Our Goal
We want to provide safe and accessible drinking water to the students of Tainano II M/A Basic School in the Jaman South Municipality of Ghana. But we will not stop there. In an area increasingly affected by prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall, water will drive the creation of a sustainable school-based food production system, offering a practical climate adaptation response.
Our intervention is a single integrated action consisting of two closely connected components:
- The school borehole: we will construct a borehole with a solar-powered pumping system to provide drinking water within the school. Direct access to water will help students cope with the effects of drought and reduce the need to leave the school premises during the school day.
- The sustainable school garden: we will install a drip irrigation system on one and a half hectares of land provided by the school. The garden will be managed with the involvement of students, parents and the agriculture teacher through hands-on learning activities.
The project will also help spread knowledge about responsible water use, collective garden management and agricultural practices that are more resilient to local climate conditions.
The role of your donation: the multiplier effect
Our project has a total value of €22,000. The goal of this campaign is to raise €2,000, an essential contribution to begin construction of the borehole and access the €20,000 grant awarded by IOM through a call for proposals.
Donate now to make this goal possible: without your contribution, the borehole cannot be built.
Why it matters
The school is attended by 215 students who do not have an independent water access point. During the school day, children are forced to leave the school to find drinking water, affecting both lesson time and safety. Many students also come from other villages after walking long distances.
This challenge is compounded by the difficulty of ensuring regular, healthy meals in a rural context where agriculture depends heavily on rainfall and is increasingly affected by drought and irregular precipitation.
Providing water to a school means restoring dignity to students' daily lives, improving hygiene conditions, reducing temporary absences from the classroom and creating a safer, healthier environment. It also means strengthening the connection between the school and the surrounding area: students will not simply be beneficiaries, but active participants in a practical learning journey where they can experience the value of caring for resources, sustainable agriculture and collective work.
With your donation, you will help bring water, learning opportunities and greater food availability to the school community.
Required budget items
Your donation is worth much more! The €2,000 crowdfunding target does not cover the full cost of the works, but it is essential to unlock €20,000 in funding from IOM (International Organization for Migration). Only by reaching our target will we be able to access these funds and build the water system. Help us unlock them!
To ensure maximum transparency, here is exactly how the budget for the entire project will be allocated:
The €2,000 raised through crowdfunding
The donations collected will help launch construction of the borehole. In particular, they will be used for:
- technical assessments and preliminary site checks;
- drilling and construction of the borehole.
The €20,000 IOM grant
Once unlocked thanks to your contribution, the IOM grant will complete the system, cover the project's core technological components and ensure its long-term sustainability:
- purchase and installation of the water tank, pipes and materials needed to supply and distribute clean water within the school;
- purchase and installation of solar panels and electrical components to power the borehole pump;
- installation of the drip irrigation system, which is essential for food production;
- preparation and cultivation of the garden with students, parents and community members;
- training activities on sustainable water use, garden management and social technologies for water reuse.
Support these budget items with a donation: transparency is guaranteed, and every contribution goes directly to the project.
Who we are
We are Ghana Union Association Puglia (GUAP), an organization established in 2016 by members of the Ghanaian diaspora who live, work and are integrated in Italy, with strong roots in the Puglia region.
For years, we have worked actively across Puglia to build a genuine community of mutual assistance and support. Our mission in Italy focuses on two main areas:
- Support and solidarity: we assist fellow Ghanaian citizens in Puglia, both those living in formal urban settings and those who, unfortunately, live in vulnerable informal settlements. We work to ensure that people are heard and supported, and to promote inclusion and dignity.
- Institutional bridge-building: we have created a strong network connecting the Ghanaian community in Puglia with the Embassy of Ghana in Rome. This enables us to facilitate dialogue, support administrative procedures and protect the rights of our community.
From Puglia to Ghana: our commitment to our homeland
After years of working side by side in Italy, we decided to take a further step. As citizens who have built our lives in Puglia, we feel a deep responsibility to give hope, development and opportunities back to our country of origin.
We are the driving force behind the project for Tainano II School. We are doing this because we know the needs of our rural communities first-hand and understand how a structural intervention can change the lives of an entire generation. Leading this project means combining the experience and organizational capacity we have developed in Italy with our love for Ghana, while guaranteeing donors maximum transparency, commitment and knowledge of the local context.
Donate with confidence to those who know the area: your support for GUAP is a secure and carefully monitored investment.
Who our partners are
Tainano II School and the strength of the community
The operational heart of the project is the local public school, located in the Jaman South Municipality in Ghana's Bono Region.
Founded in 1962 as a public primary school, the institution is a longstanding educational landmark for the community. Over the years, it expanded to include a Junior High School (JHS) and now serves 215 students. Recently, the institution took an important organizational step by gaining 'Basic School' status, meaning that both the primary school and the JHS are now under the direct responsibility of a single headteacher.
This unified management structure gives us a strong institutional focal point, but the true guarantee of success lies elsewhere: this project was not imposed from the top down.
The entire intervention was designed and developed side by side with the school, parents and the village chief, who enthusiastically agreed to participate and provide direct support. The school has already demonstrated its concrete commitment by making one and a half hectares of land available for the sustainable garden. School staff facilitated meetings and dialogue with families, while the entire community has formally confirmed its willingness to participate actively in the future management and maintenance of the borehole and crops.
We are not simply building a water system for the community; we are building it together with the community.
