This year Anansi faced a unique challenge – 8 of the girls who were awarded scholarships and were accepted to University Practice High School, were informed that there wasn’t enough space in the school hostel for them to stay. Most Anansi students live on the campus of their high schools, in student hostels, as they are from villages and don’t have daily transportation to and from school. Part of the scholarship money our sponsors donate goes to this cost. While private hostels in the area are available, their cost is prohibitive for these students.
Kathryn and Mohammed looked for alternate arrangements so that the girls wouldn’t lose this opportunity and, after much searching, were able to find a house with space for all 8 girls. They arranged for some furniture to be made by children who are learning this trade at a center for youth run by a German NGO, and purchased or found other necessary items for the house, including a refrigerator and cooking supplies. Kathryn also found a woman who was willing to live with the girls in return for a bedroom at the house. Her name is Regina Otoo and she works at the same high school that the girls attend, teaching some classes and doing some office duties for the Head Mistress. This way, the girls will have someone to help watch over them in the home.
For those interested in the monetary aspect of this venture, the approximate total spent on the house for this year was 9,680 cedis (7,200 for rent and 2,480 for furnishings). The cost for housing the girls in the school hostel for the year would have been 9,600 cedis for these students. So, we spent only 80 cedis (approximately $27) more than we normally would have. The only catch is that the school hostel provides dinner for the girls. To solve this problem, the parents agreed to help with food from their farms and 30 cedis per month for each girl to buy food. Kathryn will provide rice, and hopefully next year the money spent on furnishings can then be used for food.
The girls are thrilled with their new accommodations and most importantly with the opportunity to attend school. And to finish this story, we’d like to introduce the 8 young women who now make up the “Abura Anansi House”:
Beatrice Aidoo
I wish to be considered for sponsorship in your benevolent organization as a Anansi scholarship scheme.
I am a girl of 17 years of age and a native of Jukwa in the Central Region of Ghana and have successfully completed my basic education in the year 2013. I am the fourth born among the seven children. I have no father to take care of me. My dream of becoming a medical nurse is becoming something I cannot describe.
I therefore wish you will consider me in your scholarship scheme so that my future aspiration will come to be fruitful.
My dear, I most often spent my time indoor to avoid people asking me why I am in the house, because they know that I was offered Apam Senior Secondary School.
Please, this year too there is no hope for me so help me, help me. Thank you.
Felicia Asabea Ayensu
Reasons why I need Anansi’s help:
The reasons why I want Anansi to help me is that I want my dreams to be fulfilled but there is no one whom I can depend on because my father stop caring for me at the age of one year when he and my mum had a divorce. I was so young by then when this happened.
Since then my mother has been the one taking care of me and my twins sister and also my youngest sister. She has fight for me and my twin sister for us to finish the elementary school, but now she can’t afford to send us to the S.H.S. level because she is jobless and also taking care of the youngest one at school.
Moreover my dream is to become a business woman in future. Please I need your help because the above financial problems have been a hindrance and a burden unto me. To overthrow my burden and hindrance away unless you help me. So please, help me to become what or whom I want to be because I don’t want my dreams to be in vain I want my dreams to be a professional one, not anyhow and want to fulfill it in future by your help.
Gloria Eva Mensah
My parents are illitrates who do not earn regular income except for my father who had been a cleaner for the past four years. My father also encountered an accident in the previous year. Due to the accident he encountered, he cannot do any hard work because it has affected his spine. What he earn through the cleaning is hardly enough to cater for the family for bearly two weeks.
This forced by J.H.S. teachers to pay all my bills and my registration fee until I completed J.H.S.
I will be very grateful if you could give a scholarship to the S.H.S. in order for me to make my future dreams come true. My future dream is to become a medical doctor so I can help others like myself.
Hassanatu Mustapha
The reason why I want Anansi to give me a scholarship is my father is a driver and my mother is a housewife, so they don’t have enough money to take me to Senior High School. And I want to become a useful citizen to my community. Also, I will learn hard when I am given the opportunity.
My dream is to become a nurse or news broadcaster. And the things I need is my payment of my school fees, boarding fees, my books, shoes and dresses.
Patience Akowuah
It is my dream to become a nurse in future. Unfortunately my mother passed away just as I was about to complete J.H.S. I put it behind me and learned hard to pass the BECE so that any opportunity that came my way I would be helped because even though the amenities are there but it will be difficult for them to support me. I am therefore appealing to you to help me and I will not disappoint you when given this scholarship to continue my education.
Patricia Otoo
The reason why I want a scholarship from Anansi is as follows:
Firstly, My mother is the only person who is taking care of me but due to some difficulties there is no money for her to further my education.
Secondly, I want to become a nurse so that I can take care of patients in my community and Ghana as a whole.
Thirdly, I have only one brother who could have help my mother to further my education. Unfortunately, thieves had broken into his shop and taken away all his belongings. Due to that there is not enough money in the home to help me further my education. That is why I want Anansi to further my education.
Philomena Asabea Ayensu
Reasons Why I Need Your Help
The reason why I want Anansi to award me a scholarship is to help to make my dreams a reality because there is no one who I can depend on to make my dreams come true. My mum whom I think can help me is jobless and as for my dad he divorced my mum a long time ago when I was a year old.
Since then my mum has been the one taking care of me and my twin sister till now. She has struggled and suffered a lot to see us through the elementary school but now she cannot afford to send me and my sister to S.H.S. level because my twin sister and I finished together.
Furthermore I want Anansi to grant me a help because the above problem has been a source of burden and hindrance to my progress so I want Anansi to help me so that I can overthrow the burden and hindrance away so to become who I want to be in future. So that my dream of becoming a journalist will not be in vain, help me to become who and whom I want to be in future with your help.
Ruth Arkoh
The reasons why I want Anansi to award me a scholarship to further my education are as followed.
Firstly, my mother died when I was very young, so my father is the only one taking care of me and my other three syblings. But he has fallen sick and does not have enough money to continue my education at the secondary level. Due to that he now wants me to learn a trade as a hairdresser.
Secondly, since my mother died everything in the house scattered. Because of that my father is now staying at a village trying to work hard to care for us, but my father is only but a peasant farmer.
The purpose t continue my education is to become a newsreader in future and these problems are not helping me to achieve my aim, so I need a help from Anansi.
The enumerated are the reasons why I want Anansi to award me a scholarship to the senior high school.