College’s charitable work to help develop and upskill Ghanaian school children

School children in Ghana are benefiting from charitable initiatives by BMet College, designed to provide sustainable developmental opportunities for young people in local communities.

The college based in Birmingham, UK, has donated a variety of educational books and stationery as part of a wider campaign and recycled PCs to help upskill young people at Twifo Adugyaa AME Zion School.

A programme of work to revamp the school with more modern facilities has also taken place, which includes creating a library, reorganising classrooms to make teaching more interactive, installing projectors, adding WIFI and assembling water pumps.

The prominent secondary school, located in Adugyama, a village in the central region of Ghana, is populated by around a hundred students who attend the school from around the area.

The idea for modernisation of the educational facility came into fruition last year after Dennis Powell, engineering lecturer at BMet’s James Watt College, discovered that the school was in need of refurbishment.

This followed discussions with local community workers in Birmingham and education practitioners in Ghana.

A recent trip to Ghana by Dennis and some friends enabled them to see the impact of the donated items, implement new teaching methods and to begin redevelopment works.

Among other things, the visit included teaching school children how to use the donated computers effectively. For example, by increasing their knowledge and skills in class lessons using methods like TeacherMatic and BBC Bitesize.

Speaking of the developmental work, Dennis said: “I see it as not only necessary, but also fundamental to support young people in Ghana to be the people that they aspire to be and are destined to be.   

“As well as supporting hundreds of school children in the Ghana village with their developmental skills and needs, the main aim is to provide pathways for the local community to become self-sufficient.

“I am looking forward to going back to Ghana later this year and working with Adugyaa AME Zion School to better shape their educational provisions and for the school children to gain GCSE standard education.”

Pat Carvalho, CEO and Principal, BMet: “It is a fantastic honour and privilege for BMet to be able to lend their support to a school, which plays a key part and is such a focal point in the village of Adugyama.

“Helping local communities is an ongoing vision of BMet and to have the opportunity to make a difference on a global scale, holds a lot of value to us. Using recycling initiatives is also a way that we can sustain our environment.”

Future aims and visions include building an income generating Internet Café at the school that can be used by people in the Adugyama village.

Creating an academy at the school, is also in the pipelines. In addition, connecting the school with BMet College’s interactive IT immersive rooms is also a plan, which would enable distant learning.

To mark the occasion of Dennis and his team’s visit, there was a special inauguration that was attended by the Chief and Elders of the Adugyama village and personnel from the District Education Office. 

To find out more about the Adugyaa AME Zion School and/or would like to donate, contact dennis.powell@bmet.ac.uk.