Supporting Local Schools
In addition to our individual student scholarships and our efforts to attract teachers to rural Ghana, the Yonso Project also supports several smaller programs that benefit the schools in the communities in which we work. We fund field trips, school renovations, and an annual education awards ceremony.Field Trips
Field trips are valuable to young students in Africa for the same reasons as in the US: out-of-school experiences expose children to new ideas, stimulate their desire to learn, and fuel their imaginations.
For the rural Ghanaian students served by the Yonso Project, a field trip is often the only way to see the world beyond their village. Like kids everywhere, children in Ghana dream of becoming doctors, policemen, teachers, pilots, and a thousand other things, but they are often discouraged from pursuing their goals by the obstacles they face growing up in a poor community with few jobs.
By inspiring students to see what lies beyond the sometimes grim realities of day-to-day life in a community with few jobs, a field trip can have a great impact on a child's future. The Yonso Project has sponsored field trips for hundreds of students from our communities to visit to Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city and its cultural capital. The students visited sites including the zoo, the airport, a Coca-Cola factory, and the royal palace of the Asantehene, the ceremonial ruler of the Asante people (Ghana's largest ethnic group). We hope to continue providing these inspiring, educational trips to the students in the towns we serve.
School Renovations
Awards Ceremony
The summer awards ceremony is a major annual event for Yonso and its surrounding communities, drawing local politicians and other dignitaries. In addition to the Yonso Project's large need-based scholarship program, merit-based awards are also presented at this ceremony for those students who rank the highest in their grade. (However, we are proud to report that many YP scholarship recipients are also among the top academic achievers at their schools and therefore receive merit-based awards as well.)
Students are not the only ones who need incentives to excel, however. The awards ceremony also honors the best teachers at each school in each community and those parents who are most deeply involved with their children's education. The awards ceremony is an opportunity for the entire community to focus on the importance of education and celebrate the accomplishments of its members. The annual ceremony was originally organized by the Yonso Students Union, but the YP has since assumed responsibility for the event.
Please explore the photo gallery below to see scenes from the awards ceremony, including performances by some of our young scholars.
