2003 ANNUAL REPORT

December 21, 2003

Dear Friend of Kopeyia,

Once a year I write to ask for your continued support of our school project in Kopeyia.

Thanks to your generosity, our school in Kopeyia is an educational institution to be proud of, providing essential information and empowering the villagers to improve their lives.

Founded on October 10th, 1988, with 2 teachers and 80 students, The Kopeyia Bloomfield Local Authority School now has 32 teachers and 800 students, in pre–K, Kindergarten, Primary and Junior Secondary School levels through 9th grade.

Setting Standards of Excellence

One of the few fully equipped schools in Ghana, the Kopeyia school is stocked with learning supplies, library books, agricultural science and lab equipment, vocational tools, sports equipment, art supplies, and instruments for the school band and dance troupe. The school is well maintained and freshly painted, providing an atmosphere conducive to learning the reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and the many other subjects offered in Ghana’s standard national curriculum.

KGSF offers incentives to both students and teachers to learn well and work hard. We give scholarships to 9th grade graduates who reach high academic standards to continue their education (all High Schools in Ghana are private boarding schools), and merit bonuses to the entire teaching staff based on the number of scholarships received by students.

KGSF significantly lowers class sizes. The Ghanaian government’s Education Service (GES) pays for the standard number of teachers in a Ghanaian school. But this would mean 70 students per class! We provide funds to hire enough teachers to lower the number from 70 to 35. We have also dramatically raised GES attendance standards to improve learning conditions in the school. And KGSF pays the staff to teach extra classes after school (for 2 hours, four days/week) to help students in the upper grades complete their curriculum and study for their national exams.

We hold a monthly Essay Contest for the upper grades. Winners receive notebooks, reading books, markers, etc. The essay topics focus on the meaning of education in the Kopeyia community’s context, fueling great discussions about how education brings positive developments to life in Kopeyia.

Everyone Pitches In

Headmaster Ken Denutsui, now in his second year in Kopeyia, is maintaining a strong work ethic at the school, with the help of a School Management Committee of teachers, village elders, and a local GES representative. The Parent Teacher Association enables the village’s mostly illiterate parents to be involved in the school community, and the Kopeyia Old Students Association works to advocate for the school both in the village and in the larger district community sphere.

KGSF has collaborated effectively with this vibrant and growing school community in Kopeyia through the work of our Emissary Volunteers. For more than ten years, a series of bright and sensitive, hard-working young North Americans have spent many months living and working in Kopeyia on behalf of the KGSF.

This year, Chi-Yan Shang, a recent graduate of University of Alberta, volunteered as a highly effective science teacher in the Junior Secondary School for the entire academic year. Chi-Yan introduced many practical assignments and lab experiments, including the school’s first dissections! He so impressed Mr. Denutsui and the school’s faculty that they insisted he re-write the school’s science curriculum to include all of the lessons that he brought to his classroom, so that subsequent science teachers can utilize them.

Heather Cunningham also volunteered this year. For six months Heather helped run KGSF programs in Kopeyia. She worked intensively with our school’s Girls Club, teaching reproductive biology, and emphasizing prevention of AIDS.

Empowering Girls

The number of girls being graduated from our school has increased every year, up 200% since 1994 – from 10% to more than 30% of the graduating class. This is largely due to the Girls Club that KGSF Emissary Carolyne Ali Khan initiated in 1994. Assistant Headmistress Stella Kwakumey runs the Girls Club, which meets once a week to study health and nutrition issues. Club members present these important lessons to their peers in every classroom, and create posters as reminders. This program has been an effective way to share vital health information school wide, and has given the girls a greater appreciation for the value of their education. The girls also learn how to sew, and they make batik and kente cloth handbags that help KGSF raise money for the school.

Training Future Leaders and Workers

With your support, many of our graduates are continuing their education in Vocational Schools, High Schools, Universities, Polytechnics, Computer Schools, Teacher Training Colleges, Catering and Tourism Schools. Some Kopeyia graduates are apprenticing for electricians, accountants, hairdressers and seamstresses, and will soon be starting village businesses of their own. Others are improving village farming practices.

Students who receive KGSF scholarships sign an agreement that they will return to live and work in Kopeyia for at least as many years as they receive sponsorship for their higher education. They readily accept this community-minded responsibility, embracing the opportunity to use their new skills and knowledge to improve the village’s standard of living. They see this as a meaningful use of their education, and a way toward a brighter future for their families and all the village children. As listed in the cover letter, some graduates are already working in Kopeyia as teachers, hairdressers, and seamstresses, and one is employed as hospital aide in a nearby town.

The children we educate will become the future leaders and workforce of Kopeyia. We are proud of the academic and vocational progress of many of our graduates so far. These young people helped to construct the Kopeyia School while they were also students there. They remain dedicated to building Kopeyia’s economy, to enable the village to support and maintain their alma mater for future generations.

Facilitating Vibrant Cultural Exchange

KGSF facilitates Pen Pal exchanges between students from Kopeyia and a number of American schools. We also conduct our education work in the U.S. by sharing Ghanaian dancing and drumming in lecture/demonstrations and performances in schools and libraries throughout the NY metro area. We bring beautiful handcrafts from Kopeyia to further display Ghanaian cultural richness here, while raising money for the school and supporting village artisans. These cultural exchanges bring joy and knowledge to both Americans and Ghanaians.

Stretching Every Dollar

A dollar goes a long way in Ghana – about 100 times farther than it goes here! $40 pays a teacher’s salary for one month. $400 pays tuition, room and board, books, transportation, and pocket money for one year of Senior Secondary School (private boarding High School). Your tax-deductible donation benefits the community directly: 98% of each dollar you give provides services in Kopeyia; 2% goes to phone, postage and other administrative expenses. We are staffed entirely by volunteers.

Your Generosity Makes It Possible

I hope it is possible for you to contribute to the KGSF again this year. Your donation supports the education that will enable the people of Kopeyia to achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency. Your generosity is truly appreciated.

Thank you very much!

Sincerely yours,

Robert Levin, President

Tax deductible contributions can be made out to KGSF
and sent to:
Kopeyia Ghana School Fund, Inc.
1056 Oakland Court
Teaneck, NJ 07666

KGSF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization

KGSF Needs Your Help This Year in Sponsoring:

Salaries for 16 teachers in the Kopeyia School
(avg./teacher: $40/month): $7,600/year.

Kopeyia School Operating Budget and Maintenance: $4,000/year.

Scholarships for 7 Vocational School students
($300 each per year): $2,100/year.

Scholarships for 11 Senior Secondary School students
($400 each per year): $4,400/year.

Scholarships for 7 tertiary school students
($600 each per year): $4,200/year.

USA university scholarship for room and board, books, computer supplies, insurance, and annual air travel home to Ghana for our Kopeyia graduate, Kofie Agbeli, who is attending University of Northern Iowa on full academic scholarship: $14,000/year.

American Volunteer Envoys in Kopeyia for tutoring and on-site administration of KGSF programs - for transportation, communications and living expenses: $5,000/year.