Right To Rights Foundation visits Nsaba Diaspora Senior High School

Members and friends of Right To Rights Foundation including members of Made In Ghana (MIG), HB couture and past winner of Ms. Universe Ghana, Yvette Fanci recently visited the Nsaba Diaspora Senior High School. Here, the friends and members of Right To Rights Foundation were able to talk to the girls of the school in a comfortable setting, finding out the problems they face with their school and education in general and how Right To Rights Foundation could help.

The girls of the school were very brilliant and spoke with perfect grammar and pronunciation; however, they mentioned some of the problems they faced which if solved would make education easier for them. These include:

* tuition -- it is too high, they are currently paying 180ghc a term --this is very expensive for the kind of families these girls are coming from

*library needs books, science labs need equipment
* want to do more stuff with other schools - they stay in school a lot because the school can't afford transportation for them to go out of school

* want to be included in inter school games i.e. games with other schools

* wish they had more courses - most of them want to be nurses, but they only have home economics general arts

* need mentorship
Right To Rights Foundation is in the process of getting the stories of the girls out there and finding ways in which help can be given to these girls. The Foundation is also researching other schools that can be helped.

Right To Rights Foundation was Founded in June 2007 with the main aim of ensuring that the less fortunate in the Ghanaian society are allowed the Right to enjoy their basic Human Rights. Most members of the foundation are youth and Right to Rights Foundation hopes to bring all the Ghanaian youth ( in and outside Ghana) together to improve the situations in our country.

The Right Right To Rights Foundation is focusing on is "The Right to Education" i.e.

Promoting Girl Child Education, Ensuring all people of school going age are in school

Schools are equipped with the necessary equipment/books etc., Students have the necessary tools needed to further their education.

About the School
Obodan, near Nsawam, in the Eastern region is an educationally deprived community where child labor, affecting girls mostly, is extensive. Most adolescent girls, in and around the surrounding communities, drop out of school to earn family income by working on pineapple plantations located in the area. Consequently, they get involved in all manner of social vices including sexual abuse, which often results in teenage pregnancies and also expose them to HIV/AIDS.

However, through the intervention of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana Chapter, the trend has now changed. In September 2002, FAWE established the Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School at Obodan in the Nsaba Educational Circuit of the Akuapem South Municipality. Sixteen of the first batch of 22 girls, who completed the school in 2006, are in various tertiary institutions. While of the 23 who completed in 2007, only six had to re-write their examinations. The rest all had good passes. The current enrolment is 108.

The establishment of the Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School followed a direct appeal by the chiefs and people of Obodan to FAWE to come to their aid. They asked the organization to build a Girls' Senior High School (SHS) to enable their girls pursue higher education after Junior High School (JHS). In their view, such a school would challenge the girls to keep their focus on education, for a better future.

Subsequently, a study by FAWE of the area's educational facilities revealed that the nearest SHSs were at Nsawam, 8 km away, and Aburi 15 km from Obodan. Unfortunately many of the JHS students from the village and its environs, particularly the girls, were unable to gain admission into the schools due to poor academic performance. Those who were fortunate enough to be admitted could not afford the cost of boarding fees. With the findings, FAWE Ghana collaborated with friends in New Jersey, USA, and got financial support from Rockefeller Foundation to establish the school in September 2002. With its establishment, female JHS leavers in the Nsaba Educational Circuit and other surrounding deprived communities have access to secondary education.

The Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School has managed to “rescue” girls from the hazardous environment they were exposed to and is preparing them for a bright future. Though it is not exactly a “school of excellence” like other well endowed girls' secondary schools in the country, to which “disadvantaged” girls do not get admission anyway, the Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School is empowering girls to become leaders in their communities.