Nandom – Mt Zion.

Nandom Community was first opened in 1967, when Bros. John and Paul lived in the small guest house on the parish premises, from where they started building the secondary school, which took a few years to complete. When some of the class-rooms were ready in 1969, the Brothers moved into them as their private rooms. It was only in 1972 that the present house on the hill – popularly known as Mount Zion – was ready and occupied. 

The main apostolic activity was teaching at the Senior High School and, after the completion of the school, the Nandom Practical Vo- cational Centre (NPVC) now known as NVS – St. John (Nandom Vocation School) named after Bro. John who opened the school in 1973. 

Over the years many other forms of apostolate have been carried out: we think here of many Ghanaian Brothers who taught in first- cycle institutions, the Brothers engaged in the farming project (promotion of animal traction) and the Food Farmers Cooperative. It was a wide range of activities that at the time necessitated opening another community in Nandom – the so-called Nandom Town community, from which many of the above activities were carried out. In the 1980 ́s the Nandom Town community was mainly the base for Peps-C (Producer Enterprise Promotion Centre), NVS and the second year novitiate. In the mid-1990 ́s the Town community was closed, because Peps-C moved to Wa and the Brothers withdrew from the farmer activities. 

Nandom Senior High School 

The FIC Congregation has been in Ghana since 1965. Our presence in Ghana was as a result of an invitation by the Late Cardinal Peter Porekuu Dery, the then Bishop of the Diocese of Wa. The FIC Brothers established Nandom Secondary School; now Nandom Senior High, in pursuance of our fundamental call to promote teaching, education and formation of the youth. We Brothers who are currently teaching in NSH wish to acknowledge the hard work of our Brothers who started this school. We are not the pioneers of the school. Our Brothers laid the foundation and we are building on. 

We, the Brothers teaching in NSH, and our sense of duty and dedication to service in the school, have been a source of inspiration to our colleagues in the school. We Brothers have an open eye for academically weak and needy students. Brothers give extra tuition to students outside class hours to enhance their academic performance. One of our Brothers volunteered to assist students who are academically weak in English Language after classes. 

The Headmaster has initiated weekly meetings with students. In these meetings, he gives moral talks and career guidance and he listens to students’ grievances. Another Brother and the School Chaplain also give guidance and counseling to students. This has helped most students who completed NSH to hold responsible positions in the country. The commitment of the Brothers to our ideals: teaching, education, formation of the youth and leadership training are given to students in the school to equip them to be good leaders and affluence members of our society. 

We feel that the principles we stand for and try to promote in the school are in line with the motto of NSH and the charisma of our FIC Congregation and we regard it as an apostolate. 

NVS – St. John’s 

Two of our Brothers (Patrick and Bosco M.) are still working there. It is not easy for them to keep the FIC spirit alive in that institution, certainly not now that GES has taken over and the intake of new students (computerised system from Accra) is given from above and has more than doubled. This also means that the original intention of the school - to provide practical training – can hardly be given shape. The institution has become a Senior High School with a technical bias, mostly in theoretical shape rather than prac- tical as the original goal was. 

Quite a development has taken place since Bro. John enthusiastically started with NPVC (Nandom Practical Vocational Centre) and managed to train a number of artisans who made a difference in the Upper West of Ghana. We hope and pray that the present students will try to follow that tradition, even though it may not be as simple and straightforward as it was at that time.