Mission

History (Why do we want to do it?)

Kanaka School was founded by Christiana Frimpong in 2003. The project started with Christiana´s visit to her hometown in Ghana after 20 years working in Europe. She realised that, because the town only had a Secondary school (to go onto university), many young people had nothing to do after they finished primary school, and ended up having adult lives (working and having families) when they were still teenagers.  She thought that this situation could be improved if they had the chance of preparing themselves professionally. Also, the adult population in the area had not had access to such education at the time, but many adults would be willing to go back to school and learn or improve in a profession.

Kanaka school started being built with Christiana´s savings and with donations received from her employers in Holland in a land she inherited in her hometown, Domeabra, a small rural village (population 1,500) near Kumasi in the Ashanti region in Ghana. The school is registered in The Netherlands as a Foundation (Stichting) since 2008. The needs have always been bigger than the funds received, mostly due to the need of fulfilling the Ministry of Education requirements in terms of infrastructures and installations that result in having to have a big compound fully built before official registration can be obtained.

From the maximum of 500 students,  95 students can currently attend and with their fees only the school costs are barely covered.  A total of €173.000 Euro has already been invested so far in building and up keeping the school. From these, €102.000 has been invested by Christiana & familie. The rest have been donations from her employers, private donors and other Foundations (COR, Haëlla and A4C).

Actions taken to achieve self-sustainability:

• The school has acquired a van, so that students all around the region can attend the school without having to bear the expenses of boarding at the school during the week days. Also, because the population in the village is not enough to sustain the school financially, more students need to be recruited in the surrounding area.
• Publicity: Besides radio campaigns, word to mouth is very important as we are targeting a small region in which many communication links are already established. Also, the school personnel sometimes travel with the school van to remote communities within the region to publicize the school.
• Accredited studies, which make KANAKA eligible ffor government subsidies starting mid 2024

 Beneficiaries (For whom are we doing this?)

The initial students in the school were mainly teenagers and adults who were interested in receiving professional education and certification in an area that was either new to them, or because they wanted to improve their skills, or because they needed official certification to continue working in their current professions.  But due to Kanaka´s lack of official certification, they need to take their exams in another school which is inconvenient and therefore many have dropped out in the last year. Also, the population in the area is not enough to fill-in the school and until the boarding options are finished, it will be impossible to have enough students.

On the other hand, since 2012, and following a Governmental campaign against Child labor in cocoa farms and in favor of early schooling, it was identified that there was an increasing demand for Primary education. In order to accommodate this demand and to increase the income of the school, there are already 4 classrooms for kid’s ages 2 to 6 with over 70 students.

There is a high demand for quality education in Domeabra and surrounding area, as proven by the high enrolment rates in other professional schools and the interest that the population is showing already. There are other schools in the area but they only offer Secondary school  aimed only to pursue University education which is not affordable for a large part of the population. The tuition fees in Kanaka are affordable for the vast majority of the population, even for the full boarding option.

 Social impact (How are we changing things?)

With KANAKA providing Primary school education and Day-Care, the social impact in the region is tremendous: early schooling will have great benefits in the students’ academic potential but also the fact that many mothers will now have more time to work and earn an income to improve the children´s living conditions at home.

The school is also having an important social impact on teenagers who would not have any other possibility of further education after primary school, to be trained in a field that will provide them with more chances of getting a sustainable income and at the same time provide them with a motivating and encouraging social network with their fellow students. Before this school was opened, after primary school, most of them would take up non-skilled and low paid jobs, mostly in agriculture related activities. Having an official title in a profession will open doors for further development of the students and will improve their living conditions and those of the whole area.

We would also like to mention the impact that the school is having on women, also a very vulnerable part of the population. On the one hand, the professional training and subsequent incomes generated from it will be important for women in order to gain autonomy and empowerment. And also now, with the incorporation of Day-care and Primary school students, many mothers will be able to do different jobs now that they do not have to carry their children with them, or just be able to do their job more freely,  while their children attend school.