Creating Opportunity for Families in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Our school bus has arrived! In fall 2014, the Akaa Project successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign to purchase a school bus for our established school, the Asiafo Amanfro Community School. After months of searching for the right vehicle, we have finalized the purchase of a Toyota Hiace as our school and organization vehicle. And now, after a smart paint job, we are finally presenting it in full:

The school bus will support our mission of accessible, quality rural education by enabling more children to attend school, extending our life skill development activities and enabling us to work with more volunteers.

In the past few weeks, we have already been able to see the bus’s impact for our programs. We rewarded and acknowledged students who had the best attendance and timeliness to school by taking them on a mini excursion. Then, the final week of the academic year we organized a football tournament with two other village schools. Because of the far distances between schools, rural children rarely get to interact with other students or participate in inter-school activities. We transported teachers and students to one school where students played football (boys and girls) and were able to meet other children from their greater community.

With the bus, we are excited to now be able to facilitate these engagements between schools and impact more children throughout the year – and all made possible because of the amazing people who donated to our crowdfunding campaign. This was truly a team effort and we want to thank everyone who contributed:

• Damon and Mary Hickey for their extremely generous matching donation
• Acton Congregational Church
• The Longbrake Foundation
• ‘That Escalated Quickly’ Campaign Perk: Tony Cinquino, Lisa Maltese, Karl Ruter, Jeff Goodman, Andy and Janet Moore, Linda Hansell, Zoe Keller, Dana Obery, Anne Leland, Diane Fay
• ‘Bump it Up’ Campaign Perk: Jason Sterrett, Erika Kay, Daniel Hassett, Zoe Keller, Jana McKinney, Anna Moore, Mary Bierman, Rebecca Cinquino, James Ashun, Ed del Guercio, Jenny Bay, Taylor Marion, Andrea Hansell, Ned Ruter, Kevin Carpenter, Adam Hansell, Elizabeth Plumley
• ‘Moringa Magic’ Campaign Perk: Niki Duffy, Julie Herlihy, Adam Hansell
• ‘Media Maven’ Campaign Perk: Janet VanderStappen, Meredith Bratton, Cesar Andrade, Matt Rubin, Roscoe Family, Emily Johnson, Marissa Evans, Maya Rodale, Andrew Choi
• ‘Fab 5/Fifteen Dollar Friend’ Campaign Perks: Emily Derfler, Hannah Fronzak, Mary Gaertner
• Mary Abdoo and Jim Menihane, Allan Ruter, John Harper and Ellen Tohn, St. James Episcopal Church (Wooster, OH), Maddie Petersen, Sarah Vechik, Eleni, Rachel Lewis, Jessica Lewis, Laura Cremer, Shelby Thielke, Amy Bogusz, Cheryl Collins, Patience McCann, Bob Bellman, David Hansell, Lauren Gilliss, Dean and Diane Goodermote, Reid Plumley, Hannah Huston, Catherine Gillette, Renee DeVivo, Leslie Chappell, Ronna Pohlman, Andy Thorp, Charlotte Klein, Taylor Thorp, Rebecca Lang, Julie Hansell, Mary Grimanis, Thomas McCabe, Katie Morton, College of Wooster Field Hockey Team, College of Wooster Peanuts, College of Wooster Zetas
• And a big thank you to those who made an extra effort behind the scenes of this fundraising campaign: Calla McCabe (campaign lead volunteer), Adam Hansell, Anna Moore, Gabi Morrison, Annelise Bay, Zoe Keller, Dana Feit, Dana Obery, Erika Kay, Elizabeth Plumley (Board Member)

We also extend our gratitude to those who requested anonymity.

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Coming soon…our next teamfunding campaign. Sign up for our newsletter to be included in updates on how you can help!