have about being back to school!
Yours in empowering Ghana’s youth,
Seth Prickett
Framework Founder and Board Chair