10 Years of Partnership with Ghana’s Kokrobite Chiltern Centre

What began as a small, student-led initiative has grown into one of ISZL’s most established Personal Development Week (PDW) experiences. Now in its tenth year, the partnership with the Kokrobite Children’s Centre (KCC) in Ghana continues to evolve, showing no signs of slowing down.

We spoke with ISZL High School Programme Coordinator Bob Sugden, alongside Grade 11 students Sophie and Capucine, about how the partnership began, how it has developed, and the long-term viability of these projects.

Bob will return to Kokrobite this September with a new group of students, marking ISZL’s — and Bob’s — tenth annual visit to KCC. Having helped spearhead this initiative since its inception, Bob has witnessed tremendous growth, and he speaks earnestly about the importance of the work, and how he would like to see the relationship between ISZL and Kokrobite Chiltern Centre grow.

How it started in 2013

A colleague of ours from the former Lucerne campus had worked with Jane Zohoungbogbo [KCC Founder] out in Accra (Ghana). When he left the school, a pair of us decided we didn’t want the partnership with Kokrobite Children’s Centre to fold. So we picked that project up… That was in 2013. The first trip we took a small group of 12 students in 2015. And then this year… will be the 10th annual visit we’ve made to Ghana. We basically began with the question of: what does the community need and how can we be of value to the community?

For KCC, there were three primary needs:

• Access to clean water
• Anti-malaria protection
• Education

Ghana has a rainy season and a dry season. During the dry season, the community often goes without access to piped water, leaving families to either spend money they cannot afford on bottled water, or rely on stagnant village pools. Protection against malaria, particularly for young people, is also another urgent need. Alongside this, a central priority for KCC is supporting access to education for young people in the community.

When describing how the partnership has evolved over time, Bob reflects on how new technologies have influenced its direction.

 Students from ISZL have done research and found different technologies around the world and suggested, ‘Well could this work?’

In response to protection against malaria, the team built malaria nets for the community, and for the children who slept outside, they constructed a malaria tent. To improve initial access to clean water, a water purification system was built. However, one of the most significant developments, and what Bob describes as a “turning point” and “super win for the community” came through the discovery of technology that would allow PET bottle construction — using plastic bottles packed with sand as building materials.

Without a municipal refuse collection in Ghana, most waste goes into landfill, of which the biggest contributor is plastic waste. Bob explains that the sand-filled PET bottles serve as a brick-like building material that can be used in construction.

It’s a very sustainable, very stable form of construction…it minimises waste in the community, and it turns something that was formerly a problem into a valuable asset for the community.

The team started small. A German eco-engineer provided much-needed training in PET bottle construction, with prototypes created back at the ISZL campus. The prototypes were such a success that KCC Founders Jane and Kabiesi decided to go all in, first building an entire classroom out of 10,000 sand-filled PET bottles, followed by a learning centre made from 80,000 PET bottles.

On the clean water front, students discovered that it would be far more valuable for the community if water tanks were not only used for water storage, but to farm fish. Fish farming could then be combined with vegetable production to form a circular aquaponics system.

They would have access to proteins and to a balanced diet and improve the health and well-being of the community.

If we’re going to have fish tanks, then you can use the waste from the fish to fertilise plants. And you can grow plants in trays, and the plants filter the wastewater from the fish tank. The water can go back into the fish tank, and then the fish can survive and thrive in that water when it’s been cleaned by the plants. And their waste is valuable fertiliser for the plants,” says Bob.

Kokrobite is, at its heart, a fishing community. Like many similar communities, they are under extreme pressures as a result of overfishing and competitive large-scale trawlers from China. In an effort to protect Ghana’s fish stock, the government closes the shoreline for fishing during the off-season to allow fish to reproduce and the stock to recover. This proves to be a great challenge for the local fishermen who rely on the income from fishing to support their community.

Aquaponics gives an option for land-based aquaculture to grow fish in the off season, but also with the benefits of providing a balanced diet. When we see the kids in the school, they eat a fairly efficient diet, but it’s mostly rice and beans…low on protein, high on carbohydrates. With fish you provide some protein, and then with the greens, you provide a more balanced diet.

For both Bob and the students travelling to Ghana, seeing the evolution of these technological innovations and the impact on the community was challenging yet rewarding work.

Ghana was very hard work. We worked from 9 to 5… it was hot but in the end it was very rewarding. When we worked with the people, we got to know these new cultures — working with other people, how their dynamics are within the group. We got to learn how it is to work with people that you’ve never met before, and you have to find a common ground on how to work with each other. (Sophie)

Working closely with local and international peers, like The Villars Institute, also brought its own challenges. Capucine observed how communication and being solutions-oriented ultimately helped the team band together and find success with the projects.

Communication is very key when you’re working so closely every single day. [The Villars Institute students] taught us things that we didn’t know, and we taught them…It was definitely difficult to keep being positive when things weren’t working or when our ideas kept being shut down by not having enough materials or it just not working.

Adapting to what was available, rather than what had been planned back at ISZL, was a learning experience in itself.

When we got there, I realised that maybe we overthought the materials… we have to think a bit simpler with what materials we had… I assumed it would work really quickly and we would get the materials, ignorant to the fact that you don’t have a big supermarket or a convenience store and just buy whatever you need, says Sophie.

A partnership that continues to grow

One of the defining features of this PDW experience in particular is its continuity. Many students return after graduation, contributing to projects already in motion.

Bob says it’s one of the most gratifying parts of the whole experience.

That our students having visited are so invested and so taken by the community. They see the value of the work that KCC does, and they want to go back. Just this year we have [ISZL alumni] Milly and Mikayla visiting over Christmas. The year before that, Mateo and Matthis, who had been with us two years ago. And even this summer, we’ll have Celeste and Alini visiting. And these projects are ongoing. We just contribute when we’re there, but they are enduring projects.

As ISZL approaches our tenth year of working with Kokrobite Chiltern Centre, Bob reflects on how he envisions the partnership evolving.

The really key part is to invest in the training of the local community in aquaponics technology and PET bottle building so that they can develop their own systems. And then even the Sankofa Centre, where we’ve developed this technology, could become a regional training centre where people from surrounding regions in West Africa could come and see this technology and use it in their own communities.

Bob’s sense of conviction in ISZL’s relationship with KCC has never wavered.

I’m a geographer, and one of the biggest things that I was wrestling with through my training was development. Why are some places more developed than others, and what are models that can work to lift less developed parts of the world and accelerate development? But the other biggest part is the impact on students — it has a profound impact on them in terms of their self-awareness, their intercultural competence, and their softer skills like collaboration and problem solving. Those are really, really valuable skills. So I think in terms of a learning experience, it really is profound.

And perhaps most importantly, it asks students to step into unfamiliar spaces and learn from them.

For Sophie and Capucine, the experience was a reminder of the importance of openness, perseverance, and learning from cultural differences. Ten years on, the partnership with Kokrobite Children’s Centre continues to be shaped by the same question it began with: how can we learn together, in ways that matter, both now and in the future.

In 2025, the Adonte Hene (Commander) of Kokrobite officially honoured Bob for his love and commitment towards the Kokrobite community, recognising his generosity, sacrifice, and support over the past ten years. On this visit, Bob left Kokrobite with a new name: “Nii Dadey Kodiamah.”

Listen to the full interview on the latest episode of The ISZL Podcast.