Partner with our Teach 2 Teach Campaign to support the continued training and growth of our La’Angum Learning Center (LLC) teachers and quality education for LLC students. Donations will provide a year’s worth of tuition, lodging and living expenses for 2 current LLC teachers while they attend a Montessori Elementary Course in Houston Montessori Center, TX.
As Ghana lacks an accredited training program in elementary level Montessori instruction, our goal is to bring 2 LLC teachers to the U.S. for additional training. Upon their return to LLC, these teachers will help build local capacity and impart expertise in Montessori education both to other teachers at LLC and in nearby schools in northern Ghana.
You can contribute to this campaign using our DONATE button or by joining our GoFundMe campaign. Any donation will be matched, dollar for dollar up to US $5,000. This challenge grant for the Montessori teacher training is provided by “the learning tree” in Oklahoma City!
Make your donation count double! Thank you for your support.
Last year's event was a big success with children at the La'Angum Learning Center (LLC) in Northern Ghana and Albrook Montessori School in New Jersey walking to honor their founders and raise money to help PAMBE Ghana fund teacher salaries.
 2nd grade Mustafa Abdul-Rahaman Our fundraising goal of $5,000 is enough to cover the average annual salary of two LLC teachers. These dedicated educators are our greatest resource, many of whom have been teaching at LLC since our first class in 2008. This initial class of students has just now graduated high school, and we are so proud! None of it would have been possible without the staff and teachers at LLC.
 1st grade Ernestina TA To put our $5,000 goal in perspective, we need to raise just $625 for each of the 8 classes at LLC or just over $20 per student. A small donation can have an outsized impact in Ghana where US dollars go far to provide quality education to hundreds of children. Listen to the words of our most senior teacher, Mary Azure. Please join us in supporting our LLC teachers as they create a model of education in Ghana!
We also will expand participation this year with an event in Bluff Creek Park in Oklahoma City at 9am on Saturday April 29 for our local volunteers and supporters.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/pambe-ghana-2023-5k-fundraiser
One tenet of the Montessori methodology of education - that working together fosters independence – was vividly demonstrated when more than 200 bicycles were delivered to the La’Angum Learning Center (LLC) in remote northern Ghana.
The project grew out of a pen pal relationship between the students at LLC and those of the community Montessori by the Sea in Saint Pete Beach, Florida. The Florida-based students learned that the 250 LLC children in Kindergarten through 6th grade have to walk long distances from their homes in scattered villages to attend school every day, and that having access to bicycles could make a big impact on the daily lives of these new friends. The students of Montessori by the Sea were inspired to help, and together with one of their teachers, Ellen Selvidge, began planning to purchase bicycles for their pen pals.
In Spring 2022 Ellen and her husband Logan Gelsie, on behalf of the Montessori by the Sea community, started raising funds via the GoFundMe platform to purchase bicycles, resulting in over $6,600 generated by the Florida school community and friends.
Armed with the funds, Ellen and Logan travelled to LLC this summer to support LLC teachers and to facilitate purchase of the bicycles, their distribution to the community, and training children and teachers in their use and maintenance.
The arrival of Ellen, Logan and the bicycles was met with great fanfare by LLC students and parents because access to a bicycle is transformative in the lives of the LLC students. Children with access to bicycles greatly reduce their commute time and spend more time on their education. Many of these children aspire to go on to high school and potentially, a university program. The commute time particularly impacts the girls attending LLC, who are expected to help with domestic chores, which often involve collecting and hauling water from local wells. Having transportation creates time for learning and opportunity.
One local student, who has great difficulty walking independently, persuaded the team distributing bicycles that he should receive one – and quickly learned to ride, gaining a new measure of control over his day-to-day activities and greatly increasing his ability to travel to and from LLC. Working together truly does foster independence.
On behalf of LLC, please join us in thanking all those who participated in the fundraiser, and Ellen and Logan. If you are inspired to join the bicycle project, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-pambe-bike-project
 La'Angum Learning Center (LLC) students in Northern Ghana participated in a 5k relay run on April 14th, 2022, alongside students at the Albrook School in New Jersey. The "Better Together" theme for the event was appropriate as it united the students at these two schools in a common goal while honoring their respective founders.
The gofundme campaign of PAMBE Ghana raised over $4000! This amount will nearly cover the equivalent of two teacher salaries for an entire year. Each donation helps continue the high quality Montessori education that Alice brought to her home area in Northern Ghana back in 2008 with an initial pre-K class of just 35 students. Today, LLC has blossomed into a school with 8 classrooms, 13 teachers, and 3 administrators operating with deep community support to maintain a current enrollment of over 249 students (pre-K through Grade 6).
You can continue to donate until April 30 at this Go Fund Me Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pambe-ghana-5k-fundraiser.
A confident New Jersey Montessori student named Sebastian dedicated his tenth birthday to raising funds to support La’Angum Learning Center (LLC) located in northern Ghana and founded by PAMBE Ghana. Setting an initial goal of $1,000 via the GoFundMe platform, Sebastian quickly exceeded it, and raised $2,765! This astonishing sum will pay the salary of an LLC fourth grade teacher for an entire year. In the course of the fundraising, Sebastian met virtually via Zoom with LLC students, which all the children enjoyed very much as they were able to see one another and learn how much they had in common. The fundraising project also provided Sebastian a hands-on education in communication and fundraising skills.
 Sebastian (r) and LLC students engage in the everyday classroom work of
a Montessori student. LLC teachers and support staff provide a safe and nurturing learning experience to each and every student, and further, maintain a healthy, dynamic relationship with the parents, extended families and communities that LLC serves. Sebastian’s initiative and the incredible gift resulting from it affirmed the importance of their work, and it was encouraging to them to learn that a young student - just like those they teach at LLC – had spread the news of their work to friends and family, and dedicated his own birthday to supporting LLC.
This year, PAMBE Ghana has received a grant of $30,000 from the Paul Milburn Gift Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. The grant will provide funding to continue teacher training, new curriculum learning materials, education support for La’Angum Learning Center graduates and a teacher dormitory project. The grant will also support an enhanced internet connection, training in digital literacy and computer equipment used by both students and teachers.
To receive the funds, PAMBE Ghana must match the amount with individual donations. Please consider a donation to help us obtain these generous funds and promote literacy at the La’Angum Learning Center in rural northern Ghana.
How can a small Oklahoma City nonprofit survive a pandemic? Dream big and talk to your friends – PAMBE Ghana is lucky to count attorney Leslie Batchelor as a friend and loyal customer of its seasonal fair trade Global Market. When the nonprofit’s way forward was clearly to move the Global Market to online sales, Leslie Batchelor offered space adjacent to her law office for an inventory warehouse and sales office.
 Leslie Batchelor shows a basket crafted in Uganda “Once it became clear that PAMBE Ghana’s Global Market would have to change course from its traditional storefront model, we put our heads together and agreed that the Market must continue. Profits from sales provide crucial funding for our elementary school in rural northern Ghana,” said Tom Ziebell, president of PAMBE Ghana’s board. The school, La’Angum Learning Center (LLC), enrolls 275 children in pre-K through grade 6.
PAMBE Ghana is excited at this new community partnership, which enables them to start a new adventure in online marketing. Leslie and her dad, Dan Batchelor, agreed that PAMBE Ghana could use vacant space in their building, The Center For Economic Development Law. Leslie, president of The Center, has been a regular customer at the Market, which has operated seasonally since 2008. She notes, “I have shopped at the Global Market most years when I’m looking for unique and special gibs. I like that I can be doing good by supporting artists working in their communities for a fair wage and supporting LLC at the same time. Elementary education and the arts are basic building blocks for communities wherever they are.”
 Sara Braden and Seaira Hull picking up orders at the learning tree in Oklahoma City. The new online Global Market offers fair trade items from around the world, made by artisans who are paid a living wage for their work. New items are being added weekly and will continue through December. Shoppers may visit www.pambeghana.org to order. Currently orders are available for pickup only at learning tree toy store, 7638 N. Western, Oklahoma City.
PAMBE Ghana began in Oklahoma City in 2008 with the dream of OCU graduate, Alice Azumi Iddi-Gubbels. Her dream: build a model of quality basic education in an underserved area of northern Ghana. Oklahoma City friends embraced Alice’s vision and began the fair trade Global Market to support her dream. The La’Angum Learning Center has flourished through partnerships with local villages in Ghana, friends and supporters in Oklahoma City and Canada, and now Leslie Batchelor and her dad.
For more information visit www.pambeghana.org.
With the help of Paul and Ann Milburn and others over the years, PAMBE Ghana has recruited and trained a dedicated teaching staff now skilled in child-centered learning methods. A solar-powered computer lab and a lending library made possible through donations from Canadian and Oklahoma City Rotary Clubs and MotherHuggers add to the rich educational environment of La’Angum Learning Centre students.
A new $30,000 grant from the Paul Milburn Fund of the OCCF will enable PAMBE Ghana to continue to build excellence in academic programs in all grade levels. The generous grant will fund: (1) additional teacher training by Program Director Eric Gumah, who received his education in Montessori methods at the primary and elementary levels in Germany and the United States; (2) library materials and librarian training; and (3) a computer program upgrade including laptops, printers, solar power array and IT staff training. With outstanding teachers, an inviting library and opportunities to learn computer technology, we anticipate that the graduates of La’Angum Learning Centre will have bright futures and ultimately make a difference in their Northern Ghanaian community!
Membership based non-profit Mother Huggers headed by Beth Jansen granted PAMBE Ghana $20,000 to support increased teacher compensation at La’Angum Learning Center. Mother Huggers
obtained a $5,000 grant from the Liddell Foundation based in Norman, Oklahoma, then named PAMBE Ghana the international recipient of Mother Huggers’ fabulously fun annual bowling fundraiser, which generated another $15,000 for the Ghana school. The bowling event also raised funds for local non-profits primarily through team registrations, a silent auction and individual contributions. PAMBE Ghana’s Board and volunteers joined the fun with several teams.
 Marva Ellard is a woman with a mission: revitalizing Central Oklahoma City’s aging older buildings. She’s tackled some real challenges, including the Midtown showplace: The Sieber Apartments at 1305 N. Hudson. When she took it on in 2005, the 1920’s-era Sieber Apartment Hotel had been vacant for years and was in poor condition, but she knew it could be brought back to life, and it’s now a complex of 30 apartments and 8 loft-style units. This year, she extended her hospitality to the PAMBE Ghana Global Market, which opened November 9 in the ground floor of the Sieber, in a space some remember as the hotel’s restaurant.
The Global Market, a holiday-season fair-trade market, raises money for an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit organization that supports a pioneering bilingual primary school in rural Ghana. A completely volunteer-run enterprise, it is always housed in donated space, so to have benefactors like Ms. Ellard and her partners come forward is a true boon.
Ellard’s imagination allows her to see potential in unlikely places. She and partner Billy Woodring recently purchased the former Villa Theresa school in Midtown, closed since 2012. They plan to develop the striking former convent into a boutique hotel, with for-sale townhouses and condominiums planned on the site, as well. Steve Lackmeyer, reporting in The Oklahoman September 6 2017, quotes Ellard: “There were rampant rumors about them wanting to demolish part or all of the Villa Theresa campus. That was not going to be the right thing to do. . . . Those buildings are important to the social fabric of our city and of my neighborhood, Heritage Hills. Keeping them matters.”
This philosophy meshes well with that of PAMBE Ghana, which believes the lives of children in rural Ghana matter, and that they have great potential.
|
Donate Today
Your Donation Today Will Help PAMBE Ghana Provide:
-- Teacher's salary
-- Children’s health insurance
-- Montessori materials
-- Teacher education
PAMBE Ghana is a 501(c)(3)
registered charitable organization.
|
.png){kind=icon}
