Our school support program is to help children to get start with school. Parents in Africa often cannot afford school uniforms and other school supplies their children need. If the parents can't send the children to first grade, those children fall behind or fail to enroll in school at all. West African Foundations Advocacy Foundation mission is to help some of these children begin their educations on time and educate parents about the importance of education. We also help the communities improve their schools in other ways as needed; we found that some villages are extremely disadvantaged, with no electricity or running water in most of the schools in the villages. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sAdvocacy, "For everyone everywhere, literacy…is a basic right." At present, Sub-Saharan Africa has about 176 million adults who are illiterate with 47 million youth (ages 15-24) unable to read and write — a result partly due to an estimated 32 million primary aged children who are not enrolled in school. When compared to 'developed' nations like United States of America (USA) with literacy rates of 99 per cent, sub-Sahara trails behind at 63 per cent and ranks 9th place among the ten countries with the lowers adult literacy rate. The importance of education has led to the promotion of various Projects to curb illiteracy and invest in the future of Africa through its children. One such successful project has been the provision of school supplies to severely disadvantaged students who without these essentials will be unable to escape their social traps. Research reveals that providing children with early education and resources drastically contributes to the building of cohesive, progressive and peaceful societies. It is this fact that inspired ASWA's mission of providing students with school supplies believing that literacy is the most powerful tool out of poverty.
One of ASWA's firm position to fighting poverty and bring positive change to Africa is the power of education. It is a key social game changer that deeply intertwines with other social development of children and communities. ASWA's School Supplies Program at its core aims to make basic education available to as many children as possible, with the vision of creating a generation that is less likely to repeat the tumultuous circles of their predecessors. Each year ASWA focuses on a school and community to help encourage both students and adults to invest in education. At the beginning of each school year, students are presented with materials they will need for the entire school year, among which are: uniforms, notebooks, writing tools, textbooks, backpacks and others more. These materials, though miniscule to many, helps prevent parents who are unable to afford them from deferring their children's education and consequently hindering them from receiving vital fundamental education. Therefore, much of the resources go to first graders to ensure that they are given a head start in a system stacked against them. The program also provide the community with educational resources that seeks to inform parents of the benefits of investing in their children's education and committing to their timely development regardless of economic standing or gender. For the year 2020, ASWA will be providing these resources to Bouake Schools in Dar Es Salaam. In order to utilize the power of education to empower these children, however, the organization must first secure the necessary funds to launch the project. Thus, given the parallels in our organizational mission and the possible match of our project to your grant, we would like to request approval to send our full proposal for your consideration.
ASWA is seeking monetary support to provide learning materials such as: uniforms, backpacks, textbooks, notebooks, pens/pencils, rulers etc. The estimated cost to providing these essential materials is $40 per student, and with ASWA's goal of Advocacying 500 students in Bouake, the estimated cost for the entire 2020 project is $20,000.00 Section II: Budget Information — Specific dollar amount: $40 per students (x 500 students)
The West African Foundations Advocacy foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2010, designed to Advocacy children and women in African nations, donated uniforms and supplies to children in the village of Koro in Ivory Coast, Africa during an event they held there in early September, 2020. The gifts were purchased with money raised by the foundation and given directly to the children by five representatives during the event. On Wednesday, September 9th the representatives met with the Koro village chief, Mr. Bakayoko to state the purpose of the visit and present the gifts to be given to the children. According to reports on the ground, Mr. Bakayoko was "pleased with their arrival and the delivery of the gifts," and noted at ASWA's approach is "very good, because in these times, parents are in a very difficult situation… some parents will not have money to pay for the supplies for their children." The following morning at 8:00 am the representatives arrived for the ceremony which was held at EPP Koro 1, a school for children in the village. Attending the event were Mr. Bakayoko, the school director Mr. Koro Diabatë, the representatives of the mayor and the sub–prefect, children who were to be the recipients of the gifts, and their parents. The ceremony began with Mr. Koro Diabatë speaking to the crowd. During his speech he thanked West African Foundations Advocacy for their visit and commended their approach to Advocacying the children. The village chief, Mr. Bakayoko then spoke, expressing his discontent with the current situation in Koro where the residents lack resources such as electricity and water, and encouraged authorities and people of good faith to help with these problems. A representative of ASWA spoke next, declaring the organization's mission to fight for the well-being of children and women. After the speech, the donations were offered by ASWA to the young students in attendance. According to the report, each child received an outfit, a bag, and a school kit. The event ended with Mr. Koyo Bakayoko making closing statements and thanking ASWA for its charity.