Taking Responsibility - School Rebuilding in Northern Ghana

Rebuilding the school in Kpachelo (Northern Ghana) is the Ipsos Foundation's largest commitment. Lucas Martin, from Ipsos in Toronto, has been involved in this project from the start. He shares the story.

The original school in Kpachelo had been condemned a few years earlier, as teachers and students began noticing large cracks developing in the foundation. With local resources exhausted and the safety of the building extremely suspect, there was no alternative but for classes to resume outside forcing local educators to teach their young pupils in harsh conditions under the hot African sun, strong winds and torrential rain in season.

This was the situation and need that Canadian Feed the Children (CFTC) brought to the attention of our Ipsos Charity Trust group in Toronto in 2015. Almost a year later, with the overwhelming support of the Ipsos Foundation, Lucas Martin was standing in the vacant classroom of the old condemned elementary school in northern Ghana, a far cry from the comfort and privilege of my urban playground back in Toronto.

It was in that moment that he began to realise why it was that non-profit organisations such as CFTC do the work that they do and why partnerships like the one offered by the Ipsos Foundation were so greatly needed in communities like Kpachelo.

In this small community in northern Ghana there are children who are willing to risk the dangers of falling debris to do maths homework after school. We can only imagine if these blossoming minds were given the same opportunities we were, what a difference their level of determination could make.

The reason CFTC does what they do and why the Ipsos Foundation is needed, is that children are our future and when young minds in less privileged parts of the world are unable to develop to fruition we all lose out on the promise that they offer for a better future.

Lucas Martins shares his story of the opening :

"As we arrived it was as if the entire Kpachelo community had shown up to greet us for the grand opening of their brand new elementary school. Three large canopies had been erected for the ceremony: one sheltered the very children the school was built for; another was for the women and mothers of the village; and under the third sat the elders, local media, education administrators and our place of honour among them.

At the start of the event each of the stakeholders involved in this project were introduced. One by one each of these "VIPs" delivered speeches to the crowd that aimed to demonstrate the importance of such an achievement but also their role in its construction.

Once the majority of the speeches had been delivered traditional dances were carried out to bring some life to the festivities.

First up, were the local women who formed two single file lines and proceeded two by two to challenge one another in a type of dance off unlike anything that I have ever seen before. 

The second dance engaged the audience: local drummers would surround particular unsuspecting observers, enticing them to demonstrate their own interpretation of dance. As a sign of respect, audience members would rise from their seats and throw money. Donations seemed to grow depending on the level of blush overcoming the dancer. This was certainly the case when I was pulled from my seat and forced to exhibit my Canadian shuffle. This may have occurred in summer but my maple leaf was glowing a bright red.

The last part of the ceremony was the official opening of the school marked by cutting the ribbon that surrounded it carried by a brave student. Gail Black from CFTC, the mayor of Kpachelo and myself gathered to cut the ribbon concluding the ceremony and beginning the Kpachelo school year.

To think that a year earlier this school did not exist and all of these children were either learning from underneath a tree or not at all. Because of this school the lives of some of these children will improve and some of them may even move on to higher education but most importantly all of these children have a glimmer of hope and opportunity that did not exist before. The Ipsos Foundation made it possible for this moment of change to occur and I was honoured to see it happen."