Hello,

I have been “away” for awhile online but I am back now. So much has happened to our little non profit to benefit girls in Northern Ghana! Let me bring you up to date.

In August, a panel of Leah’s Dream Board members read through almost 100 applications from Junior High School girls who wish to avail themselves of an all expenses paid high school education. As part of the selection process, the girls are asked to write an essay in English telling something about themselves and their lives.

It is such an eye opener to see how girls live in this country and though still the same age, how differently they live in other parts of the world. Yet, in many ways, teenage girls are the same all over the world. Same fresh and hopeful outlook on life.

We ranked the essays largely by the originality of their responses as well as their writing ability.  Though English is the national language used in the schools all over Ghana, it  is not the first language spoken in most of the villages. Click on these links:  Amana Abubakari pg1 Amana Abubakari pg2  to see one of the actual essays.

The essay accounts for only a portion of the application score.  Emelia and Labrine also evaluate some of the other criteria such as level of disadvantage, remoteness of their villages, electricity, and some other factors. But mostly, we award the scholarship to the girls who pass the BECE exam with the highest score which is 25 or below (lower the schore, the better rank they have for acceptance to a government sponsored Senior High School).  This year 246,536 females from all over Ghana sat for the Basic Education Comprehensive Exam. This is up over all 9% from the previous year. So, more girls are taking the exam. That is a positive trend.

Unfortunately, local village schools rarely have many girls who can pass their BECE exams with acceptable scores. So far this year, we have accepted only four first year girls out of 6 slots allotted. We are still accepting applications and are hopeful more girls will apply who are qualified. There are many reasons for this problem. Primarily, the schools in the Northern Region where our offices are located, lack access to good teachers and often even lack access to a school building where they can study. The girls are simply not well prepared for the exams they must pass.

Leah’s Dream Inc. has sought to help remedy this situation in two ways. First, we have applied and been accepted for service by the US Peace Corps. We expect a Peace Corps Volunteer to be on board to assist us with improving our acceptance ratio. We have also begun a fundraiser to purchase WEAC (West African Examinations Council) Exam prep booklets. These booklets are similar to the SAT prep books students in the US use. Test Prep is an effective strategy that many thousands of US students utilize. Here’s a list of some of the positive outcomes we hope to achieve:

  • Help them identify their individual strengths and weaknesses
  • Provide structure, leadership, and a timetable for studying
  • Teach test taking strategies
  • Give guidance in reviewing and correcting mistakes
  • Offer personalized instruction from a native English speaker
  • Girls will be surrounded by other girls that are on the same page and can serve as motivators.

This year all we have 16 Afafanto Scholars. 5 girls will be graduating. Each graduate receives a phone as a gift. At least 1 of our girls, Irene (see photo) plans to go on to university. Our  newest 2018-2019 Afafanto Scholars on our Afafanto Scholars page. Thanks for taking a look at them. And, as always we welcome your feedback on our progress.

Please donate to our newest campaign: https://www.afafanto.org/donate