A visiting priest from Ghana serving as associate pastor at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Cañada is rallying parishioners and the wider community to support an educational mission to the underserved youth back in his homeland.
Father Gregory Dongkere, along with Lodwrick Cook and St. Bede parishioners Dr. Vinh Tran, Eveline Siracuse, and Gordon Wulke have proposed the mission “Celestial Seeds,” aimed to provide scholarships for students to attend teachers’ colleges in exchange for a one-year commitment to serve as teachers in rural areas of Ghana, such as Wa, a district in Ghana with poor natural resources and the lowest literacy rate in the country.
“The ultimate mission of education is to develop the potential of an individual, hence ‘seeds,’ for the good, hence ‘celestial,’” said Dr. Tran.
Tran and Dongkere said the aim is to raise as many scholarships as possible. As of Tuesday, they had raised approximately $56,000.
Born to subsistence farmers in Wa, Dongkere worked his way through each level of the Catholic mission schools in his rural region, distinguishing himself with hard work and talent to eventually study abroad and providentially earn a doctorate in education at Pomona College.
He says his calling is to return now to Wa to help other impoverished children gain access to education. However, he adds that the educational scenario is far more complicated in Ghana today than when he was a youth. The secular government in that country has since taken over the educational system from the church, with ensuing corruption and lack of oversight resulting in the common practice of “teachers” who sign up for government salaries and never show up for class, making rural education a rarity in Wa, he says.
Dongkere says his mission is to return to Wa this year to lead the Institute of Saints Peter and Paul, a college accredited in Ghana to produce credentialed teachers. He says the faculty consists of dedicated priests like himself who manage to provide room, board and education for each student on just $1,000 a year. However, Celestial Seeds’ mission is addressing the talented youth aspiring to become teachers whose families cannot afford $1,000 a year.
There are 10 administrative regions in Ghana, says Tran, noting the three northern regions “get much less attention” from the central government; whose capital, Accra, is located approximately 800 miles to the south.
“The median years of education are from one to five years for these northern regions,” Tran said. “So, there are many areas in the north that can benefit from our work. We are just beginning this endeavor. The district of Wa, located in the northwestern region is our pilot, and we will see how it goes.”
According to Tran and Dongkere, Ghana's national law states that every child should receive a free public elementary school education. It is also one of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations and World Bank for underdeveloped countries. In practicality, however, the two say this is not happening in rural areas because of a lack of trained teachers. The long-term goal is to train enough teachers to meet the education goal.
Tran says there is no deadline and the public is free to contribute at any time.
“This is a long-term project,” he said. “We are hoping to raise a sufficient amount of money so that we have a perpetual endowment to sustain the project in the long term. Donations received may also be applied toward scholarships to begin the next academic year.
“Father Greg is a holy priest, and greatly beloved in our parish,” Tran added. “We consider it a privilege to be able to contribute toward this calling of his heart to spread opportunity through education to other talented youth in his country.”
