PROJECT: Our Program

In previous years volunteers held reading hours, art workshops, dance classes, and taught environmentalism. This year Ebenezer, the program coordinator decided to focus on reading and writing in English, which is the official language of Ghana. As mentioned in a previous post,  the low level of literacy in Ahanta West is a serious handicap to development. Books are hard to come buy, and a child rarely gets his hands on a book. That's why our teaching program is focused on the reading of small books, whose subject matter is written to relate to African culture (for example Kofi has Malari, Bisi and Bingo the Dog, A Visit to the Zoo, etc.). We talk to the children about what they read, make sentences out of the words in the book, and use games to strengthen their vocabulary. In the second half of the program we will focus on writing.

We teach four days week a two towns which neighbor Busua: two days at Azani, two days at Butri. Both classes have about 15 students of mixed levels. Some read well, some read hardly at all. This is the biggest challenge.

Prejšnja leta so aktivnosti prostovoljcev zajemale predvsem bralne urice, likovne ter plesne delavnice, okoljevarstvo. Letos pa se je Ebenezer, koordinator programa, odločil za poudarek na branju in pisanju v angleščini, ki je tudi uradni jezik Gane. Kot sem že omenila v prejšnji objavi, je velika hiba celotnega področja Ahanta West, nizka stopnja kulture branja in pisanja. Knjige so težko dosegljiva dobrina, ki so je ti otroci le redko deležni. Zato bo najin program usmerjen predvsem v branje drobnih knjižic, z vsebinami iz afriške kulture (npr: Kofi has Malaria, Bisi and Bingo the Dog, A Visit to the Zoo itd.). O njihovi vsebini se bomo pogovarjali, se učili besedišča, iz njega tvorili stavke, ga utrjevali preko besednih iger. V drugem delu programa pa bomo prenesli poudarek na pisanje.

Učiva v sosednjih vaseh Azani in Butre, štirikrat na teden. V vsaki od teh vasic imava skupino približno 15 učencev zelo različnih nivojev znanja, kar nama v tem trenutku predstavlja tudi največji izziv.