Two years ago, Shadrack Frimpong, then a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, won the Penn President Engagement Prize. As the prize winner, Frimpong received mentoring and $100,000 to use to implement his goal of establishing a school for girls and a health clinic in his home village of Tarka Breman in Ghana.
His vision has now come true. The Tarka Breman Girls School recently opened. The school sits on a 50-acre tract that was donated by village elders. Additional funding for the school will come from the production of cocoa that will be conducted on school grounds by families of the girls attending the school. Initially five acres will be planted, eventually expanding to 40 acres. Frimpong estimates that the cocoa farm will produce $70,000 annually to support the school.
Some 60 girls ages 4 to 7 are currently enrolled in the school. They are from Tarka Breman and several surrounding villages. Some of the girls travel to the school in canoes. Frimpong hopes to continue the education of the girls through high school while adding new younger girls each year.
The health clinic with a pharmacy, nurse’s station, delivery room, and laboratory will open soon. Frimpong is going to return to the United States to attend medical school and has appointed an executive director to run the school in his absence.
