Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Strengthening the capacity of rural community basic schools to enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and access to key support

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statusNot funded
Strengthening the capacity of rural community basic schools to enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and access to key support
start date2023-03-01
end date2024-02-28
budget (local currency)1385879.97 GHS
amount requested (USD)100000 USD
grant typeNonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission
funding regionunknown region
decision fiscal year2023-24
funding program roundundefined round
applicant and people related to proposalvee_1

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Applicant details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

vee_1

Organization:

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Did not apply previously

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

No

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information[edit]

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Ghana

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Local

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal[edit]

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

The overall vision of GNAC Foundation LBG is to provide educational services as a vehicle that promotes and improves teaching, learning and research work for students and teachers in rural areas.

This proposal contribute delivery of interventions in a key educational problems in 4-phased approach namely: Problem A: Lack of educational logistics and new technology that supports teaching and learning in Mole D/A school and other surrounding community basic schools to drive change. Impact: The lack of technological tools like computers and a functioning internet service affects lessons on Information Technology. A situation that continually widen the gap between rural and poor folks and their rich and exposed urban counterparts. In a 21st Century, the children do not appreciate the tools needed for research and technological advancements and that affects innovation and internet explorations. Expected Improvement: The Grant if approved, would see to the supply of computers and internet accessories to enhance IT education in the beneficiary schools. This would indirectly affect enrollment positively as students would find excitement in the use of such IT tools and devices.

Problem B: Poor Water and Sanitation logistics in beneficiary schools. Impacts: Frequent outbreak of water borne diseases due to poor potable drinking water (Mechanized borehole) for the schools and communities. This affects cleanliness in schools as washrooms are left unkempt with clean habits as regular washing of hands, left to fate. Expected Improvement: The Project would see to the provision of three (3) state-of-the-art mechanized boreholes for use by students and visitors especially in and around washroom areas. This would indirectly reduce the prevalence of water borne diseases and filth in beneficiary schools.

Problem C: Inadequate Livelihood support systems for families and households. Impact: This situation amongst families who are largely peasant farmers affect enrollment and the provision of food and clothing for their wards in schools. Children are forced into labor to survive which kills their zeal for school and other forms of education. Expected Improvement: The Project would provide a boost in household incomes by providing alternative livelihood support interventions like Bee keeping and Equipping farmer groups for Shea Picking.


Problem D: High illiteracy rate and teenage pregnancy as a result of school dropout due to lack of community education and sensitization on the importance of education. Impact: This situation leads to low performance of students in school and a lack of commitment on the part of parents to the educational needs of wards. The current data Ghana Education Service shows that about 90% of basic schools in West Gonja who sat for 2021/2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination scored below 43% whiles more than 10 schools score 0.0%. Expected Improvement: The project would see to regular sensitization of Households and Parents especially to appreciate the need for education as a tool for transformation of their impoverishment. This would increase enrollment and home supervision for school related tasks for continuous learning even outside the school.

In view of the above, GNAC foundation LBG through this project is seeking to reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life of beneficiary schools by strengthening the capacity of rural communities to enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and access to key support services

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

GNAC Foundation LBG seeks to bridge the gap which is inherently unequal among the different geographic regions of Ghana, and more so in the project districts. Students in West Gonja and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba districts do not have as many opportunities to attend pre-school or to participate in enrichment activities as do their sub-urban or urban counterparts, hence lack basic equipment and materials that support effective teaching, learning and rewarding childhoods. A lot of research work conducted on the poor performance of students at the basic school in Ghana revealed challenges that resulted in poor performance of students are lack of teaching learning materials, heavy chores at home, lack of support from the home, are some of the contributory factors that lead to poor performance of students (Butakor & Dziwornu, 2018; Abdallah, Fuseini, Abudu, & Nuhu, 2014; Baidoo-Anu, 2017; Etsey, 2005) GNAC foundation, through this project grant will seek to change this narrative by supporting the provision of educational materials, and other ancillary equipment, as major elements that can improve educational performance in the beneficiary communities as a means of reducing poverty long term. A key observation is that poor learner performance at rural schools is intensified by high rates of learner absenteeism and their inability to read and write effectively due to lack of teaching and learning materials (Adedeji & Bamidele, 2003). Due to late exposure to schooling of learners at rural schools, their ability to grasp literacy and numeracy is usually compromised and utilization of this grant will seek to change this and ultimately improve student results

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

METHODOLOGY For the purpose of this project, the following methods would be employed to achieve the objectives of the project; basic community entry techniques, participatory rural situational assessment, adaptation of best practices locally and elsewhere, workshops and meetings, questionnaires and interviews.

STAKEHOLDER CO-ORDINATION AND INVOLVEMENT The principal stakeholders in this project are:

  • GNAC Foundations
  • Mole National Park
  • Ghana Education Service
  • Wikimedia Foundation
  • Traditional authorities
  • Extension Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture
  • Schools
  • Community volunteer groups
  • Other NGOs

A stakeholder meeting was held on 10th October, 2022 to solicit ideas and inputs for the formulation of the project as well as views on how the various project activities would be carried out so as to achieve the set objectives and goal.

GNAC Foundation has over the years through its team members engaged with the various schools and communities surrounding the Mole National Park during the implementation of the AEF of UNEP, Cites Mike project under European union and Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale mining project under the world bank. Currently the GNAC Foundation and Mole National Park are negotiating partnership agreement on scientific research.

It was agreed that stakeholders will be fully engaged, where appropriate, at each stage of the process. Feedback will be required periodically in order to ensure that the project is conducted in a way that is most efficient in order to have maximum impact. In working with these stakeholders, local knowledge will be harnessed and brought to bear to address specific concerns militating against the high level of poverty leading poor educational facilities and social amenities.

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

1. Procurement of logistics and learning materials (Text books, Exercise books, Desktop computers, Writing materials, and Waste bins)

2. Construction and mechanization of boreholes for three (3) beneficiary communities
3. Public awareness and sensitization for communities and other stakeholders about educational opportunities and its tendency to reduce poverty, teenage pregnancy rates and child labour.
4. Establish, train, and resource community volunteer groups in alternative/ additional community livelihood programs (woodlots production and beekeeping)
5. Project visibility and publicity (production of short documentary, T-shirts and signages)
6. Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

No

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

N/A

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

APPENDIX II: CURRICULUM VITAE OF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION TEAM PROJECT TEAM Dr. Nana Owusu Ansah- Programs Manager Role: Responsible for implementing public awareness and community sensitization, project visibility and publicity and monitoring, evaluating and reporting Academic Qualification PhD in Management (Swiss management centre university), MA Environment Management and Policy (KNUST, Ghana) Previous Project Handle Sustainable Land and water management, 2021, park manager, Gbele Resource Reserve from 2009 to 2021 Head of Wildlife conservation training programmes at Forestry Commission Training Centre, Ejisu

He is a Technical volunteer to the Project

Dr. Joseph Boakye -Director Legal Role: Responsible for implementing "Established, train and resource community volunteer on alternative livelihood program Academic Qualification PhD in Law and governance (The Netherlands), MSC Environment Science (Finland), Professional qualification in forestry (England), Bsc Natural Resource Management (Silviculture and Forest management, Ghana Previous Project Handle

  • Certified Mediator, and Arbtrator for National Labour Commission (Ghana)
  • prospective frontline regulatory officer in Forest Policy and Economics,

Part time Lecturer, KNUST since, 2013, (Teaches Natural Resource Legislation and Governance, Post-graduate level) District Manager, Forest Service Division for 7 years Assistant Regional manager, Forest Service Division, for 8 years Regional Manager, Forest Service Division for 4 years Operations manager, Forest Service Division for 2 years Director, Forestry Commission Training Centre for 8 years

He is a Technical volunteer to the Project

Mr. Asamoah Vincent Role: Responsible for implementing activity 1: procurement of materials and logistics Academic Qualification MBA in Finance, (Ivy Hill University, USA), BSc. Administration (Accounting),University of Winneba, HND Accountancy, Sunyani Technical university Previous Project Handle

1. Sustainable Land and Water Management Project
2. Protected Areas Development Programme (PADP II). European Union funded.
3. AEF,

He is a Technical volunteer to the Project


Mr. Emmanuel Addo Role: Responsible for Financial reporting Academic Qualification MBA in Finance, (University of Cape Coast), Bachelor of Commerce (University of Cape Coast) Previous Project Handle

1. US Fish and Wildlife project, 2021 under United State government
2. Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale mining Project under World Bank.
3. Cites Mike Project ongoing in Mole National Park

He is a Technical volunteer to the Project

8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geography, Socioeconomic Status

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

Socioeconomic status: At the end of this project, 800 basic students are expected to benefit from the supply of teaching and learning materials to serve as early intervention, increase educational essentials, bridge socioeconomic status and drastically reduce the school dropout rate due to financial constraints from parents.

Geography: The new tools such as computers and access to the internet will allow students/teachers to connect with others all over the world, obtain information easily and quickly with just the click of a button. The teacher will become a critical coach, showing students how to select, work with, add to and apply information in meaningful ways

9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Advocacy, Open Technology

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Socioeconomic status

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

Strategy: Supply of teaching and learning (educational) materials to basic school SUSTAINABILITY At the end of this project, 800 basic students are expected to benefit from the supply of teaching and learning materials to serve as early intervention, increase educational essentials, bridge socioeconomic status and drastically reduce the school dropout rate due to financial constraints from parents. Strategy 2: Establish, train and resource community volunteer groups At the end of this project, 6 volunteer groups (made up of 10 persons per group) from the communities would be trained and fully equipped to carry out effective alternative livelihood support programs and will eventually become trainers for other members in their communities beyond the project lifetime. This will go a long way to drastically reduce the poverty, and environmental destructions through indiscriminate tree felling for charcoal production and bush burning for hunting wild animals which may engender support for conservation of forest vegetations.

Strategy 3: Community entry and sensitization The engagement and sensitization of community volunteer groups formed, traditional, and school authorities within the districts to serve as a vehicle for awareness creation and information sharing on teenage pregnancies, child labour etc.

Strategy 4: Construct and mechanization of boreholes The engagement and sensitization of community volunteer groups, traditional authorities, and beneficiary schools on the use and regular maintenance of the boreholes

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

Strategy: Supply of teaching and learning (educational) materials to basic school

  • Full procurement processes would be adopted for the supply of materials
  • All 800 students will be given equal opportunity to access the educational materials
  • Desktop computers would be given to needy schools to setup and enhance teaching and learning of ICT as a subject

Strategy 2: Establish, train and resource community volunteer groups

  • Stakeholder co-ordination and involvement to agree in the selection process of the for-group formation on alternative livelihood programs in order to ensure fairness, and acceptability by the communities.

Strategy 3: Construct and mechanization of boreholes Feasibility study, research, consultations and interviews would be employed in the selection of the communities and schools for which boreholes are most needed.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

No

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.


14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

No

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

N/A

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

1. The Project would institute income generation activities like Bee keeping and Shea butter production which in itself, would support families to continue providing for their wards.

2. On the other hand, the idea of supporting schools with teaching and learning equipment and tools, would help advance the mandate of the Ghana Education Service as partners and hence, sustainability would be ensured even if there is the need for a scale up. More schools would adopt the components even on a larger scale for a boost in enrolment and academic performance in deprived areas.

The Ghana Education service as a major stakeholder, would own the task of monitoring even after the project’s lifespan.

3. Carry out project control and financial compliance and feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries
4. Scaling up of project to cover other communities and beneficiaries
5. Monitoring to ensure that the alternative livelihood programs continue to flourish by ensuring that the trained volunteer groups continue re-training others on the beekeeping initiatives and shea butter extraction due to the benefits that accrue
6. Schools would continue to use text books supplied

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

1. Group dynamics need to be factored in to ensure that volunteers can and are able to work together effectively. Consultations will be carried out with community leadership structures to ensure that beneficiaries are selected who can and will help to achieve project objectives.
2. Foreign exchange fluctuations and devaluation of the local currency can affect planning and execution of project activities. Project activities will be carried out as scheduled in the activity plan to reduce the impact on the project. Keen interest will be put towards the forex market to take decisions in the interest of the project.
3. Unequal or unfair distribution and equitable supply of logistics to beneficiaries could risk derailing project efforts. Therefore, the project team will ensure adequate quantities of logistics and materials are procured for distribution. Internal community leadership structures will be engaged and consulted to select the beneficiaries and also to support fair distribution of logistics and benefits.
4. Improper siting of waste bins could hamper their proper use and disposal of waste in the communities. Community members will be consulted in the planning and siting of waste bins for the collection of refuse and waste generated in the communities.
5. Lack of Parental involvement in student education. Parental involvement in a student's education has been identified as an important predictor of student success and corrections of student bad behaviours

17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.

Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Ensure Equity in Decision-making, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

Yes

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

Research questions that are important to this application are:

1. Are students in poor/ rural areas at a greater, equal, or lesser risk of failure than students in rich, urban areas?
2. In effect, does "location" matter, or is poverty the main determining factor in low student academic outcomes?
3. In what ways do the characteristics of rural schools benefit their students, and in what ways do they place basic students at risk?

The above research question can help us to determine innovation’s technical or operational viability in real-world settings as follow:

1. To identify problems, areas of focus, the basic necessities and how to sustain the project.
2. To develop Innovation, and techniques to deal/provide solutions

The following are learning that we hope to gain from this project and the requested funds are:

1. Major gaps are to be addressed through the supply of teaching and learning, and to improve student performance with the support of this project. The supply of teaching and learning materials to schools will also test the assumption that a good supply of learning materials would help to reduce dropout which normally lead to teenage pregnancy, early marriage and other social vices due to financial constraints.
2. The project is to improve the livelihoods of indigenes in recipient communities, especially in beekeeping and Shea butter production to reduce environmental destruction through wild fire in search for animals and illegal tree felling for charcoal production. Hence the requested funds would help to bring to bear and appreciation of feasibility in terms of economic evaluation in project implementation. This would ensure efficient usage of funds.

20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.

Main Metrics Description Target
Number of schools within the West Gonja District supplied with computers and internet accessories. Number of schools out of the total number of schools within the target district selected to receive computers and accessories as part of the project. 10
Number of engagements between the GNAC Foundation management, the schools and other stakeholders like parents and community elders. Total number of engagements/ sensitization exercises between GNAC and relevant stakeholders 13
Number of boreholes constructed for selected schools and comunities3. Total Number of boreholes constructed by the project for schools 3
Number of alternative livelihood interventions instituted. Total number of livelihood support schemes initiated 2
Establish community volunteer groups Total number of Parent groups benefit from alternative livelihood support programmes 6

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.

Additional Metrics Description Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants Procurement of logistics and learning materials (Text books, Exercise books, and Writing materials 800
Number of editors Procurement and distribution of waste bins to beneficiary schools and communities. 15
Number of organizers N/A N/A
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikimedia Commons N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

N/A

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

For the purpose of this project, the following methods would be employed to measure metric:

1. Questionnaires would be employ to achieve number of alternative livelihood interventions instituted.
2. Participatory rural situation assessment would be used to achieve this metric- Number of alternative livelihood interventions instituted
3. The basic community entry techniques would be employ to achieve metric number of boreholes construction
4. Participatory rural situational assessment, adaptation of questionnaires and interviews would be employ to know the number of students, and schools who received the teaching and learning materials procure and supplied .

Financial Proposal[edit]

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

1385879.97 GHS

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

100000 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

I have uploaded budget Justification to the application budget, source of funding which give clarifications of budget activities.

Best regards

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s): Email: gnac.foundations@yahoo.com

Final Message[edit]

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes


Feedback[edit]