Africa-Press – Ghana. Little Mary (not her real name), aged 8, from a rural community in the Wa Municipality, would have had her aspirations of becoming a nurse dashed, but for the timely intervention of Relcaso Ghana.
Her father, a night security guard (watchman), was a victim of the serial killings in Wa a few years ago, which forced her out of school because she had no one to lean on for her educational needs.
However, little Mary had the opportunity to revive her dream after Relcaso Ghana, a social service and philanthropic organisation intervened to sponsor her through basic education.
Mary is in basic two (2) in a public school in Wa.
Sponsorship
Like little Mary, many other children who would have otherwise been out of school are pursuing their dreams in school through the intervention of Relcaso Ghana.
It was in collaboration with Willi-Gif College of Arts and Technology, a private hybrid basic school also founded by Mr Akongbabre.
Relcaso Ghana is currently sponsoring 36 orphaned and underprivileged children across communities in the Wa Municipality to access basic education.
Relcaso Ghana is one of the interventions by Mr Akongbabre, a young educationist, social entrepreneur and philanthropist, whose actions were not just shaping lives but impacting generations.
Through his visionary initiatives in education, human empowerment and social equity, he was not just changing circumstances but defining the course of history for the destitute children, left behind by natural or unnatural circumstances.
Who is Williams Ayaaba Akongbabre?
Williams Ayaaba Akongbabre is a creative visionary social leader who’s over two decades of social interventions had redefined education in Ghana.
His novel and differentiated problem-solving flair are manifested in many ways, including inclusive education access, impact on teacher professionalism, rescuing the sick and neglected poor, and providing educational scholarships for orphans and needy children.
His interventions also provided solutions to problems of educational curriculum implementation, removing Creative Arts phobia in teachers, rehabilitation and renewal of hope for children who became orphans due to the Wa serial killing.
As part of his initiatives as a change agent, Mr Akongbabre founded the Relcaso Ghana; Willi-Gif College of Arts and Technology, a hybrid private school in Wa; Willi-Gif Arts Series, an Arts bias enterprise to bridge gaps between the Creative Arts and the other literacy and numeracy fields of studies.
His interventions impacted and continue to impact many lives in society – the girl child, orphans, teacher professionalism, special needs children, students, the sick, neglected poor and marginalised communities.
Contributions
Mr Akongbabre made transformative contributions to education and community development through a unique fusion of creativity, leadership, and compassion for the less privileged.
He had championed multiple social empowerment services, ranging from enhancing access to education for orphans and vulnerable children to promoting economic and social empowerment for rural communities.
His transformative projects, such as the Education Quality Assurance Project (EQAP); My Life My Right (MLMR); Innovative Scheme for Small Scale Farmers and Agroforestry (ISSSFAF); scholarship scheme for needy children (SSNeC), and the “Action Packs” – a teacher-friendly curriculum support tool, had impacted many lives in Ghana.
The Action Packs, for instance, had helped thousands of teachers and learners to navigate the Ghana Standard-Based Curriculum at a time schools in the country had no textbooks, coupled with a lack of understanding of the new curriculum.
Mr Akongbabre also authored Creative Arts Textbooks, uniquely designed as “Self-Teaching” guides, to help expel the subject’s phobia in teachers, which were widely used by many teachers in Ghana.
His books and teacher training programmes had demystified Creative Arts education in Ghana and had been endorsed by the Upper West Regional Education Office for use across all basic schools in the region.
The transformative change maker had redefined education in Ghana through the establishment of a hybrid school model in Wa, integrating children with special needs, regular children and those from diverse backgrounds.
In response to the Wa serial killings, he stepped in to provide full education scholarships to the resultant orphans, demonstrating his deep empathy and commitment to social justice.
Mr Akongbabre is a motivational speaker and multi-talented individual with knowledge in graphic design, video and sound editing, project implementation, community mobilisation and Fine Arts.
To scale up his social impact, he designed and hosted educational and motivational radio shows such as “Willi-Gif Time with Heuristics” where he mentored and motivated many youths in public speaking and entrepreneurship.
Mr Akongbabre has a hybrid educational background and has studied across multiple fields.
He is currently an MPhil student at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale and has a bachelor’s degree certificate in Management Studies from the University of Cape Coast.
He also studied at the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) Ghana, and passed all his subjects in ICA I.
Other qualifications were certificates in Accounting, Auditing, Economics, and business communication.
Mr Akongbabre currently serves as Acting District Director for Complementary Education Agency (CEA) in Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District in the Upper West Region.
He also served as Programme Assistant, Zonal Supervisor and Media Officer for the CEA in Zebilla in the Bawku West District, where he designed a district map to improve monitoring and supervision at the then Non-Formal Education division, now CEA.
Going forward
Mr Akongbabre said he aimed to, among other things, upgrade the Hybrid School Model to a Boarding Status to enable him grant scholarship access to orphans from far to reach communities.
He also aspired to launch a Creative Arts Institute to train the next generation of Ghana’s Creative Artists and Educators.
In a nation striving for educational reform and equitable development, Mr Akongbabre stood out as a beacon of hope, Creativity, and a resilience change-maker transforming lives through the power of innovation, Creativity and Arts.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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