Football players from the IMHOTEP Institute Charter High School in Philadelphia, USA have commissioned a Water Filtration System project in the Keta community to support the growth of Science Technology English Mathematics (STEM) in Ghana.
The STEM initiative by students of the IMHOTEP Institute Charter High School is to assist the community in the area of safe water drinking and treatment.
The coach of the team, Devon Johnson, who was part of the team who came to Ghana, told GhanaWeb in an interview, the benefit of the project.
“I am excited to be here because I have seven football players who came to the trip. This is my starting quarterback who's committed to the University’s army in West Point and this is my starting running back who is committed to the University of Georgia [reference to two of the players]. And one of the big things about our programme is, we want them to be like great young men outside of the sports that they play. They are great young men within the sport and they do great things on the field but I think the great thing about what they are doing with the STEM programme is that they can change a lot of things outside of their field,” he said.
Coach Johnson added that as part of the programme, they seek to empower the indigenes of Keta to take part in global change locally.
“I was just amazed to come here and see them giving back to the community. Watching them interact with the students makes a global change because that will take them further than anything else that they can do on the field. I think it's super important for young black kids to be involved in this because it gives them a purpose. It's letting them know that they can affect change locally and globally. I think its something great for them, we talk about it a lot but to see them actually come out here to Ghana and put it into action and be fully immersed in the culture feels like they’re making a change that’s more important to any championship or trophy that we could ever win and it's just been an experience just seeing them fully entrenched in the lives of the people, our people,” he added.
To him, the STEM initiative being pushed by the government has opportunities for students who engage in it.
‘’I think it's great that our students are involved in STEM because it is one of the fastest-growing fields in the world. It has so many jobs that have not even been created yet but they will be in the next ten years when they start graduating from high school and college. So, they must get exposed to these early because there are great opportunities for a career and also have a head start of everybody else” he continued.
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