History

Hope for Education Ghana Foundation (HopE Ghana for short) began in February 2015 when Fr. Dominic Obour, a native of Ghana, Africa, saw the dire need to educate young women. After his ordination as a Catholic priest on December 2004, he was assigned to the Christ the King Cathedral in Sunyani. After a short tenure at the Christ the King Cathedral in Sunyani, he was reassigned to Notre Dame Girls High School where he served as the first chaplain and tutor for almost seven years. In December 2011, he was offered the opportunity to minister to the parish members of the Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, in Katonah, New York, This assignment allowed him to fulfill his dream.

Throughout his education, Fr. Obour received the support of many generous donors. As a result, the young priest developed a strong need to give back to the society that had given him the greatest tool of all—an education. He’d seen many of his colleagues drop out of the academic ladder due to poverty and lack of guidance. His service at Notre Dame Girls High School brought him face-to-face with the challenges and struggles that gifted children of limited backgrounds face, and that strengthened his resolve to do even more.

Fr. Obour met Dr. Martin Evers in early 2012 during a personal encounter session. This was the watershed moment in the formation of the HopE Ghana. Later that year, Dr. Martin pledged a donation each year to a charity of Fr. Dominic’s choice.

Discover Our Mustard Seed Moments of Success – As of March 2015

Through Dr. Evers’ support, the boarding fees of four students in Notre Dame Girls High School were paid from the beginning of their third semester of their third year through their graduation from the fourth year in May 2013. Also during 2013, The Evers and Fr. Dominic realized that with the sudden death of Mr. Felix Dasmani, a dedicated and selfless teacher at Notre Dame Girls, they must sponsor the education of his five children and provide a home to them and their unemployed, uneducated mother who were destined to become homeless without this support. This culminated in the construction of a three-bedroom house with a hall, kitchen, toilet and a bath, and a fresh water well for their use. They also made this a fully-wired house that is connected to the national electricity grid. This was before the idea of forming an official organization kicked in. With the formation of HopE Ghana in 2015, its primary mission is to strictly concern itself and focus on the education of disadvantaged children by funding their tuition, educational materials and room and board.

In 2013, HopE Ghana supplied new laptops for four alumni of Notre Dame Girls High School pursuing various courses of study in colleges. In 2014, the Foundation gave a full-tuition sponsorship package to another Notre Dame Girls alumna to pursue study in Actuarial Science at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST, Kumasi). They have also provided a full-tuition sponsorship to a student in her final year at the University of Ghana, Legon-Accra; a partial-tuition to two more students, one in her first year of nursing training college and the other in her second year at Catholic University College of Ghana, Sunyani.