It is undeniable that any society’s future depends on who its youth become tomorrow. And who the youth become depends on the quality of formal education they receive today. Another self-evident truth is that the best investment of any society is that made in of education its youths, the future leaders. This is even truer for the deprived and impoverished youth. Poverty and other barriers, such as discrimination and misplaced priorities on the part of leaders conspire to prevent these youths to access quality education in order to unleash their potentials and realize their dreams.
The problem is more acute in Africa. More than 70 per cent of Africa’s youths reside in the rural communities, with dilapidated, under-funded, under-resourced schools, and limited educational aspirations for students. The Aklowa Students Scholarship Project (ASSP)
aims to provide scholarships and much need school supplies to needy rural students in Africa. It is our belief that the best education is the one students get in their own environment. But a student cannot learn effectively in the poverty-stricken, inhospitable and sometimes hostile environments in many rural schools in Africa. We therefore aim to work with Canadian donors, African teachers, and parents to help deprived African students with modest financial support to provide school. We also seek to support the education of deprived but bright African Canadian students by collaborating with the Ghanaian-Canadian Association of BC in organizing fundraising events to support the GCABC’s Youth Scholarship Project in British Columbia.