Case Study 1: New classrooms at The Brightlingsea Academy
Grant Recipient
Project Name & Location
The Brightlingsea Academy, Kumasi, Ghana
Grant Awarded
£5,000 grant for building 4 new classrooms, awarded in 2017. Project completion in 2018.
Impact
More children at the Brightlingsea Academy can now learn in a safe, inspiring environment. The £5,000 grant from Hazel’s Footprints Trust was used to build 4 new classrooms. This has enabled Brightlingsea Academy to offer , for the first time, schooling for children for their entire primary education. This means that children can progress on to the government-funded Junior High School.
One of the newly built classrooms is used as a school library. The library is used every day of the week by pupils and also by children from the community on Saturdays (when free breakfast and reading club are available).
The impact of the new classrooms has been significant to the families of the children at the Brightlingsea School as children’s parents are able to seek employment during the daytime. Previously, before the school existed, lots of parents were unemployed, especially children’s mothers, who were often tied to their homes because of childcare and no nearby school.
Case Study 2: Running costs for 9 pre-school classes at Open Way schools, Ethiopia
Grant Recipient
Project Name & Location
Open Way Pre-Schools, Dara district, Ethiopia
Grant Awarded
£7,200 grant to pay for the running costs of nine pre-school classes for 2018 and 2019. Funding refreshed for a further two years in 2020, and two more in 2022.
Impact
Open Way provides free early years education for children growing up in extreme poverty in rural Ethiopia. We provided an annual grant of £3,600 to support running costs for 9 pre-school classes in the Dara district in south west Ethiopia. The grant was initially awarded for two years (2018 and 2019), though funding was extended for a further two years in 2020 and another two years in 2022.
Hazel’s Footprints Trust funded nine classes out of a total of 25 pre-school classes at Open Way schools. The grant covers running costs include paying the teacher’s salary, teaching materials and a small contribution to the school supervisor’s salary. The education provided is consistently recognised as being of exceptional quality. In fact, the reputation is so strong that teachers at the schools are frequently given promotions to government primary schools.
Attendance took a slight dip during the coronavirus pandemic, with 747 children registered in November 2020 (the first semester after schools reopened). This increased to 847 in the second semester rising to well over 1000 in October 2021. Unlike many schools in developing countries, Open Way managed to keep to their gender policy of having at least as many girls as boys in their schools. This is a major achievement.
Open Way works with the most vulnerable communities, and 100% of their funding goes directly to projects. We’re delighted to have supported access to free, quality education for young children in this community.
Case Study 3: Lead Teacher’s salary at school for special educational needs children in Vietnam
Grant Recipient
Project Name & Location
Dien Ban Day Centre, Dien Ban, Quang Nam Province, Central Vietnam
Grant Awarded
£8,544 grant for two years of funding for the school’s Lead Teacher
Impact
The Kianh Foundation Supports 110 disabled children to have access to education at the Dien Ban Day Centre in Vietnam. Hazel’s Footprints Trust granted funding of £4,272 per year for two years to the Kianh Foundation to fund a full-time special needs teacher.
Specialising in early numeracy and literacy, Ms Thuy’s teaching has been instrumental in building core academic skills. Ms Thuy teaches the “Big Bears”, a class for older children with cognitive disabilities. As well as literacy and numeracy, her focus is on preparing the children for life more generally. This includes helping them to understand different places of work and study, how to buy (and grow!) and cook food for themselves, when to visit the hairdresser, the hospital or the market. The children have been making outstanding progress under Ms Thuy’s tutelage. Ms Thuy has an additional role which is to train the families of children with disability in the centre’s community programme.
Without the work of the Kianh Foundation, many of the children would be sent to orphanages in Veitnam, as parents are not able to cope with their special needs or with the stigma associated with their disabilities. By providing exceptional teaching, the school gives respite to the children’s families, keeps families together, and infinitely improves the life chances and happiness of the children. Some children are able to move into mainstream education after spending some time at the Dien Ban Day Centre. The hope is that all of the children can grow up to have fulfilling lives including, for many, getting jobs when they are older.
The Kianh Foundation also supports women’s empowerment. 100% of the teaching staff at the Dien Ban Day Centre are women and many are young mothers. All our supported in continuing their work whilst also meeting their childcare responsibilities at home.
Hazel’s Footprints Trust is proud to have supported disabled children in Dien Ban to gain access to education and benefit from the inspiring work of Ms Thuy.
