| About 30km
south of Kumasi is the village of Senfi, the location of Scott
Trade Institute, a small non-profit vocational school for young adults
founded by your host Charity. |
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| In 1999,
Charity returned to Ghana for good, and with funds raised in the isolated
native community of Mistissini in Northern Quebec, Canada, she established
SCOTT TRADE INSTITUTE. The school has managed to survive through the hard
work and dedication of its founder, supported by the community, teachers
and generous individuals. |
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| Then in
2003, the school received a much needed boost in the form of
a monetary grant for equipment and materials from THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (C.I.D.A.) under its Canada Fund for Local Initiative
Program. |
| Should you
be interested in seeing this project in operation, Charity would
be proud to show you this little seen side of Ghana. A morning trip to
the school is an experience you won't forget. Four Villages Inn is happy
to provide its 10 seater air-conditioned Toyota vehicle FREE OF CHARGE
for a donation of no less $30.00 (or cedi equivalent) made to the school.
Every little bit helps to keep the school alive. Your name will be added
to our mailing list to keep you informed about life at the school in future. |
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Canadian International Development
Agency ~ Review by Susan Jones ~ Staff Writer
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The Windows
of the Scott Trade School are open,
in the hope a cool breeze blows in. Goats frolic beside the doors and there
are chickens in the yard. Inside, the faces of young students glisten with
sweat as the temperature hovers near 30 C. This small cement shell houses
facilities where students learn to dye the batik fabrics so popular in
Ghanaian clothing, to be dressmakers and shoemakers, professional cooks
and hair dressers. Everyone learns English. In contrast, Charity Scott's
house in northern Ghana would be considered beautiful on any continent.
But it's this three bedroom bungalow that allows Charity and her |
husband Chris to support her 25 year
dream of teaching a trade to every young woman from her village, near the
City of Kumasi. |
| "This is
Charity's dream," said Chris Scott as he pointed to the small
building located about 10 minutes drive from his home. "The dream began
in 1979 when we left Ghana and went to Canada, where I taught school. All
the time Charity saved and came back to Ghana to build our house here and
to start a school. She came back every few years with a little bit of money
and built just a bit more on the house. The land for the Scott Trade School
was donated by the village." |
| At a sewing
class, several girls make place mats and tablecloths from the
batiks they had previously dyed. Every girl wears a pink or mauve uniform
they sewed themselves. The sewing machines, which run without electricity
and have hand-powered treadles, were paid for with a $6,000 Canada Fund
for Local Initiatives grant, received in 2000. |
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| "Now the
school is self-sustaining. We sell what we produce in the village,"
said Charity. Her family came from the village where the Scott Trade School
is now located and she met Chris in Ghana in the 1970s, when he taught
school there under a |
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Canadian University Students Overseas
(CUSO) contract. "When I was growing up, I was taken to live and work for
a half sister and I wasn't treated very well. I vowed then, if I could
spare my last penny, no girl would work as a kind of untrained maid," Charity
said. "These girls are learning a trade and already, since the school began
in 2000, some have graduated and are gainfully employed. My goal is that
every child from my village will have a trade." |
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