For most rural and financially challenged children, education remains an inaccessible privilege. Even fortunate students who graduate with a secondary or tertiary degree find that their schools and universities do not equip them with the latest skills demanded by the ever-changing market.
EduCom provides financial and material aid to students and schools, and the means to learn the skills essential for employment.
We chose Ghana as our first base of operations, a country where only 17% of 1.8 million young adults enroll in a university. Odds are heavily stacked against girls and rural youth, who face financial, infrastructural and societal challenges.
An annual college scholarship for 32 exceptional but disadvantaged students in Ghana. It mentors each student throughout their educational journey and places them in internships.
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Applications are accepted once a year.
Selection is based on students' high school scores (WASSCE) and the essay they submit. To ensure fair distribution of scholarships, we will pick 2 students from each of the 16 regions of Ghana, with an equal selection of boys and girls.
In Ghana, only 17% of high school graduates enroll in a university because of the prohibitive cost of a college education. Most of the students who enroll do manual labor to pay their way through college. The most disadvantaged are children from rural Ghana and girls. Many families do not prioritize their daughters' education.
By selecting 2 students from each of the 16 regions of Ghana each year, and giving equal opportunities to girls, we hope to make a consistent dent in the rural-urban divide and gender gap in college enrollment and graduation in the country.
Fortunate students who graduate with a secondary or tertiary degree, find that their schools and universities do not equip them with the latest skills demanded by the ever-changing market.
The beneficiaries of this program will be provided internship opportunities and will take professional development courses throughout their four years in college to develop additional workforce-related skills to make them competitive in the job market. In the third year of undergraduate studies, beneficiaries will be assisted in finding full-time jobs in order to enable a smooth transition into the workforce.
They will be paired with a mentor for the first year of employment in order to support and guide them. The long-term goal for this program is to have graduates of this program become mentors for future beneficiaries. We are working to expand internship placement opportunities to sectors that are in demand and not offered.
EduCom runs this scholarship in Ghana with Sarah Rapp, founder of How to Be Global. It covers the cost of education, food, clothes, books, and other materials of 50 orphans currently enrolled in Street Academy, Jamestown, Accra.
— Sarah Rapp
Sarah Rapp, the founder of 'how to Be global', was in Ghana, where she visited Jamestown, probably the poorest neighborhood in Accra.
She explains: "Seeing these thousands of human beings who are just like you and me with literally nothing, broke my heart into pieces. I feel everyone just accepts that Africa is a poor and/or underprivileged continent, but only a very few people actually attempt to jump in and make a difference. I don't want to be the tourist who feels sorry the day I see these things — I want to make a change! That's why I started this fundraising project. I want to make sure that these amazing girls and boys have the chance to go to the only school in Jamestown, get food and education, which empowers them to shape a better future for themselves and the entire community."
Funds are also used to help single mothers struggling to meet their basic needs like food, electricity, rent, and transportation.
