Toronto Schools Assisting the Rehabilitation of Senchi Primary School in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

From Joe Kingsley Eyiah, Senchi-Juaben, Ashanti-Ghana

The world has become a global village. The plight of children at one part of the world becomes the concern of children at the other end of the globe, thousands of kilometers apart! It is therefore not surprising that some elementary school students in faraway Toronto-Canada have been raising funds to support the rehabilitation of classrooms for primary school children at Senchi, a village in the Asokore District of the Ashanti Region in Ghana.

It all began when a native of the village, Kwabena Frimpong, an educationist now based in Toronto-Canada, upon a visit to the village some years back became concerned about the dilapidated school building in which the primary school children were attending classes (see picture of the old school building). Upon his return to Toronto Mr. Frimpong who attended classes in the same old school building during his elementary school days started to look for support to rehabilitate the collapsing school building back home in Ghana. His plans saw a new light as a large piece of close to the school building was earmarked for a new classrooms block with a library cum computer centre. The plan was approved by the chiefs and people of the village so Mr. Frimpong, last year, started the foundation with a few funds provided by some schools in Toronto.

This year, he intensified his appeal for support for the project by visiting schools with pictures of the old school building and foundation of the new project in Toronto. He was even granted interview by one Toronto TV station. The results of such efforts have been marvelous as donations from some students and individual teachers as well as the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) , an association on which equity committee Mr. Frimpong serves as member (volunteer) have raised the project to its roofing level. Schools in Toronto which had contributed earlier to the project included Elia Middle School, Oakdale Middle School, Firgrove Public School and Sheppard Public School.

On August 19, 2012 the writer who is also an educationist based in Toronto, presented to the project at Senchi in Ghana three wooden doors at the cost of $300 Canadian on behalf of students of Brookview Middle School in Toronto. The amount was raised by the school in June, this year as its contribution towards the rehabilitation of the Senchi Primary School (see pictures of the presentation at the project site in Ghana). Mr. Frimpong who was then on a visit to Ghana was present during the presentation. He thanked the staff and students of Brookview Middle School in Toronto as well as the other donor schools and ETT for their various donations towards the project. He also used the occasion to appeal for more donations from Ghanaians and philanthropists abroad to help complete the project on time. To God be the glory!