School gives girls ambition for a brighter future

The school was set up in 2003 to provide skills to young girls who dropped out of their regular school or could not continue their education due to poverty. Lack of infrastructure and paid teachers had led to a drop in the enrolment numbers.

By July 2008 the school consisted of just 11 students, with two volunteer teachers.

ActionAid gave hope to the community when they supported the Bo Youth Association to revive the Vocational School by constructing a two classroom block with an office. They also provided equipment such as sewing machines, gas cylinders, a stove and cooking utensils to enable the school to run courses in sewing and catering.

During the inauguration of the school, the community lobbied and got the commitment of the Regional Minister, the Member of Parliament for Lawra-Nandom constituency, to support the payment of allowances for the two teachers for at least one year.

Now, with infrastructure and three teachers in place, all with the minimum qualification of a diploma from a polytechnic, school numbers stand at 22, consisting of 20 females and 2 males including a 55year old man.

Paulina Darsah a student at the school, said:

“I have acquired skills in weaving as a result of the equipment provided by ActionAid."

This school has made me abandon the idea of getting married immediately. Having acquired the skills of weaving my expectation is to set up my own weaving business after completing the course in 2012.

“I believe that apart from earning a living from weaving I would also help young girls in my community who are unable to afford formal education to acquire skills in weaving so as to prevent them from early marriage.”

The Bo community is located in the Lawra district of the Upper West Region and the native language of the people is Dagare.

The main occupation of the people is farming .The people of Bo are predominantly Catholic and most of the facilities in the community including the school were provided by Catholic missionaries.

The church plays such a vital role in the life of the people that they usually depend on it to take the lead in almost everything, to the extent that when asked about his age by ActionAid Ghana (AAG) staff, a man responded saying “please go to the church they have information about my date of birth and any other person in Bo”.

The BoYouth Association is now engaging with Ghana Education Service (GES) for the government to absorb the school so that next year additional teachers could be posted to the school and the salaries of the teachers be taken over by the government.

AAG will monitor and lobby to ensure that GES absorbs the school and runs it effectively, making room for other girls from deprived communities in the district to also benefit from the facility.