Norwegian Students Battle Rise Of Far Right

Charity schools in Ghana funded from Norway have a special mission to teach Liberal Democracy to students as young as 5 years of age.

The Tore Eikeland School in the rural community of Akoka, Ghana isn’t just providing free uniforms and three hot meals for students a week, but developing debating skills from the earliest age.”

Almost 90% of Ghana’s children are now in school. The population of Ghana is 26 million.

Topics important to young people such as Climate Change, lack of employment opportunities, further education, body image, family problems, substance abuse, pressures of materialism, negative stereotyping, pressures of 24/7 social networking and crime are all roundtabled at Tore Eikeland schools.

“Students at Tore Eikeland schools are empowered to achieve the greatest life goals,” says Dr Peter Slowe, the founder of Projects Abroad.

“We are throwing barriers out of the way and providing young people with the confidence and communication skills to truly make a difference to the world”.

“Rather than young people being force-fed rules and dogma, Tore Eikeland Schools are unlocking the ability in young people to peacefully and diligently engage in discourse, to evoke change using the principles of liberal democracy”.

The approach will see a Tore Eikeland Community continue to fund young people beyond their school education but also into a career in politics.

Teachers for the Tore Eikelands school all attended a week long engagement organised by the Ghana Education Service in August 2019 to go over the new curriculum.

In February, 2020, Projects Abroad Foundation are organising a trip into Accra for the Tore Youth Ambassadors to visit Parliament and Independence Square.

Dr Slowe is heartened by the massive upsurge in interest from young people in politics.

“More young people today see a future in politics”, says Dr. Slowe.

In the UK there has been a 28.5% increase (4,045) in the number of students studying A-Level politics in the UK since the EU referendum in 2016, while the number of politics undergraduates has increased by 16.1% (3,675).

“We want to offer the equal opportunity for young people to embrace politics in young democracies like Ghana,” says Dr Slowe.

In 2011, Tore Eikeland had a bright future in politics as an active member of the Labor Party in Norway, until a senseless act of violence destroyed everything. Tore was one of 69 people on 22nd July 2011 on Utoya island.

Tore’s brother Robert is a trustee and involved with fundraising in Norwegian schools, and his parents, Ragnar and Torrill, have visited Ghana twice and  expressed their strong support. Tore’s parents and aunt attended the opening ceremony of a junior high school in Ghana in August 2019.

2,858 Norwegian primary or lower secondary schools are being approach and 422 upper secondary schools.

Other funds are being raised by the Projects Abroad Foundation in the UK and Projects Abroad Foundation in the USA.

A digital ball embracing images of a world of peace and understanding taught in Tore Communities is touring Norway’s schools. It is powered by 360hub.global by Inger-Mette Stenseth and the Oslo Center for Democracy, founded by the former Norwegian Prime Minister. It is also supported by the Business for Peace network in Norway.

British Human Rights and Environmental campaigning sculptor, Samuel Zealey, is building one of his infamous ‘metal paper planes’ in the grounds of the Tore Eikeland Primary School in collaboration with Norwegian Airways. Zealey’s father was a co-creator of the original concorde.

Dr. Slowe founded Projects Abroad nearly 30 years ago. It is now the largest commercial volunteering organisation in the world. Dr. Slowe is the former Chairman of the Labour Business (formerly the Labour Finance & Industry Group) in the United Kingdom.

But the project dearest to his heart has been the evolution of the Projects Abroad Foundation, which has embraced the creation or Tore Eikeland communities worldwide. Volunteers from Projects Abroad will help to ‘power’ Tore Eikeland schools worldwide.

High Schools across Ghana are being offered the Tore Eikeland approach to politics, learning the key elements of debating and communication.

A dedicated Tore Eikeland school has now just opened in Nepal.

The Ancient Hebrew symbol, the M’zuzzah, is fixed to the front door in every Jewish home, and every Tore Eikeland’s School.

“Everyone passing in or out feels something special, even holy. A Tore Eikeland’s school is a small sanctuary, a place of love and peace, a place of learning and a place of strength for the community,” says Dr Peter Slowe.