Summer 2024 newsletter

Menstrual Hygiene Day in May 2024

Inspiring the next generation

Thanks to our generous donors, we have been able to expand the school to provide enhanced academic and boarding facilities. We are delighted that we are now able to offer five hundred students the enriching opportunities of Wioso Senior High School. Students like Sarah in Year Three, who came to the school in 2021. She developed a keen interest in science at primary and has been able to develop that passion and aptitude for science, especially hemistry at Wioso “I love chemistry! I love mixing the chemicals together to make reactions and seeing how they change!” she explains.

Sarah is clear that she wants to pursue this passion in

chemistry as a career: “When I leave school, I want to

study medicine and become a pharmaceutical scientist.

My ambition is develop new drugs that combine

traditional and scientific research to eradicate and treat

diseases”. At the school we strive to enable more

students like Sarah to fulfil their ambitions.

Gordon Sarpong, our Headteacher, is delighted to continue to inspire the next generation. However, he explains, the much-needed expansion to accommodate more students brings additional financial and running-cost pressures. We are now urgently fundraising for these additional costs to finance teacher & other staff salaries.These amazing staff are the means and inspiration to develop five hundred young people like Sarah to become scientists as well as vets, farmers, doctors and nurses, entrepreneurs and future teachers, achieving a diverse range of ambitions. That’s why we are launching our “inspire the next generation campaign”.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day

On 28th May 2024, Wioso Senior High School and the local community came together for World Menstrual Health Hygiene Day. With support from Alma Mater Education and the Toni Garrn Foundation, our girls and boys paraded through the local area to raise awareness, educating themselves, their peers and the community on the fundamental role good menstrual health hygiene plays in enabling girls and women to reach their full potential.

The campaign looked at good sanitation and hygiene, affordable menstrual hygiene materials and the development of a supportive environment, free from embarrassment. Students learned how to make sustainable hygiene products including reusable pads and pants, and this work will continue throughout the year in school and community projects, linking production and access to female hygiene products to livelihood and income generation.

We are now urgently fundraising for the running costs to cover the expansion in student numbers. Will you help us?

£110 would fund a teachers salary for a month, delivering 160 teaching hours and inspiring the minds of 500 students in Science, Maths or English

£260 would enable our Home Economics curriculum, providing food and cooking equipment, sewing machines and art materials to develop practical experience, life skills and artistic ability

£1,200 would provide a month’s food and cooking materials to feed all students three meals a day to enable their learning

Your support is vital in helping to inspire the next generation! Thank you

We would like to thank all our partners and donors, with special thanks to the following:

The Toni Garrn Foundation

BILD hilft ev Ein Herz für Kinder

John Yesudian at Grannies Kitchen

Rotary Hamburg

Caroline & Georges Muller

Q Charitable Trust

Tim Strate

Sandbrook House & Garden

Bielenberg Family Trust

Just Ghana

Christmas 2023 newsletter

Dear Friends and Supporters

As we write, a large cohort of sixty of our students returns from a hugely successful and inspirational trip down to the coast, for some a first time out of the Ashanti region, to compete in a sports tournament with EDP Winton School near Accra. EDP is a significantly larger, well-equipped school in an urban environment, and we have been keen to set up a sister relationship with them for some time. We have some very talented sports peoplet the school, and on this first trip our students competed in football, volleyball and athletics, winning many of the matches and races. This was a celebratory and promising beginning to a fruitful collaboration with EDP, and will foster ongoing educational and co-curricular exchange between teachers and students in both directions. The tour by bus also took in Elmina Fort and Cape Coast Castle, a first sight of the sea, and a taste of university life with an inspiring tour and some lectures at the University of Cape Coast.

A future fundraising project

Our next fundraising project for 2024 will be to substantially enhance our sports facilities. We currently have a basic unlevelled 00-metre running track with field sports equipment, and a rather uneven football/volleyball pitch. Our aim is to introduce an up-to-date, multipurpose pitch, and eventually to level off and improvethe larger football pitch. We want to be able to give our talented young sportsmen and women the opportunity to excel in their chosen discipline, and really go for gold!

Partnership with the Ghana Education Service

Following our fantastic exam results posted in January 2023 (a 97.4% pass rate across the year group), Ghana Education Service, the government department delivering state education across the country, has invited us to become a partner school. This would result in three things: recruitment of pupils through the government portal; 100% financial support for staff salaries; additional support towards school running costs such as food, transport etc. This will reduce our monthly running costs by 40%–50%, allowing us to focus on completing our infrastructure projects across the school site. And in addition, our headteacher Gordon Asante Sarpong will become the youngest GES school head in the country at the age of thirty-three. Improving facilities and sanitary care for our Noble Belles

Our current girls’ dorm accommodates 170 students, with washing facilities and lockers. Thanks to yet another generous donation from the Toni Garrn Foundation and “Ein Herz für Kinder”, we’re in the process of adding a second storey to the dormitory, with a pitched roof for water capture and a solar installation. Two additional rooms will also be created to accommodate teachers regularly staying on site, who may then give one-to-one tutorials to our students beyond the established timetable. Work to be completed by March 2024. We are also working towards providing a sustainable solution for sanitary care for our girls. Good menstrual hygiene management is essential to enabling all women and girls to achieve their full potential, and days of education can be lost because of a lack of access to adequate sanitary products. We are consulting with the girls, housemother Sandra and with a local business producing non-disposable menstrual products to provide a

lasting, holistic solution. Our patron Bella Huddart instigated a swift and successful fundraising campaign for this purpose, raising a very healthy £3,500 to date. The fundraiser is still open!

On the farm

Our ten scholarship students who went on to Bunso Agricultural College, funded by Ecoland, have successfully completed their first year. Ecoland has now generously committed to extending this to another ten students for next year. We’re delighted that this relationship has provided so much opportunity for the students, and Ecoland remains a useful consulting partner on agricultural matters, especially in the organic field. An understanding of organic farming practice remains central to the ethos of the school and is implemented through our Student Agricultural Sustainability Programme (SASP). All students spend some time each week on the farm, and are taken through practical lessons to give them hands-on experience in the various aspects of organic farming, including soil sampling, composting, germination and bed preparation.

This month we harvest our first crops of organic turmeric and ginger for export, in addition to maize, cassava, okra, aubergine, plantain, cabbage and carrots for our school feeding program. Our first cocoa plants are also thriving, and we expect a full harvest in Spring 2024.

Q&A with Headteacher Gordon Asante Sarpong

Who or what inspired you to become a teacher? – My inspiration comes from my auntie, a teacher all her life. When I was a boy she taught me lots of things both on and off the curriculum. I’ve always loved imparting knowledge, especially to children in deprived communities.

What’s your favourite subject? – I majored in Geography at UIniversity, but I’m most interested in teaching and studying History and English Literature because it involves a lot of reading, researching and analysis of historical information.

What’s your favourite dish on the school menu? – Banku [maize and cassava dumplings]! I’m lucky enough to have it twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

What’s your favourite place in the school? – I love spending time in the library, especially when I’m not working, to catch up on my reading. I also like sitting on the lovers’ bench under the trees when I want to be alone. It’s a good place to watch the goings on in the school.

We are extremely grateful to our wonderful recent donors and fundraisers:

• The Toni Garrn Foundation and “Ein Herz für Kinder” (Axel Springer Foundation) for their financial support in financing the building an extra storey on the girls’ dormitory

• Caroline and Georges Müller for their extremely generous donation towards running costs

• Our patron Bella Huddart, for raising £3,500 towards a sustainable solution for sanitary products for the girls in November 2023

• The Strate Family and Hamburg-Bergedorf Rotary Club for their continuing generous donations

• Our trustee Katharina Bielenberg, for raising £1,700 in a “super-sprint” triathlon in June 2023

Spring 2023 newsletter

Autumn 2022 newsletter

** near completion of new boys’ dorm ** community health centre and sick bay ** clear drinking water and elimination of plastic project **new farm manager and volunteer**

Dear Friends and Supporters

We’ve been busy over the summer improving our infrastructure, and we’re thrilled to share news that our boys’ dormitory is almost complete after a six-month building project. We’ve also made progress with local community and on-site health services, and improvements on the farm.

Boys’ dormitory

Work began in February on a new building to accommodate up to 240 boys, ready for occupation by mid-October. With a traditional but innovative design, it is our most progressive structure yet in terms of sustainability, including solar panels and a biodigester to convert sanitary waste into fertiliser for the farm. The building is U-shaped, incorporating four large dorms, two washing facilities, three private rooms for supervising staff and for our head prefect, and an additional multi-use room. The project has been a challenge due to increased material, labour and transport costs, which have risen 30% in line with national inflation. As a result we are still looking for funding of approx. £11,000 towards the solar array. Fit-out costs for beds and lockers will be £80 per student. The ongoing running costs for each child at the school amounts to £400 per annum. 

Our plastic-eliminating water project

We’ve recently tested our two boreholes, and the results are excellent. Our water is perfectly potable, and we’re in the process of setting up three water dispensers around the site. Each student and staff member will be issued with a durable, reusable bottle. Until now, drinking water has been provided in plastic pouches or bottles, which have not been able to be recycled due to lack of facilities. This will substantially reduce our carbon footprint at the school.

 We are extremely grateful to our wonderful donors:

• The Quin Foundation for their substantial contribution to the dormitory project

• Hunza G. for their generous recent donation

• The Strate Family and Hamburg Rotary Club for their generous recent donations

• The Bielenberg Family trust for its ongoing support

• Lorenzo Mele who completed a half marathon in aid of the boys’ dorm. Click here to support him

• Johnnie Huddart who will be cycling London to Amsterdam in November. Click  here to support him

Farm to fork

Over the last few months we’ve had excellent harvests of maize, cassava and plantain, all of which are essential carbohydrates that make up a substantial part of the school food program. This is due in no small part to our new farm manager, Francis Amentesa, who comes with experience of running an organic farm, and has a passion for sharing his knowledge of agricultural practice with the students. He is supported by an experienced retired farmer from Ireland who has very generously given three months of time to support Alma Mater Education.

 A sprinkler irrigation system has been installed on one acre of the site, and drip irrigation on an additional two acres. We forecast to have ten acres in full production by the end of the year, supplying our fantastic school cooks daily with carrots, tomatoes, cabbages and chilli for the 250 students currently at the school.

 Community Health Services

The Tony Garrn Foundation has been instrumental in the provision of health services in the Wioso community. Their funding has improved the village health centre with the additional of a maternity and birthing centre with dedicated midwives. The Foundation has also funded the completion of a sick bay at the school, which is now overseen by a school nurse. On-site treatment ensures that fewer students will have to leave campus when ill, ensuring minimum disruption to the educational offering provided by the school. 

Back in July, our scholarship students were also the proud recipients of new laptops donated by the Toni Garrn Foundation. Visit their website to find out more about their inspiring initiatives in girls’ education.    https://tonigarrnfoundation.org/

February newsletter

In December 2021 we received our best ever West African Certificate (WASSCE) results. These correspond roughly with British A-levels and form the basis for acceptance to tertiary education. A C6 grading or above is required for entry to a polytechnic, and a C5 for university entrance. We’re proud to say our students were awarded C6 or above in 84% of their results. Overall the failure rate was very low, at only 2.8%.

Our students are aware that working hard and getting high grades is essential for them to progress to university. One former student is now studying Purchasing and Supply Chain Management at Sunyani Technical University, another is training to become a teacher at the University of Education Winneba in Kumasi. And here’s a note from Priscilla, one of our former pupils, who is studying to be a doctor’s assistant at Kumasi University.

Priscilla

“We began our first semester with eight courses, namely biological chemistry, medical genetics, basic medical chemistry, computer science, communication skills, algebra, cell structure and Ghanaian sign language. With good time management and assistance from friends, I have been able to cope with course so far. I feel hugely grateful for all the support from Alma Mater Education in preparing me for this.”

In addition to achieving high academic results, we also provide excellent facilities for sport, music and other pastoral activities, ensuring a rounded education. All this is essential but needs funding. To pay for one student at AME costs around £25/€30 per month, which includes education, food, accommodation, health care, pastoral care and all other needs.

 Ecoland

Ecoland is a successful organic German food producer (already operating in India and Zanzibar) which has now won a large grant from the German government to set up similar projects and infrastructure working in Ghana. AME is excited to have become a local project partner.

AME Farm will establish a demonstration plot and invite local farmers to learn how to produce organic cocoa (the major cash crop in the area), and also to begin growing other produce such as herbs and spices. In December, our AME Chair Christopher Bielenberg and local Project Director Dennis Akomeah attended a project launch meeting in Accra.
Ultimately the project is focussed on exporting produce from Ghana to Germany, and Ecoland is already experienced in supporting local organisations to achieve this goal. Additionally Ecoland will work with Ghanaian authorities to make the local organic certification process simpler and cheaper.

 The project runs for three years, funding an agricultural specialist at AME to enhance operational performance. Ecoland have already supported us by purchasing new laptops and a new solar-powered water pump and solar panels, thereby improving water supply to the farm and reliable electricity for our classrooom resources.  Ultimately AME will act as a local hub, supporting local farmers and aggregating their produce for sale to Ecoland

Funky artwork

Our partners at the Toni Garrn Foundation have introduced us to Alexa Proba, a New York-based textile artist who worked with our students last summer to produce a range of designs. The resulting artwork was adapted for rugs and posters. You can buy see and buy them here

All profits will go to the Foundation and will ultimately be distributed to AME and other projects.

Autumn Newsletter

 Dear Friends and Supporters

 We’re delighted to be back in touch after a very challenging a few months. Fortunately, the Covid situation in Ghana seems under control after some efficient pre-emptive measures. Ghana has reported 300 deaths, with no cases in the area of the school. All schools were closed from March to June, and during that time we kept in touch with the vast majority of our students, to set reading and coursework. At the end of June, the government allowed final years two and three to return, conditional on a series of Covid-19-safe practices being in place. We’re pleased to report that our final years students sat exams in August, and we await the results.

The new academic year begins on October 5. There will be a major focus on extra catch-up lessons for all students, as well as assessment of and support for any ongoing stress-related or other concerns caused by the pandemic. 

#farmtofork

Our major news: we’ve just launched #farmtofork, a fundraising campaign for the second half of the year. A new kitchen block is in its first stages, and another building is being converted into a Home Economics lab, both to improve our nutritional offering to our students and staff, and to successfully integrate our farm-to-fork approach to education. Our amazing cooks, Maa Yaa and Ofeshi, have been working in less than adequate conditions, often exposed to potentially harmful smoke. Our new block and equipment will be fit for purpose to produce up to 700 meals a day for our growing number of students. 

Generous donations have already been received from the Toni Garrn Foundation, the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust and the Bielenberg Family Trust, but we need to raise another £20,000 to cover our osts. Please dig deep and offer whatever you can to help our pupils on their way to reach their full potential. 

Meet Rukaya, one of our former students and the first to study at university

“I would like to share some thoughts on my first year at the University of Education. It was my first choice, and the year has been an exciting learning experience. Settling into living at the Kumasi campus was easy for me due to the boarding house experience I had at Alma Mater Education; it was only a few days before I felt at home. A thank you to the management and teachers at the school, especially Mr Dennis Akomeah, Mr Joseph Asamoah and Mr David Adu-Tenkorang, for their good guidance and counselling. 

“My first year confirmed that my choice of ‘Management in Education’ was the right one. The course attracts an array of students, which made my study more interesting and allowed me to learn and connect with others from different backgrounds and cultures. There were also a number of societies where I met people from different courses, such as the Feminist Society, the Christian Union, Student Media and so on. I had also the opportunity to travel around Kumasi, one of the biggest cities in Ghana, a new experience for me as I had grown up in a village close to the school. Despite the pandemic, my modules for both semesters have been really interesting and have allowed me to experience new opportunities. I recently picked my modules for next year, which got me super excited!

“A very big thanks to Mr Paolo Mele (CEO) and family, who have financed all aspects of my academic and subsistence needs, without which I could never have got to university. I will really work hard to lift Alma Mater Education high. God bless you all.”  Rukaya Kasim, University of Education, Kumasi

Organic re-certification

We have recently been assessed by Control Union, a Dutch organic auditor, to monitor our compliance with both EU/UK and US organic regulations. We passed! Now we are certified for a whole range of crops, including pineapples and moringa. The commercial aspect of the farm continues make excellent progress, and we’ve been selling of cabbages, carrots, onions and tomatoes to the local community. 

Please get in touch if you’d like to be involved in our #farmtofork campaign!

Meanwhile, a big thank you from all students and staff at AME for your continued support.

Spring Newsletter

Dear Friends and Supporters

We are writing at a difficult time for all as we adapt to huge changes to our working days and routine. With countries in lockdown worldwide, Ghana too is taking measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools are now closed for all students until further notice. At AME we are keeping our teachers, support staff and farm workers on full salary, so that they and their families can be as secure and as safe as possible. Despite the crisis, we want to share news of our recent positive developments.

Class of 2019 ‒ Graduation

In January, Wioso Senior High School hosted its second graduation. Forty-two students celebrated their results, which were an improvement on last year’s. Pass rates increased from 62% to 73%, and in terms of university entrance, 39% obtained entry requirements, as opposed to 28% in 2018.

The celebration was attended by AME Trustee Christopher Bielenberg, Yannick Stubbe from the Toni Garrn Foundation, the local chief and hundreds of pupils, teachers and members of the local community. There was dancing, poetry, drama, a display of products from the farm, and of course the prize-giving.

Two plaques were unveiled to mark the building of the girls’ dormitory, and to honour the dedication and hard work of James Riggs, the founder and first CEO of Alma Mater Education.  Paolo Mele, the new CEO, and Bella Huddart, who will be convening a new Alma Mater Patrons group (more soon), attended the celebrations.

On the farm

Although the school has been shut down, the activity and productivity at the farm continues to increase.  A recent donation has enabled the expansion of the farm with the aim of maximising revenues for this rainy season starting in March, and we recruited two more workers to prepare twenty acres for planting. In addition, Bosman, our farm manager, took a group to the Centre for No-Till Agriculture managed by Dr Kofi Boa. The centre promotes simpler and more environmentally friendly farming practices which focus on natural methods to encourage a nutrient-rich soil, including minimal soil disturbance and good ground coverage to improve moisture and green manure.

 Back at the farm we have planted maize, onions, cabbage and are preparing three acres for some more organic pineapples. We are working closely with HPW, a Swiss dryer and exporter of fruit.

Sports at Wioso Senior High School

The Sports Department has been a formidable force in the shaping, growing and enhancement of the school since its inception. The unstinting effort of everyone involved in the department in delivering resources and enabling logistics has led to some excellent results.

Headed by Mr Prince Oppong, the department has participated in both district and regional sporting events organised nationally by the Inter-Colleges Sports and Athletics Federation under the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Alma Mater came second out of eight schools participating in the Inter-College Volleyball Games in Kumasi, and third in the zonal games in soccer. Now we are preparing earnestly for the regional athletics competition, where our team will take part in all track and field events.

How you can help

Like most other charities, we hope to continue to generate income through this difficult period.

If you’re now working from home and in a secure job, would you consider donating your monthly or season-ticket travel costs to Alma Mater Education? Or the price of your usual morning coffee and croissant while you work from home? Just £35 covers all costs (including accommodation) for a student for one month, and £150 pays a teacher’s salary.

You can make a donation here

A Thank you to the Garrn Foundation

Alma Mater Education would like to thank the Garrn Foundation for its continued and generous support in 2019. The grant was spent entirely in Ghana and on the following activities:

Building a science lab

The science lab represents a huge step forward for Alma Mater and will enable it to improve the level of chemistry, biology and physics teaching at the school. Previously pupils had to visit another local school to undertake science practicals. The completion of the lab has seen an increase in numbers of those wanting to study science subjects.

Completing the girls’ dormitory

The girls’ dormitory was built in 2018 and has become a wonderful addition to Alma Mater school, enabling the enhanced education of eighty girls each year.

One of the huge benefits of the girls staying in the dormitory is their ability to focus on studies better than they would able to at home. Traditionally, the girls of the family are called upon to help their mothers with cooking, water collection, cleaning and farming. In the dormitory, however, with light provided by solar panels, they can complete their homework and continue their studying with other pupils, under the watchful eye of the two housemothers.

As well as providing an excellent education, secondary school represents the first time that most of these girls have ever lived away from home. Teachers’ salaries remain the school’s single biggest expense, but this is reflected in the high standards of their work. The teachers at Alma Mater routinely visit the houses of all the families of its pupils and they take their pastoral duties very seriously.

Borehole and solar water pump

In order to make sure that the girls have access to running water it was necessary to sink a new borehole and attach a water pump which is driven by a solar water pump. They have up until now been using water collected from a stand-pipe.

Buying books for the new academic year

Giving our pupils access to free books is a key feature of Alma Mater, to ensure that all children can study regardless of family income. This year, with the kind donation of the Garrn Foundation and Hamburg school, a total of £1,000 was spent on new books for the school.

A Change of Focus, Challenges and New Partners

There are always going to be challenges with a project such as ours. Last year Ghana became the first country in Africa to offer free secondary education. Whilst this is obviously great for Ghana it understandably impacted our ability to raise revenue through school fees. As a result, and with some very exciting new partners, we took the decision to adapt our financial model and seek to raise running costs from exporting produce from our school farm. The extremely positive upshot of this is that our school is 100% free to all students.

New partners

In mid 2018, AME partnered with www.ieng-group.com, who have provided infrastructure development and with www.tonigarrnfoundation.org who have provided funding and visibility. Together they have donated a school dormitory, which is currently being constructed and a school bus. Both of these additions will allow us to recruit more students going forward.

Most exciting of all is that they are committed to developing a model for building further schools, in Ghana and beyond, with agricultural exporting at the fore.

Phase 2 Complete

Hello everyone, and it is my great pleasure to give you a quick update on all that has been going on at Wioso Senior High School and Organic Farm in Ghana.

We have finally managed to complete Phase 2 of the school building, more of that below, and will be welcoming a further 100 students during September.

Our current students continue to perform extremely well, and we are all excited to see our first national exam results, which our oldest students will be sitting in June next year. We are optimistic that they will do extremely well, as the quality of the teachers continues to impress, and they have all taken the 'Alma Mater Education System' to heart. Lessons around the school now are far more creative and student inclusive, and it is not uncommon to see lessons outside, at the farm, and around the site.

It is full steam ahead once more after a difficult 2016 which saw us miss the deadline for finishing Phase 2, resulting in student intake last year being very low. A combination of a falling value in sterling, unseasonal weather and a delay in getting the solar equipment from Europe, meant that we missed our construction deadline last September.

However, I am very happy to report that we have caught up this year. Phase 2 is finished, and all of the power at the school is now provided by the African sun. We have a further five classrooms ready to go, and aim to have our ICT suite installed early in 2018, which was generously donated by Felix Vogler and Panagenda last year, and will be named the 'Panagenda ICT suite'.

After the problems of last year, there have understandably been a few parents in the local area who have been waiting to see how the school building progresses. Although cutting it fine, they are now seeing the progress made at the school and are beginning to enrol their children to begin in Wioso next month. Our target enrolment rate is 100, and we have had over 500 applicants for study already.

 Of course, our aim is to make the school economically self-sufficient as well as ecologically - which we have already achieved through our Organic farm, solar power and borehole water supply. Our aim, with the new students this year is to be up to 70% economically self-sufficient, with a running cost deficit of just £12,000. This target is a great motivator, and we would have gone a long way to proving the model, alongside providing free education to half of our students if we can achieve this.

 Going forward, it has been identified that we need to develop a hostel, and provide a bus service, to allow many of the students from the more remote areas access to our school. These are the most vulnerable children, with absolutely no chance of an education, and the ones that AME was set up specifically to help. Our site can provide an education, renewable utilities and food from the farm. A hostel would be a cost-effective and secure way to provide these students access to an education, and is repeatedly requested when we visit these communities.

 Thank-you so very much for taking the time to read this update, and for your continued support with our ambitious project in Ghana. I hope you all agree that so far things have been a great success, and we can all be rightly proud of what we have achieved. Simply without your support, none of this would have been achieved, and from all of us at AME and the students in attendance, a massive thank-you!

 If you would like to donate to our 2017/18 fundraising drive, the account details are below. Our target for the next academic year is £120,000 to complete the school buildings and roofing, a hostel, a school bus, the sports field as well as an onsite hostel for those children who have to travel more than two hours each day. Naming opportunities include the science lab, classrooms and the new offices, as well as the school bus and hostel.

Please contact me directly for any further information.

Warmest wishes
James Riggs
CEO Alma Mater Education
jriggs@almamatereducation.org
+0044 7766733008

Donations: Can be received via bank transfer, into our UK or US accounts, details below. Or via post to the addresses above.

UK Sterling Account                                                            
Bank: HSBC  
Account no: 62155907
Sort code: 400409                                                                  

US Dollar Account  
Bank: Wells Fargo 
Account no: 6268919351
Routing no (wire transfer). 121000248

First Exam Results

2018 has been a wonderful year for AME so far. We are excited to update you all on our achievements, and would like to extend our warmest thanks to all of our supporters for their continued support.

 In July our third year students became the first to sit the National WAEC leavers exams, and results have been fantastic – even better than we could have hoped for, with 70% passing all the exams they sat, and many qualifying to go onto study at University. An astonishing outcome for a rural school such as ours, sitting its first national exams and we could not be happier.

From myself and all of those at Wioso SHS, a huge thank-you to our supporters who have made this possible.

 The challenge for us now is to not rest on our laurels, and to push on with the development of additional classroom infrastructure and a Science Lab and ICT suite. We will have further demands for  utilities as we grow and must expand both the solar provision and the water supply with additional boreholes.

 Moving into 2019, we will also require a boarding facility as those students from the more rural areas often cannot walk to school each day as distance/weather prevents it. As a result the provision of a boarding facility will allow us to specifically benefit the very poorest students. This addition, planned for the next two years, will also in itself present challenges as we move more into the area of care and support. This will require experts in the field of child support and additional staff investment to support students 24 hours a day and provide a safe environment for them.

 If you could help in any way with our fundraising push then that would be fantastic, and for any donations our bank details in the UK and the US below.

Onwards and Upwards

It is hard to believe quite how far we have come in such a short period of time. Midway through only our second term, and it feels like the school has been part of the community for six years, rather than six months. Staff and students alike continue to progress and impress in equal measures. Rejoice, our wonderfully talented headmistress, has created a really tight-knit group amongst the staff. Of course this is a very difficult task when creating a new structure, with new procedures and methods of teaching, accountability and, crucially, student discipline. However Rejoice has expertly negotiated these potential pitfalls, and has insured that all of the teachers have bought into our concept of 'a student focused education.' Already this is paying dividends. Our end of first term exams have seen a small, but noticeable, increase in grades. This is especially prominent amongst the lowest performing students, who have formed our 'purple group', receiving extra support in basic numeracy and literacy - which is a problem with many students from the rural areas.

Phase 2 Construction

There is no time to rest though, and we are just starting now on the construction of Phase 2 of the school building. Our new building will be two storeys high, and consist of eight more classrooms, and a science lab. Astonishingly, this will push our capacity up to over 400 students for the next intake this September. The clearing of the land has just begun, and we have to start quickly to get ahead of the game before the rainy season starts in late March. We believe that sport is very important and can be a great source of both enjoyment and learning for young people. Phase 2 also sees us expanding our sports field, with a full size football pitch, and two volley ball courts.

The Organic Farm and Agricultural Training Centre

We have also just started clearing the bottom of the site for the Organic Farm. The farm forms a key component of what we are trying to do in Wioso, bridging the gap between agriculture and formal education in rural farming communities. Our Project Manager, George Ansah, has a wealth of experience in organics and agricultural training and has a vision to turn our farm into a centre of excellence within the region.

The farm this year will aim to provide the bulk of the food for the feeding program, ensuring healthy and nutritious organic food for our students. Already we have been rearing chickens and harvesting eggs, which are used each week to feed the students. The natural mixture of local Moringa leaves and natural feed is working extremely well, as you can see in the photos the richer colour of the yolk of our eggs against a locally available one. It is these skills and expertise that the Agricultural Training Centre will promote throughout the community, with our adult training classes. Our partner, the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture has over twenty years of experience in locally available solutions to organic farming, and we are very grateful for their continued support.

Renewable Energy

From the outset, we decided to focus on using renewable energy at both the school and the farm. Currently all of our water needs are covered by a deep bore hole, and we have just received word that a Ghanaian solar energy company are constructing our micro grid as part of their CSR program (full announcement of that will be in our next newsletter). This is extremely exciting, and secures long-term, clean energy for the school and the farm. Funding target for this year All of the work we are doing is only made possible by the generous donations of many contributors. To each and every one of you a huge thank-you, as quite simply this school would not exist without your support. This year, our funding target is approximately £110k. This will allow us to finish all capital investment for the year, increasing our capacity to over 400, finishing the sports fields, and building a farm to feed the students and serve the local community. We hope you agree with us when we say that represents pretty good value for money! Sponsorship opportunities include; naming of the phase 2 block, the classrooms, the science lab, the sports facilities , the farm, students and teachers.

Contact

Once again a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved with us over the past 18 months, and I very much look forward to keeping you updated on our 2016 progress. For any queries, please contact me here:

James Riggs (CEO of Alma Mater Education)
3 Lanfrey Place, W14 9PY
james@almamatereducation.com London
(+44) 7766 733008

Donations: Can be received via bank transfer, as follows, or via post to the address above.
Bank: HSBC
Account no: 62155907
Sort code: 400409
IBAN: gb15midl40040962155907