E-quip Africa Believes…
GIVEN: Schools in Ghana, whether chartered by cities, villages, churches or other organizations receive government support only for teacher’s salaries. Families of students must supply everything else, including the furniture. There are very few books; most children cannot afford paper and pencils, so many students have only listening as their learning mode. Access to most learning tools we take for granted is economically denied to the majority of students.
GIVEN: Schools in Ghana, whether chartered by cities, villages, churches or other organizations receive government support only for teacher’s salaries. Families of students must supply everything else, including the furniture. There are very few books; most children cannot afford paper and pencils, so many students are limited to listening as their only learning mode. Access to most learning tools we take for granted is economically denied to the majority of students.
GIVEN: Our American life styly uses a throw-away approach to computing equipment and school supplies. It is more convenient and economically desirable to replace than to repair and obtain the new instead of fixing the old. Just take a look at our schools’ dumpsters in June as the summer recess begins!
THEREFORE: It is painful to see obsolete computers and usable school supplies packed into our landfills while millions of students in developing nations are denied a decent education for lack of the same. The only obstacle is a will to collect, sort, refurbish and to fund transportation.
PERTINENT QUESTION: Would it not be better to give the money needed for transportation directly to Ghanaian schools?
THE GHANIAN ANSWER: NO! Many of these things are not available in Ghana, and even if they were, the connection between peoples is lost if just a check is written.
People to people contact is a wonderful way to see how these refurbished computers can change lives across the world, so please consider joining us on our next trip to Ghana.
E-quip Africa Goals
- To collect computers obsolete by U.S. standards for use in Ghanaian schools
- To collect usable supplies at the end of the year for use in Ghanaian schools
- To raise the necessary funds for container shipment to Ghana
- To lead group travel to Ghana
- To foster better understanding and develop working relationships between diverse cultures