GEIG graduates first SHS scholarship beneficiaries

Educational nonprofit organization Girls Education Initiative Ghana (GEIG) has graduated its first two high school graduates Barbara and Hamdalla whose school fees and educational expenses were fully paid by the organization.

They are two of thirteen members of the first cohort of beneficiaries that GEIG recruited and started supporting in 2014.

Hamdalla, eighteen years old, is a graduate of Fomena 1Amadhiya Senior High School where she studied general arts with electives in geography, elective math, history, and economics.

She has mapped her future career with aspirations to be a midwife because of the inadequate number of professionals in this field in Ghana.

For Hamdalla the goal of becoming a graduate meant overcoming some very long odds. She comes from a family of nine girls and she is the only one of her siblings to finish high school.

The others are married or working as a hair dresser or as a seamstress. Her dad passed away when she was 3 months old and her mom is a petty trader. Currently she lives with her sister, a food vendor in Kumasi.

She recounts, “When I was in class five and six I used to sell water before and after school so I could cater for my school fees and supplies.”

One of her teachers who later introduced her to the GEIG scholarship program, learnt of this and started helping her save the monies earned from selling.

Barbara who wants to be a nurse is one of two siblings. She is sixteen years old and a graduate of Asanteman Senior High School.

Her father, a carpenter, passed away when Barbara was six years old. Her mom, a petty trader, has some medical issues: sickle cell disease and has limited mobility in her legs which resulted from complications when giving birth to her younger sister.

Barbara’s path to GEIG and success in school is somewhat different.

Narrating how she got to know about GEIG, she indicated, “My family is next door neighbors to the founder of GEIG. Ms. Patterson’s mother informed my mom of the organization when it was being founded. After reviewing my grades, I was invited to join the other students for a session in Kumasi. After the three weeks summer school I was invited to join the first cohort.”

She still remembers how she got the opportunity to join the GEIG scholarship.

One of the characteristics of Barbara’s journey was the maturation process she experienced through GEIG’s supportive structure: “GEIG’s 2015 vacation classes also matured me. I was thirteen years old and taking classes on a university campus. We learned how to make PowerPoint presentations from Sir Johan Classen in Presentation Skills. We cooked our own meals at the hostel and we built a community while there. We also got to meet journalist Peace Hyde and the 2014 Vlisco Brand Ambassador Mrs. Eugenia Tachie – Menson. They both encouraged us to dream high and try to achieve beyond our dreams. We were given the opportunity to visit Ashesi University for the Future of Ghana Youth Leadership Forum.”

With the guidance of the staff under the leadership of Director, Elizabeth Patterson, these two girls became leaders and discovered new abilities.

One of the key aspects of the GEIG programs is its emphasis on public service as well as internships. As such, in 2017, Hamdalla served as a teaching assistant for Beautiful Beginnings International School while Barbara did her internship service at GDS consults, an architectural firm in Kumasi where she learnt how to design and build homes on a computer.

Founded in 2014 under the leadership of Elizabeth Patterson, The Girls Education Initiative of Ghana, GEIG an educational nonprofit organization has been operational for four years and has supported thirty-three students in the Ashanti and Greater Accra regions with financial aid to transition from class six to high school and to tertiary degree programs.

 

 

 

 

By: Ghana/Ultimatefmonline.com/106.9FM

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