Br. Rupert O’Sullivan
Presentation Brothers
Ghana
Br. Rupert O’Sullivan, a Presentation
Brother, originally from Allihies, in the Beara
peninsula, West Cork, works in an isolated area
near Bolgatanga, in the upper East Region of
Ghana. The region is arid and most people eke
out an existence through subsistence farming.
There are few schools in the area and enrolment
in primary schools is low as boys are expected
to herd the animals and education has not
traditionally been seen as a priority.
At the request of the community represented by
the local Chief the Presentation Brothers began
building Presentation Junior Secondary School in
2000. The aim of the project is to develop a
quality education for the boys and girls of the
area so that the region can produce its own
educated leaders and professionals. The present high
rate of illiteracy means that people have low
self-esteem and have to avail of a scribe to
read and write their letters. This is often
degrading and dehumanising.
The Brothers endeavour to promote the education
of girls as well as boys, so that women can take
their rightful place in society. In Presentation
Junior Secondary School 40% of the pupils are
girls, which is well above the national average.
The school is now the leading school in the
District and continues to expand and the demand
for places grows ever greater. Br. Rupert
proudly proclaims that by developing education
in this area the Brothers are helping to fulfi l
one of the key Millennium Development Goals
which were pledged by the United Nations in
2000, to ‘spare no effort to free our fellow
men, women and children from the abject and
dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to
which more than a billion of them are now
subjected.’