While in the Ashanti Region, DCM Lamora traveled to Ejura on November 19 to commission the Ejuraman Integrated Community Center for Employable Skills (ICCES) Training Center’s new classroom block, a U.S. Ambassador’s Special Self-Help project. In 2018, the U.S. Embassy awarded the center a grant of $11,000 to complete construction on a four-unit classroom block to provide vocational training to more than 250 students. During the commissioning, DCM Lamora lauded the ICCES Training Center for their continued efforts saying, “We know that increasing access to vocational training is key to developing Ghana and creates a pathway to improving economic independence.” DCM Lamora also visited St. Monica’s College in Mampong, a former U.S. Ambassador’s Special Self-Help grant recipient. Through the Self-Help fund, St. Monica’s College completed furnishings for an Information and Communication Technology Center that provides internet access and digital literacy training to its students.

The Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Program provides grants to small-scale, community development projects. Selected projects must be initiated by the community, sustainable and not require additional support, and have substantial in-kind contributions from the community. Since the program began worldwide in 1964, the U.S. Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Program has distributed more than $2.1 million to communities in Ghana to help support their development.

On November 20, DCM Lamora met with Manhyia Chief of Staff Nana Kofi Badu and Chief of Protocol Ernest Sarhene to discuss local governance and security issues as well as areas of collaboration such as youth empowerment and economic development. DCM Lamora also paid a visit to the Regional Minister of Ashanti, the Honorable Simon Osei-Mensah, with whom he discussed U.S. partnership programs in the Ashanti Region sponsored by the American people.

While in Kumasi, DCM Lamora visited the EducationUSA Advising Center to discuss advising services offered to Ghanaians interested in studying in the United States. EducationUSA is a U.S. government network of over 425 international student advising centers in 178 countries – two of which are in Ghana (Accra and Kumasi). Both promote U.S. higher education to students by offering accurate, comprehensive, and current information about opportunities to study at accredited post-secondary institutions in the United States.