Dominase

In spite of some Covid challenges, 2022 was another productive year in Buriton’s sister community of Dominase in rural Ghana, thanks to money raised through generous donations, legacy bequests and other sources.

And it was also possible to check that projects undertaken in the past are still proving useful.

This popular event, orchestrated by Paul Martin, returns and should provide an evening of fun and a refreshing antidote to normal quizzes.

All previous years have completely sold out - so please book your places early.

Teams can be up to 8 people - but any number can enter and the organisers can help link you up with others if necessary.

A new idea was added to Buriton’s strong links with the rural community of Dominase in the far north of the Central Region of Ghana recently.

After months of planning during the Covid pandemic, the ‘Village-to-Village’ Group in our sister community held the first ever ‘Careers Event’ in this entire part of Ghana.

Developed with support from Buriton, the event was designed to help children consider which subjects to study in their last years at school.

In Ghana, when children are 14 they move from a Junior High School to a Senior High School and study only three subjects.

But how do they know what to choose? Which subjects will help them into suitable jobs? Are children in rural schools even aware of the range of jobs that they could consider?

Buriton’s long-standing link with the community of Dominase in the Central Region of Ghana is arranging a new (hopefully annual) ‘Careers Event’ to help children consider which subjects to study in their last years at school.

In spite of all the disruption caused by the worldwide Covid virus, Buriton’s small ‘Village-to-Village’ link has been helping thousands of children return to school and continue their vital education.

Most of the children in Ghana have missed almost a whole year of education – and there is no such thing as home-schooling there, no computers or on-line learning … 

On a visit to Ghana at the beginning of February it was possible to collect another 2,280 Supplementary Reading Books in the capital city, Accra, and transport them to Dominase to be shared out amongst the 25 schools supported by Buriton’s Village-to-Village charity.

The supply of books was pre-ordered before the visit and ensures that every class in every school gets 20 books: two copies of each of ten different titles. This boosts their libraries and offers every child a good choice of different books (rather than giving a number of copies of the same book to any school).

After learning to read and write in English, teachers in Ghana recognise that IT skills are the next most important lessons in schools – but there are hardly any computers for children to use.

IT lessons in the schools in the Dominase area are based on illustrations in text books: diagrams of keyboards, photographs of laptops and descriptions of drop-down menus etc. It is no surprise that few children obtain good results in IT examinations.

The fifth set of school toilets provided by Buriton’s village-to-Village Charity (this one is in the out-station settlement of Adaboa) is already helping to improve school attendance and learning.

Only opened a few months ago, a visit to the far-flung community at the beginning of February enabled villagers, children and teaching staff to show their gratitude – and to explain how scores of children now have somewhere safe and clean to go to the loo during school time - which, in turn, helps to boost attendances and learning.

In a wide-ranging meeting with the Director of Education in the Upper Denkyira West District, Mr Robert Asomaning, and a number of his senior colleagues early in February, a number of new initiatives to help schools and teachers were discussed.

In addition to a number of existing projects (including supplies for school libraries, Inter-School Reading Competitions and support for Teacher Training courses) some new ideas were discussed and stand ready to be developed once the Coronavirus pandemic has subsided. 

All health clinics in Ghana are obliged by Government to provide some (free) education to schools, particularly hand-washing, personal hygiene and (in some instances) sexually transmitted infections. But it is not clear whether every school in the Dominase area benefits from this scheme.

During a visit to Dominase early in February, meetings were held with a number of local clinics to begin to assess the scope and value of improvements.