About us

How We Started

EROP project was borne during my visit to my village after 25 years of being away. After visiting some of the Schools in the district and also interviewing families, teachers, and children in these remote areas I was surprised to note that the academic performance in the districts in the region and other regions of Ghana had be very low for years. Most of the districts had alarmingly low School pass rate for Basic Certificate Examination Examinations(BECE), high absenteeism, teachers were de-motivated and not willing to stay and teach in these remote villages for longer periods coupled with the problem of shortage of teachers in the Country. Families could not encourage their children to go to school as they themselves do not understand the value and benefits of education.

Disadvantaged families and children could not perceive education as a means to come out of generational poverty. Parents and their children had accepted life as it is and had resulted in peasant farming or trading as a means of surviving. Even though enrolment rate was high for primary schools as a result of the Government’s initiative on compulsory education for primary schools, most of the children passed through primary school as routine and not with a view of pursuing a career which will better their lives and overcome the cycle of poverty which had passed through their families for decades.

For nearly 25 years about only a small percentage of pupil continued from Primary School to Secondary Schools, less than 1.1% of the entire district who enrolled for Secondary schools ended up going in University. In 2010 Basic Certificate Examination Examinations level results was (0%) in some of the schools in the district. Support for orphans, disadvantaged children was not existent.

In some districts, school infrastructure had been provided by donor organisations as a means of improving education, however there are still alarming low pass rate (almost zero), the proportion of female to male at schools in some areas was very low, showing wide gap in gender. Teenage pregnancy is high, malnutrition in the Kindergartens and Junior High schools. The cycle of poverty and deprivation still continues amongst disadvantaged families and children in these remote villages.

I was deeply moved because it dawned on me that if my father had not encouraged me and my siblings to take our education seriously, we could all have been in the similar situation. What made a difference was the fact that my father valued education and as a result motivated us to go to school.

I felt having achieved a good profession in UK and coming from similar environment I needed to give back to my local community, district and the World the help that they need. I believe helping one disadvantaged child out of poverty through education would go a long way to reduce World poverty and promote self-sufficiency in a long term.