The Yamoransa Model is committed to building ICT Centers in each of the 16 regions in Ghana however, it has not ruled out the possibility of additional centers in a region. That is exactly the case in the Ashanti Region where a friend of the Yamoransa Model, Ms. Rona Mogil agreed to collaborate with her good friend Mr. Charles Amponsah Ofori as Promoters for a new center at the Asara Bedlako Senior High School (currently the only senior high school being serviced by the Yamoransa Model, and another example of the flexibility of the YM Model). The school which had been founded in 1993 has 1,551 students, 801 female and 750 male and a staff of 120 of which 80 are teachers. It is one of the most underserved high schools in the region.
As usual, the TECHAiDE team traveled to the site to perform a needs assessment and after a careful inspection of the proposed site, it recommended the installation of the Yamoransa Model Lab 3 Annex at the high school. (When an ICT Center is deployed in regions with an existing site the new Center is named with a decimal point and is annexed to the original site.)
They concluded that the original buildings would require renovations, including replacing the windows and the doors, floor tiling, ceiling fans, and other upgrades that would be completed by the local authorities before the installation of the EDULab Gold components. Due to the financial constraints associated with this school, the Helping Africa Foundation agreed to provide the necessary financial resources to support the renovations.
The building renovations were completed on June 15th, 2021 on schedule and the project dedication was scheduled for July 8th, 2021, however since the Promoter, Rona Mogil was unavailable to travel at that time, the dedication was re-scheduled for October 25th, 2021.
On July 7th, 2021 a delegation consisting of Dr. Deborah Rose, the President of the Helping Africa Foundation, Mr. Japhet Aryiku, the Executive Director of the Helping Africa Foundation, Mr. Kafui Prebbie, the CEO of TECHAiDE, and Friends of the Yamoransa Model and the Helping Africa Foundation, Jonathan Wiesner, Marva Parker, Georgia Goldberg and Grace Asiam traveled to the school in order to sign the MOU with the Headmaster of the school.
Following the signing, which was attended by government officials as well as local tribal leaders, Dr. Rose commented that even though the official dedication would not take place until October, that the center was to be open and available for the students immediately.
The ICT Center is actually housed in two separate buildings. The computer lab consists of 48 stations for the students with individual desks and chairs, monitors, keyboards and mouse that are wirelessly connected to the ASANKA device. The Maker Space, consisting of 3D printer, VR equipment and robotics are housed in a separate building at the opposite end of the campus.
The Center was officially dedicated on October 25th, 2021 in a ceremony that was attended by numerous local officials and tribal leaders, including the Headmaster, Dr. Emmanuel Asiedu, Mr. Kafui Prebbie, CEO of TECHAiDE, Mr. Japhet Aryiku, the Executive Director of the Helping Africa Foundation, and Jonathan Wiesner, Friend of the Yamoransa Model.
The Honorable Lawyer Amoaka Asiamah, the MP for Adansi Fomena Constituency and the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament spoke eloquently about how he was adopting the school as his special project and promised to build additional toilet facilities and to provide even more computers for the school. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, neither Dr. Deborah Rose, the President of the Helping Africa Foundation nor Ms Rona Mogil were able to attend the dedication.
Other Lab Projects
