Pembroke woman ready for Africa mission
Pembroke native and Fellowes High School graduate Cassandra Demers will be spending this winter away from the ice and snow, but she isn’t hitting the beach.
Instead, the third-year Carleton University student will be heading to the west coast of Africa to help out with an effort to educate the youth in Ghana.
For the next four months, Ms. Demers is volunteering with the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC). Formed in 1999, it is a network of civil society organizations, professional groupings, educational/research institutions and other practitioners interested in promoting quality basic education for all.
With a current membership of about 200 organizations, its philosophy sees education as a fundamental human right and key to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Through its work the group hopes to encourage the Ghanian government to do more for the education of its people.
Ms. Demers will be travelling to different school rooms and facilities within the country in order to help determine how effective the group’s work is in improving access and quality of education for the country’s children.
“I’ll be going around collecting information and input to see how effective this is and how it is working,” she said, focusing on some of the new programs.
By the end of her tour, she is to write a draft evaluation report and present it to the organization.
Based out of Accra, the nation’s capital, she is one of two volunteers working with the GNECC and will be staying with a host family during her time there.
The work is ideal for Ms. Demers, who is currently working on her Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management. Her speciality is development studies, and she has had a great interest in it and global issues.
“I heard about the GNECC during my co-op program in Carleton University, when I did an internship with the World University Service of Canada,” she recalled.