In many communities, where there is a disparity between the rich and the poor, the affluent are often expected to support the needy. However, the story is different in communities blessed by an Edify partner school.
For instance . . . located in Mpatado, a suburb in the western region of Ghana, The Sanctuary Montessori School is transforming its rural community, one project at a time. School projects include providing street lights, offering scholarships to needy students within the community, and renovating a dilapidated public-school kitchen. These gestures arose out of a desire to make a difference even with the little they possess as a school.
This is one of the many stories we see emanating from communities since 2022 as a result of the Edify Community Transformation Project, a program led by low-fee Christian independent educators. The Edify Ghana program inspired these Christian educators to consider what community transformation truly represents. Students and staff of low-fee Christian schools extend love, duty, and care to the internal and external school community.
The Need
Low-fee Christian independent schools in Ghana represent about 40% of providers of basic school education in Ghana; yet, they are saddled with infrastructural needs, low income, and difficulty accessing financing and training. Nonetheless, these Christian schools provide students with quality Christ-centered education and intentionally create an impactful environment to explore academics, faith, and community values together.
Students at Edify Ghana schools engage in community transformation projects where they identify problems in the community, brainstorm possible solutions, strategize and plan, and then raise funds to resolve these problems. Initiatives include installing street lights in dark communities, creating reading areas in hospital children’s wards, cleaning and donating supplies for community spaces, creating accessible recreational centers for the physically challenged, feeding widows and the aged, promoting the educational needs of individuals with disabilities, and reading with out-of-school children.
Lighting Their World
Iit’s amazing to see how members of these low-fee Christian schools, though underserved themselves, go all-out to serve their communities. It is inspiring to see the joy and fulfilment they find in helping others to thrive. A highlight of my job is when, while visiting schools to engage with Christian educators, I find their students actively planning to resolve a problem in their community. Witnessing their work passes the joy on to me—to see the potential spun from their limited resources. This maximization of resources is the essence of education!
One of my fondest memories of these projects occurred at Brain Birds Academy, a school situated in the heart of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The school serves 281 students from diverse backgrounds. Students and staff identified that children living with cancer spend many months or years in the hospital missing out on learning.
The Brain Birds community decided to create a learning center in the Children’s Cancer Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, stocking it with reading materials and activity workbooks so that children being treated for cancer could receive some form of education. The role of these low-fee Christian schools educating the underserved has undoubtedly fostered positive change in Ghanaian communities.
It is evident that students engaged in these projects have become more empathetic, resourceful, and conscious of their environment and its needs. Moreover, they are acquiring skills such as project and financial management, negotiation and leadership skills, and communication and confidence-building skills.
Community service projects used to be a routine activity marked in the calendar to be checked off when completed. However, the transformational impact of these projects has led to schools considering their sustainability by establishing Community Project Committees who plan each year’s project. The intentionality leaves an indelible mark on the community as a whole.
Luke 16:10 tells us, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” This verse is exemplified in Edify partner schools. The Community Transformation projects have become not only a tool for transformation but also a marketing tool resulting in positive publicity and a massive increase in enrollment.
It excites me to note the yearly increase in the number of schools enthusiastically embarking on community transformation projects. As low-fee schools go from being on the receiving end to giving their widow’s mites, staff, students, and communities are being transformed.
