Back in November 2016 we carried out a baseline analysis report for our new school feeding project in Gombele Junior High School. The findings featured in this report are a stark reminder of the reason why we began this journey; to reduce poverty and improve the life chances of the people in Lawra and surrounding areas.
Poverty in Gombele is high and food is very sporadic; many households can afford just one meal per day for 4 days after market day and spend the following 3 days hungry. The interviews with students, teachers, parents and non-attenders in this report show that “the children are willing to learn, but they are fighting poverty and hunger” (Michael Kogkane, English teacher of 4 years at Gombele JHS). It is not surprising that this has an effect on the students’ ability to concentrate and complete their education, resulting in absences and a high dropout rate with many turning their hand to farming or other means to try to make a living rather than completing their education.
We are excited to start providing school meals to these students from 10th January 2017. Each student at the school will receive a hot lunch each day, cooked by members of the Parent-Teacher Association in a kitchen built by the local community. Farmers from the area will have produced the ingredients for the food, and ATE Ghana will pay the farmers for their product at the local market.
ATE are also extremely proud of the work being carried out by the community to build the school kitchen. This is a show of their commitment to welcome ATE’s support and share the responsibility to make the school feeding happen.
A massive thank you to our ATE staff in Ghana, the GES, the staff and PTA at Gombele JHS, who have been working incredibly hard to make this happen. And to the wider Gombele community who are nearing completion of building the facilities to be able to cook the school meals for another 67 wonderful school children, and give them the boost they need to achieve their potentials!
You can find and read the full Gombele Baseline Data Analysis Report, including the interviews with stakeholders, here: https://ateghana.org/publications-reports/
ATE is urgently seeking funding to support the school feeding program at Gombele.
Please help us to feed these hungry children by making a one off donation at this link: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/gombele/386091.
OR by setting up a monthly donation by downloading the form at https://ateghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Donation-form.pdf.
Thank you so much.