Dear Friends,
Wow – look what you’ve done! Together, we have had the courage to create a school that now serves 266 students. We have 25 graduates attending junior high (right). We’ve never had a student drop out. We are building a library. We have outfitted a solar-powered computer lab in a locale without electricity. We teach children how to read and write English. We have dealt with surprises and crises with honesty and hard work. What a feat. And what a responsibility!
Eight years ago, Yaapoa Miba (left) was a timid little girl in the village of Bumboazio, Ghana with no prospect of getting an education. There was no school nearby for her to walk to. Her parents, themselves non literate, could not afford to send her away to a distant school. Today, Yaapoa (below) has completed her elementary education at La’Angum Learning Center. She is now a young student in seventh grade, with many dreams of a brighter future.
You made it possible for Yaapoa and 24 of her mates to complete their elementary education successfully and to embark on the next phase of their education journeys, stepping into junior high confidently. Your continued support has given Yaapoa and many other children in this rural community in northern Ghana the audacity to dream of a better future not only for themselves but also their families and their community.
This last year has brought challenges that we never envisioned. Yet we had unwavering support from you, our caring friends, who generously stepped in with emergency funding. Thus, our water crisis is over. The big tanks no longer leak, we have some temporary supplementary containers, and the school can continue to function. Is this enough? Unfortunately, no. We still need significantly more water storage capacity. It is part of our infrastructure that has not yet kept pace with the growth of the student body.
Similarly, the computer lab is a wonderful asset, but its six computers are not nearly enough for all 266 students. Your previous gifts built the lab building, which will comfortably house more computer stations. But our solar electricity generation is at capacity. To add more computers will also require additional solar panels and battery storage. The payoff? A much richer experience for each student in this important, and necessary technology.
Another crisis from the past year has yielded a new line item in our budget: screening all incoming students for Hepatitis B. This wasn’t in our first 
budget, eight years ago. But when we discovered this destructive illness in some of our students, we were confident that you would help us with the immediate problem, and you did. Through your special gifts, we screened and vaccinated every student and teacher. And we treated those who were infected. And we’ll continue each year, screening all incoming students. For some, this will be life saving.
This next year will be an important time to focus on what happens inside the classrooms, developing, strengthening, and enriching the quality of our students’ learning experience. Because a school is far more than a building. This work will involve individual teacher coaching, formal training with curricula and materials, demonstrations and workshops. We will continue to pursue and refine assessments and comparisons of our student outcomes for grades 3 and 6. We’ll also continue to follow the progress of our graduates to ascertain how LLC can best prepare students for success in junior high.
Most of these items are contained within our annual operating budget – they’re what we do. While they’re not flashy, they are crucial. Your continued support today for these bread and butter items enables us to deliver what we have pledged to our students. Long term, through our endowment fund, we aim to create a reliable source of income that will sustain the school’s normal operations. This will take years to build, but we’ve already started that important work, and we welcome your participation.
La’Angum Learning Center became a reality because of your generous spirit. It has grown because you continued to care about the children and their futures. You expected your dollars to work hard, and they have yielded so much more than anyone originally expected, because your gifts impact more than the students – they help families and communities grow stronger together.
We say at La’Angum Learning Center, “Sirinsaa yani, la’angum ka toom,” which means, “Many hands make light work.” We welcome you to join our work - together we will make another year come true for today’s 266 students. Reach your helping hands across the Atlantic to ensure a sustainable future for those students who come next. By your caring gifts, we bring to life our hopes and dreams for the future.
I speak for our children, now and in the future,
Thank you.
Alice Azumi Iddi-Gubbels
Executive Director, PAMBE Ghana
We greatly appreciate the support of our PAMBE Ghana donors and friends!
This group is volunteer driven, so your feedback is always appreciated to ensure we are doing our best for the students in Ghana. We hope you had a chance to review the end-of-year giving letter in December. We hope you felt as inspired to give as our friend, Frank. We love hearing from you!
"Please pass along to Alice how much the PAMBE Ghana annual appeal letter impressed me. No pics of the executive director receiving an OKC Citizen of the Year Award or shaking hands with local politicians, or of board members with a proverbial shoulder to the wheel; no emotional "poor us" language and no sleep-inducing budget report.
Just straightforward, matter of fact details based on what needs previous contributions have helped meet in the past and what needs additional contributions will meet in the future. Good stuff. Alice's letter stood out. Well done! Carol and I didn't hesitate to double the small donation we intended to make. (The little bio on the young lady who had just completed seventh grade didn't hurt either.)"
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