LEAD For Ghana (LFG), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) over the weekend held a graduation and an induction ceremony for 63 of its fellows.
The fellows who were the NGO’s 2020 cohorts were inducted into the LFG Alumni Network, a group of leaders bound by a shared experience of teaching in low-income communities and driven by a shared purpose of eliminating educational inequity in Ghana.
Founded in 2013, LFG is a leadership development organisation nurturing a nationwide movement of leaders to extend educational opportunities to children across the country. It recruits graduates to teach Science, Maths, Information Technology and English in challenging environments across the country.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chief Executive, LFG, Daniel Dotse said the organisation was poised to enhance the country’s educational system particularly in deprived areas.
He said it was for that reason they recruited fellows into such areas to extend such educational opportunities to children.
Mr Dotse commended the fellows for their zeal and efforts over the two-year period and urged them to continue to contribute their quota for the development of the country, adding, “it is what we do together that makes us stronger.”
Frank Adu Junior, Board Member, LFG encouraged the fellows to be advocates for the LFG initiative.
He emphasised that though the free Senior High School initiative by the government had seen many people in school, the focus had mainly been on quantity and not quality.
However, the LFG Board Member said the NGO was keen on serving Ghanaians with quality education for which reason it had to be supported, adding, that in the ensuing years he was hopeful that more fellows would be brought on board.
Isaac Kobby Ayibor, a fellow, narrating his experience said about 80 per cent of his pupils could neither read nor write but through the programme became better and could now read and write.
He stated that he chalked that feat by collaborating with a colleague to take the pupils through extra classes where they began to pick up.
Mr Ayibor stressed that the fellowship gave him hands-on experience as a mathematics teacher though there were frustrations at the beginning.
Cynthia kumassah, another fellow also used the opportunity to urge her colleagues to walk the talk by continuing the good work they had begun.
She also encouraged them to unite to form a formidable team that would support the LFG by sponsoring a new recruit or fellow to enhance the activities of the NGO to benefit the country at large.
The ceremony saw Isaac Kobby Ayibor and Cynthia Kumassah adjudged the most influential male and female respectively; Eric Kodua won the Transformational Academic Excellence, Mindsets Shift, and Access and Opportunities (AMA) Classroom award; Kwadwo Danso was awarded for Bridging Gender Equity while Eugene Amador was awarded for investing in school leadership.
Isaac Kobby and Jessica Chima Eme won the Entrepreneurial Spirit award; Theophilus Edem won the Resilience and Leadership award; Maxwell Owusu won the Council Member Recognition award; Lawrence Boakye Danquah and Florence Esi Amponsah won the Most Innovative Community Project award.