About us
Guard-M Foundation is a non-profit organization in the Volta and Oti Regions of Ghana, with its main roots in the Butabe Community in the Kadjebi District. Our primary priority is the provision of quality education, better healthcare delivery, poverty reduction/livelihood, and clean water and sanitation based on the SDGs to improve the living standards of the people in the community and other parts of Ghana. The foundation came into existence in 2019 but was officially registered in 2022.
VISION
To provide a level playing field for people in underprivileged communities to have equal opportunities in education and living standards, like urban residents, in building a community of well-enlightened, financially stable, and healthy individuals for a promising future.
MISSION STATEMENT
To establish alternatives for underserved societies to have access to excellent education, good health, clean water, and poverty reduction to develop reasonable authorities for advancement in the future in Ghana.
WHO WE ARE
We are dream chasers with the concept of giving back to societies to improve their lives and elevate them to an acceptable standard of living.
Meet The Team
Management/Leadership
The management team is directly responsible for running the activities of the foundation under the guidance of the board of directors. The team is headed by the executive director/founder and supported by the program director, secretary, coordinators of health, education, livelihood, water and sanitation , Agriculture and other supporting members who all serve on a part-time and pro bono basis.
ROADMAP FOR ACHIEVING EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
Education is an important aspect of our lives for breaking the cycle of poverty and child labor, supporting child survival, growth, development, and well-being, and closing the gap in social inequality.
As Malcolm X said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
The focus of our work is to provide opportunities through:
- Organizing periodic quizzes for schools, with the best-performing pupils awarded handsomely as motivation for them to study harder.
- Providing educational and learning materials such as course books, activity books, teaching aids, exercise books, pens, school uniforms, school bags, notebooks, etc., to aid effective teaching and learning.
Developing a community-assisted farm to serve as a source of local food commodities for feeding the pupils and teachers in deprived schools. This will boost enrolment in the schools and encourage teachers to accept postings to deprived areas.
- Engaging in poultry farming with 500 layers as a financial sustainability plan for funding education and other objectives of the foundation.
- Conducting community education on the need to avoid child labor.
- Paying school supplement fees for children of school-going age who are out of school to develop a passion for education.
Collaborating with communities to provide accommodation for teachers, libraries, computer laboratories, and classrooms as an academic results-driven approach.
- Providing transport for teachers in deprived schools to reduce lateness and absenteeism.
- Fostering dialogue and international partnerships between higher institutions or organizations to assist students who desire to study abroad or upgrade their skills for a short period.
Helping brilliant but needy students secure scholarships to study in higher institutions to gain employable or entrepreneurial skills.
HEALTH, CLEAN WATER, AND SANITATION
Health, according to WHO, is complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of diseases and infirmity.
We achieve our targets by:
- Engaging the community in public educational outreach.
- Organizing personal hygiene classes for school pupils.
- Providing free health screenings to identify common but severe ailments.
- Offering clean potable drinking water for communities.
- Educating on proper sanitation.
- Establishing health centres for easy access to healthcare services.
- Creating international connections between colleges, universities, or organizations for in-service and student trainees in health for exchange programs.
- Partnering with international health sector specialists for the treatment of chronic and infectious diseases.
“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.” — Winston Churchill
POVERTY REDUCTION AND LIVELIHOOD
The foundation believes that poverty reduction is a key factor in achieving the vision of making rural dwellers financially stable to provide basic needs for their families.
It is our wise pursuit because it will ultimately contribute significantly to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.
We provide life-changing strategies through:
- Setting up village savings and loan (VSL) models in the community to create self-managed and self-capitalized savings groups that use members’ savings to lend to each other. This will make the members financially stable to provide basic needs for their families.
- Giving grants to community members to set up businesses as a poverty alleviation scheme.
- Providing financial education to community members on good management of their income.
- Offering avenues for people to venture into entrepreneurship, such as buying and selling, poultry, or animal farming.
- Training young people in soap making, washing powder making, tailoring/sewing, shoe making, and batik tie and dye.
- Providing clothing, shoes, boots, etc., for people in underdeveloped communities as a way of meeting basic needs.
- Assisting communities during natural disasters.