Africa Education Partnership
Elaine Chagnon
Elaine, who has spoken to the club before, has recently retired from her role as a teacher in the Granby Public School System. She has al Master's Degree in Education. She is involved in the Africa Education Partnership which is headquartered in South Windsor and established in 2011. Its mission is to promote peace and reconciliation through education in Nigeria. Elaine has gone on 10 trips to Nigeria and is the Project Director for a number of project in Nigeria and also serves as their educational consultant. Since 2017 our club, through the International Committee, has donated $5,500 the the Partnership.
With the pandemic, we weren't able to travel last year nor will we be able to travel this year, but she wanted to bring us up to date on their work.
One of the first projects that they were able to do was to help one of their 3 rural schools to finish up a new building. We were able to help with putting on a new roof and running electrical wiring for them. These 3 schools, when Elaine first visited them had no water, no electricity, and no sanitary facilities.
They also helped with the building of desks for the school. They are made of iron with a laminate top and each desk can seat two children.
Our funding has been used to help with a project for clean water. With this funding and help from others they were able to complete 4 water projects this year. There partner in the project was able to buy in bulk and they were able to get 4 well for the price of two. The top left on the third picture shows the storage containment tank to hold the water. This was set up in a village that had no water prior to the work.
In addition to the water, sanitary facilities were needed . You can see the facilities under construction and the finished building above.
In addition to building the schools, improving the water supply for school and community, providing for sanitation. The children still need to get to school. This school bus more than doubled their capacity to get the children to school. The blue cannisters are filled with spare parts.
School is only required until the 6th grade. High Schools are few and far apart. Dormitories are critical for allowing girls to continue their education.
Na Gode! -Thanks!