About Programs & Services
There are three components to our programs.
1. Infrastructure and Capacity Building, especially staffing. We strive to make sure that the schools where we are active have adequate quality teaching and support staff. Because of the strong believe of PACAW, Inc. in the absolute necessity for children all over the world to have access to free quality basic public education, we decided not to establish private schools in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, in any communoity we go to, we will operate in the public schools. Millions of parents in vitually all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa cannot afford the fees for private school for their children, and this is clearly the case in Nigeria. Sadly, the majority of the public primary and secondary schools are in utter disrepair. So, our modus operandi is to work with the Parent-Teacher-Association and community leaders to significantly improve the public primary and secondary schools in the community we serve.
2. Biennual Leadership Academy for the teachers and community leaders. The young graduates from tertiary educational institutions who live in the surrounding communities are also welcome to attend the Leadership Academy.
3. Community Economic Empowerment Program.
These are the three pillars we plan to use in order to accomp[lish our Mission. At our current site, we have been able to achieve and maintain a decent level of service regarding the first component. We continue to seek donation for funds to carry out the other two items.
In 2007, during a visit to the primary school in one of the most negleted and underserved villages in Kwara State, Nigeria, PACAW, Inc. Founder and President visited the classrooms and briefly spoke with the students. He observed that in every classroom he visited, several of the students were absent. The School Principal explained that the students were absent because the parents could not afford to pay the school fees. It was also noted that the school had no toilet facilities for the students and the teachers. They had to go to the bush to relief themselves when "Nature beckons".
Working with the Parents, the Parent - Teacher - Association, the School Teachers, and the Community leaders, PACAW, Inc. paid the school fees of all the 227 students in the school for the entire 2007/2008 academic year. However, there was one caveat. The parents had to sign an agreement with PACAW, Inc. that their chidren will maintain a school attendance rate of at least 95% during the 2007/2008 academic year, excluding absence for health reasons. All the agreements were signed.
Computer Education in Primary School in Koro- Ekiti, Kwara State, Nigeria.
In November 2013, PACAW, Inc. board members visited the primary school in Koro-Ekiti, Kwara State, Nigeria to monitor and evaluate our programs in the village. The school had no library and there was no computer in the school. Indeed, not a single teacher in the school was computer literate. The PACAW, Inc. board members visited the pupils in primary six, and only two of them had ever seen a computer. We were also told that none of the pupils in the lower classes had ever seen a computer.
Since the computer center was established in September, 2014 with a dedicated computer teacher, the pupils from primary four to primary six are exposed to decent computer education. Also, several of the teachers in the school are taking advantage of the facilities in the computer center by taking computer lessons after hours.
In 2007, we took over the responsibility for payment of the salaries of the two teachers in the primary school who were employed by the Parent Teacher Association,(PTA). At that time, there was a chronic dire shortage of teachers in the primary school and the PTA had to step in.
Construction of water system toilet facilities for the Staff and pupils was undertaken in 2007.
The dilapidated Home - Economics Center building in the primary school was renovated and English textbooks, Science textbooks and Mathematics textbooks were provided for the pupils.
In 2014, we employed seven new teachers for the primary school, and three teachers for the secondary school in order to meet the full complement of teachers required for decent education for the students.
We teach civics lessons. These lessons focus, 'inter alia', on the true meaning and purpose of life. So far, the main civics lessons teacher is the President of PACAW, Inc. Other teachers and guest speakers will be recruited in the future. This is a cornerstone of this new education culture. A new culture that will emphasize altruism and living for a higher purpose beyond self, one's family and one's tribe. For it is quite obvious that the calamitous state of most Sub-Sahara African nations is, in addition to mammoth corruption, to a large extent, due to the fact that the tribal loyalties of most of the leaders far outweigh their sense of nationhood.
Our goal is to take this model to two or three other villages in different States in Nigeria, and ultimately to other African nations, obviously contingent on funding.
