Ghana – Dungu [2011]

Building Walls of Wisdom is thrilled to be taking on our second project in Northern Ghana, where communities are made up of mainly farmers that survive on less than one dollar a day and almost half of the people cannot read or write. As a result the quality education is a critical component to lifting this community out of their current impoverished state.

We will be concentrating our effort in the community of Dungu. Dungu primary is a school that is quite literally deteriorating around the students that attend it on a weekly basis. Our goal is to transform this school into a building that can allow education to flourish. Dungu is home to residents that are both bright and cheerful, but face tremendous hardship. The provision of a strong educational foundation is something that they desperately need to climb out of poverty.

Ten teachers currently work to educate the 357 students that attend Dungu Primary. Years ago the community constructed a mud-based preschool structure. When the preschool closed, Dungu primary used this building to accommodate the overflow of their growing school population.

In recent years, the elements have had a significant impact on this structure. The rain and wind have deteriorated this building into something that is hardly suitable for education. The walls and the floors of the building have large cracks and the tin roof has plethora of holes. During the rainy season, these holes and cracks invite water into the structure soaking both students and their exercise books. In addition to this, the inside of the structure is both cramped and dark, even during the brightest hours of the day, making the teaching and learning process that much more difficult.

This project we help dramatically improve this school by covering the walls and floors with cement, thus solidifying the structure. The size of the windows will be increase to allow in more light and shutters will be added to keep the rain out. New doors will be added for the very same reason. In addition, students will be provided with new desks and will be able to learn from the newly installed chalkboards. Moreover, Building Walls of Wisdom will provide new textbooks and other learning materials to further aid in the learning process.

We are proud to be taking part in changing the future of the children in Dungu.

The build is now complete – feel free to watch our most recent video update here: