GRID and NEA

sustainable development in Ghana

Education

Education Reflects Community Development

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Thanks to funding support from our donors, NEA is able to provide scholarships to students who need financial assistance to attend secondary or postsecondary education. In 2014, we noticed some interesting changes in our scholarship program.

Fewer Secondary School Scholarships

Secondary School scholarship graphic
Secondary School scholarships provided by NEA in 2012 and 2014.

Why is a decline in the number of secondary school scholarships a sign of success? Because the lower numbers reflect a decreasing need for assistance.

As people are becoming more food secure and financially stable, they are able to provide for their children’s secondary school education. It’s always a special moment when a parent tells us, “This year, I had enough money to send my children to secondary school.”

Gender Equality in Postsecondary Enrolment

Postsecondary scholars 2014
NEA’s postsecondary scholarship recipients 2014

In 2014, the number of women who received scholarships for postsecondary education actually exceeded the number of men. This was a first for GRID and NEA, and we see it as a reflection of a much deeper change that is happening in communities. More girls now have access to primary and secondary education, thanks to their families’ increased financial security. Their parents can afford to pay their fees to attend school, and they can afford to have them attend school rather than working for the family’s survival.

Carpenter School Excels

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We’ve just had good news from Carpenter’s Junior High School: every one of this year’s graduating students has qualified for Secondary School.

This is a great accomplishment, and the Carpenter school is the only one in the district that has been able to achieve it this year. It is a special school because it was funded and built by many of you. We thought you’d like to know just how effective your donations and hard work have been in changing education for young people in Carpenter. Thank you!

Carpenter Junior High
Carpenter Junior High School
We’ll include the full story of this school in our upcoming quarterly newsletter. Have you been missing these newsletters? You can subscribe online.

Student Profile: Abraham Nsiah

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Abraham Nsiah
Abraham Nsiah (Nsiah means 7th born) is from the village of Jugboi. He faces the challenge of being paralyzed from the waist down. In Ghana, where accessibility measures are few and far between, this challenge is particularly difficult.

However, anyone who meets Abraham is impressed by his warmth, exuberance, joy and determination. He overcame many obstacles just to be able to get to secondary school and when his results came in, there were a few courses that he needed to improve on before he could be accepted in tertiary level institutions.

In an effort to support the local clinic at Bamboi, NEA hired Abraham as a record keeper. This freed the medical staff from many administrative tasks and enabled them to concentrate on the patients’ medical needs. While working at the clnic, Abraham continued to study and sit exams again to improve his grades.

Two years ago he was accepted into the Rural Health Training School, Kintampo. He is in his final year of the Health Information Programme and will graduate as a Technical Officer in 2010. He is committed to working in the Deg area and will be a valuable team player in promoting health once he graduates.