Provo man continues to support children in Ghana

Thirteen-year-old Mirabella, like more than 10,000 other children in Ghana and western Africa, have been given the gift of a bright future thanks in part to Provo resident Ben Markham.

“I was told getting an education is the most important thing and that it can change my life,” Mirabella said.

Though a teenager, Mirabella is still in the third grade. Young girls in many villages do not have the same educational opportunities as boys because they marry young, and it is expensive to educate them.

However, because of Markham and his nonprofit Empower Playgrounds, school children in Africa are getting to do something they have not done before and are loving it – homework.

The story about the merry-go-round playground equipment is not new, but the progress and education of the children is growing village by village, thanks to Markham and his many philanthropic associates.

You may know Markham locally as the chairman of Provo’s Transportation Mobility Advisory Commission. However his roots and his desire to help the world started as a young boy working on his grandfather’s dairy farm in Spanish Fork.

“I credit everything I learned to my grandpa’s dairy farm,” Markham said.

Markham worked hard in school and was good in math and science. He loved learning.

“I took Russian in high school because it was available,” Markham said.

It was the math, science, Russian and much more that opened opportunities for Markham to work in an industry he loved and to eventually retire at age 57 as a vice president of ExxonMobil.

That early retirement allowed Markham and wife Julie to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in western Africa. It was there Markham saw firsthand the living and learning conditions the children are forced to grow up in.

He wanted to do some good, and it has paid off.

“The children were sitting in schools that were dark,” Markham said. “No playground equipment, no learning materials. I’m a big believer that education is the key to life.”

Markham said it was 10 years ago when the idea occurred to him to build playground equipment that could harness energy.

“I’m an engineer and a geek,” Markham said. “I think kids have infinite energy.”

So, the electricity generating merry-go-round was born. And children like Mirabella started becoming the beneficiaries of light and knowledge.

“As children play, their kinetic energy is captured and converted into electricity by an integrated windmill generator,” Markham said. “The power is then transferred to a charging station located inside the school where smart LED lanterns are charged and ready to go home with students.”

There are now 50 schools in Ghana using the merry-go-rounds and lanterns. The lanterns hold up to 40 hours of electricity allowing for many hours of home study.

The schools have developed lantern groups where children can study together by the light generated from their play at school. Young women, like Mirabella, are made the team leaders to care for and watch out for the lanterns.

This assignment, according to Markham, gives young women more prestige and attention to education from their families.

“Empowered by play, our students are trailblazers and in many cases become the first people in their families to finish high school,” Markham said. “In addition to providing light for nighttime studies, EPI supplies each school with hands-on science kits that enhance the lessons received in the classroom.”

Those kits are provided through a partnership with the Thames and Kosmos company.

Markham says the schools they supply are heavily vetted and are generally providing education to children in extreme poverty and living situations.

“We go to very deprived schools in the jungle, there is no electricity, there are no clocks,” Markham said. “The science kit teaches the kids to build generators. The kids are getting hands-on training to build their own generators.”

Other organizations Markham established relationships with are also bringing clean water and plumbing to these schools and villages.

Markham and his business partners are now also providing scholarships for young women to go to private schools and advance past the ninth grade.

Through Libraries for Africa, starting in 2016 Markham will be going back to Africa to start setting up libraries in these schools. The African Library Project coordinates book drives in the United States and partners with African schools and villages to start small libraries.

The light of learning is not only in the eyes of the children of Africa, but in the eyes and heart of one Provo resident who has made a difference. Markham says he would have it no other way.