Common Faith Academy commenced on the 14th November 2011, at the house of a woman called Adebor, in the Trede area. After three months the landlady informed us that she needed her house and therefore we had to relocate, which caused a lot of stress in finding a new location. We moved to a nearby house, but unfortunately, this was an uncompleted building and therefore we had to use the avocado and cashew tress there for shade. During the rainy seasons the place was more or less an abyss. We taught from this location for almost six months (two terms), after which we relocated to Mpatasie where the Samaria Church is. We were only able to stay here for one term as a mason told the landlord that
So, our first week of teaching the literacy programme has been a great experience, with challenges but also lots of laughter and fun. We thought it’d be interesting to share how the 4 days of teaching went. On day 1, we had 11 students turn up to our class. This included a girl who wasn’t on our initial list but she was extremely enthusiastic to learn to read. The 5 of our previously selected group who didn’t come had not been at school that day. Not being able to read has a pivotal effect on their education in other lessons and therefore many of the girls who struggle, often do not turn up to school. The lesson kicked off with getting them to understand what a sound is. By the end of the le
After the co-founders, Katie and Richard spent time talking to the District Director, the Head Teacher and English Teachers, Pen to Paper Ghana has been able to start its literacy programme. Since the teachers knew the abilities of the students, they were able to allocate an appropriate group of 16 girls to our literacy project; they are aged 13-16 and are all from the same Junior High School in Kumasi. The programme is currently being run solely by Katie and Richard; to start the programme, they needed to understand the range of abilities and therefore they initially assessed their reading aptitudes. The assessment consisted of 4 different sections: - Letter sounding – this involved a list
