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Project history
The Dreamlands School was founded in 2003 by Pastor James Dugger and Agartha Amponsah, with a view to support the orphans and disadvantaged children in and around the Akumadan community, in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Below is a video from our recent trip to the school in November 2010, to see how the money we have raised so far has been used.
.If you can help Pass It On Africa in any of the ways mentioned in this short video, click here.
The best way to summarise the project is through the words of Pastor James.
"The increasing number of orphans, needy and less-fortunate children became a matter of grave concern and touched our hearts so much that since the year 2000 we conceived the idea of establishing a school. We then began soliciting assistance to start this noble course which never came until the year 2003 when we began the school on our own with 15 children made up of 5 orphans and 10 needy ones.
I began the school in a church building hoping to later save or raise some money to acquire some plots of land on which I would put up a classroom block to properly and conveniently house the children, as the numbers grew.
In 2006 we moved the school from the church building to a temporary five-classroom wooden structure."
After six months of email tennis between "Dreamlands James" and "Brighton James" the team flew out to Ghana in November 2008 to view the Dreamlands school and create a development plan.
What have we achieved so far?
Having spent a few days at the school and having met the Pastor, the staff, the children, the project architect and the Ashanti tribal Elders, the Pass It On Africa team agreed the following:
Once the official school “certificate of registration” had been obtained they would, with the help of a Pass It On Africa team member who lives in Accra, set up a bank account and send out the first installment. Pass It On Africa have since agreed to fund the building of a (12 classroom, one dormitory block) School/Orphanage.
This project, which could take up to 3 years to complete and over £115,000 to fund, started with us sending out two £6,000 installments needed to put down the school’s foundations and start the build. The first installment was sent out in March 2009.
Work is currently being done to build the foundations of the toilet blocks that are so desperately needed.
We are delighted to report that Pass It On Africa has also made a big dent into the £20,000 needed to build the Junior School, thanks to the remarkable efforts made by our supporters at The Repton School. (A full report on Repton's efforts will come next month.)
Our aims for the future
This project, which could take up to 3 years to complete and over £115,000 to fund, started with us sending out two £6,000 installments needed to put down the school’s foundations and start the build. The first installment was sent out in March 2009.
We were overwelmed with the level of progress that has been made at the school with relatively small amounts of money. However, there is still much to be done. In accordance with the original Development plan, Pass It On Africa will be focusing future efforts on:
- Completing the bore hole project.
- Providing reading books for the school library.
- Developing an I.T suite within the new Primary School (within the library).
- Building toilet blocks for the school.
- Building dormitory facilities for students and teachers.
- Building a brand new Junior School for older students, age 12-16.
- Provide a perimeter fence for the school.
Based on last year’s financial figures, we are aiming to have completed the building of The Dreamland School/Orphanage by March 2014. In order to achieve this goal, we need your continued support.
