Empower 100 students with vital IT skills in Ghana

2021 began on a good note for Grow Ghana. We continued with the construction of the I.T. Lab in our partner school in Langma. The floor of the I.T. Lab was filled with concrete, the windows and doors were fitted. The I.T. Lab is also connected to the national power grid giving us access to electricity. All these happened within the second week of January to the second week of February and were only possible trough various donations that reached us through GlobalGiving. What a boost! The lab is still "work on progress" but can already be used in an improvised way to provide trainings. 

During this same time, we embarked on a nose mask and soap distribution campaign to sensitize the community about the preventative measures against the COVID-19 disease. The reaction from the community was positive and our relationship with the community strengthened. We look forward to more community engagement and collaboration to increase the numbers of learners. 

Regarding the number of students enrolled on our program, 25 students have ended their learning journey with us as they passed the basic exam certification in their school and are now spread across various senior high schools in the country. However, we were able to use the new lab space as leverage in attracting more students to join our program even though the I.T. Lab is semi-finshed. Currently, we have 40 new students enrolled on our program. This brings our total number of students to 75 and we are getting closer to the magic 100!

Going forward, the I.T. Lab has to be equipped with the Raspberry Pi devices and other peripherals (keyboard, mouse, HDMI cables, displays, headphones), and furniture. This allows the students to practice their IT skills on a daily basis, rather than bi-weekly as is currently done. In addition, we are looking to expand our trainings to other schools within the community. Plans are at an elementary stage yet we are hopeful of implementing our expansion projects soon.

A warm thank you for your continuous support to all our donors and supporters. You make our world! 
Ezra, Gifty, Sharon, Jennifer and Benjamin 

Last year we set our aim to empower one hundred (100) young students in the local community of having a practical use of the ICT and Soft Skills training and we are thriving to go beyond that. We have achieved 50% so far and still counting. The tangible result of the fast progress of our students is indeed fulfilling.

Due to the interest and the commitment of our student motivate us to commenced training sessions in the third week of July even when all schools were closed. To ensure the safety of our students and trainers, nose masks were distributed to everyone. Also, soaps and running water were made available for use – as required by the government. The students and trainers adhered strictly to staying 2metres apart from each other. To ensure variety, we held training sessions under various themes such open air coding, coding at the beach and student-led coding sessions.

For a two-month duration, we held training sessions four (4) days a week while Fridays were reserved for working on individual projects. The students conducted a research and work on a project of their choosing. Then, a presentation was organized with invited guests for the students to showcase their projects. Some projects that the students worked on include the PenaltyShot game, Robot Invaders, sand a car race game. Certificates of participation were awarded to all student participants.

We also participated in the GlobalGiving Photo Contest 2020. We finished in the 20^th position at the close of polls with our "coding at the beach theme". We, however, won a $200.00 cash price as our photo was adjudged the best in the development category. Thank you for the platform once again and the voters.

 Challenges on students getting easy access to a computer in their classroom

The beginning of this year has not been an easy year for GrowGh Edu Initiative and their students but there has been not much progress on the I.T. Lab building in one of our partner schools yet. This is because of the COVID-19 pandemic which has strained our finances.

Solution to expanding and providing quality IT and Soft-Skills training to our students

Moving forward in increasing our cooperate sponsorship support, partnership and making companies and individuals aware of us, we participated in the recently ended EDUCATA20 Ghana, which was held at the Movenpick Hotel, Accra. The objective was to show the educational community what Grow Ghana can provide to the less privilege community students. This is to help push our initiative forward in terms of financial stability.

Our bi-weekly structure training in the elementary IT skill is still in its fast pace, the usage of internet and basic coding are available for the students in our campus.

Stay with us during these difficult times!

Yours in development work,
The team of Grow Ghana