COVID-19 Relief Fund for Families in Ghana

Hello GEC community and happy back to school time!

We hope this update finds you happy and in good health. As promised, we want to share with you (our incredible donors) what our students and families have been up to since our last summer report. Below, you will learn about our student changemaker program and our parent meetings:

GEC September Changemaker Program

Our GEC Change Marker Program allows our GEC scholars to participate in projects and seminars designed to prepare them as change-makers and leaders in their communities. We held the September edition of our changemaker programming on Saturday, 19 September 2021 at the University Staff JH. Our focus was on the UN Sustainable Development Goal-No Poverty. Our students were privileged to have a keynote speaker who works with USAID, as the Science, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Advisor. She is also the founding curator of Afropole.  She was able to explain her own changemaker journey and educate our students on several opportunities that they can do to help them become change-makers. She engaged our GEC scholars on the impact of humanitarian work and emphasized the need for building strong networks, taking risks, being creative, building experiences and a readiness to serve. 

One of our GEC Scholars noted, "I was so inspired by today's event, I've learned the importance of networking and being ready to try new things.”  All participants expressed their excitement and stated that they are ready to be change-makers in their world.  We deeply appreciated the time our speaker spent with our students. 

GEC September 2021 Parent Meeting 

The GEC Parent Connect program was introduced because the success of GEC depends immensely on the active support from the parents of our scholars. The vital discussions during each parent meeting have been geared toward the well-being of GEC scholars and how to help bring the best out of them. 

The September edition of our Parent Connect program was anchored by the Program Manager with the support of one of our Matie Masie board members, on the theme, 'How to make your child feel valued'. We dialogued on focusing on who your child is rather than what your child does. The parents discussed that their children are at their best self when they are praised for doing something good and encouraged to try again if they fail at anything. "We should make our children our friends so they can discuss all challenges with us" commented a mother of a student.

The program ended after each parent with a small business venture was assisted to fill out the GEC Parents Microgrant initiative forms- you will be hearing more on this and our intergenerational approach soon, so stay tuned! 

As always we remain humbled and grateful to our GEC students, families, and donors. This work would not be possible without your support!

In community,

The GEC board 

Links:

• Check out our new and improved website

Friends! What a quarter it’s been and we are so thankful for your support. Since you are now a part of our GEC community, we wanted to send you an update on where your contributions have gone and how they made an impact on our students and families. 

Through your generous donations, we were able to deliver another round of disbursements of food, water, and basic supplies to our families. As we mentioned in our last update, due to the difficulties brought upon by the global pandemic this year we had to reassess where our funding was going to best meet the needs of our Ghanaian community.

Our families wanted to say "medaase pa pa pa" (thank you so so so much!)

What have our students been up to?

• Our Secondary School students are currently at home for their first 3 week break of the school year!  They reported good progress thus far and are expecting strong results on their first round of midterm exams. Meanwhile, our Junior Secondary School (middle school) students continue to prepare to transition to Secondary School and are building out their lists of dream Secondary Schools to attend. 
• Our 3 SS students, (the equivalent of American "12th grade” students), are preparing to start their WASSCE exams. These are the exams that will determine the college that they are admitted into. So, please be sure to send good energy their way!! Similarly, 2 of our JSS 3 (American “8th grade”) students are preparing to take the BEC to see what high school they will gain admission into. We can’t wait to see where they end up!!
• Our alumni continue their strong commitment to their varied career trajectories in private industry, continuing education, and some completing their national service placements in Ghana.
• Derrick, our committed “boots on the ground” alumnus & Program Manager, continues to keep a close eye on our scholars’ progress, ensuring they are developing the skills needed for success and have all of the tools needed for ongoing academic excellence in their studies. We are so grateful for him!

Thinking ahead, we are reviewing our current fundraising needs for the rest of 2021:

• Costs of adding a new cohort of GEC Scholars when the next academic year starts in January 2022
• Tutors for JSS Students who have expressed a need
• Ongoing programming and school fees costs for our current GEC Scholars

Keep an eye out for future updates on our university (college) prep and changemaker programs!