2007 ANNUAL REPORT

March 6, 2007

I realize that the news of how your support has been utilized over the past year is a few months overdue--but an important change has been brewing, and I wanted to complete it before writing to all of you. I traveled to Kopeyia in December to help the villagers plan the transition to self-sufficiency. Before that visit, I wasn’t certain if I would need to appeal to you again for support, so I postponed my letter.  But the trip was a success, and I am now proud to share the details with you. 

This letter is all news and no fundraising: KGSF will no longer be soliciting donations for Kopeyia! This letter is a toast to you, and a tribute to your faithful and effective help in bringing our education project to this high point. Here is what happened, what we have accomplished, and how we envision the months and years ahead.

Kopeyia is ready, willing and capable! KGSF has done its part! I started the Kopeyia Ghana School Fund in 1988 with the idealistic mission to build a school “from scratch” in rural Kopeyia – through donations from friends in the USA and hard work in Kopeyia. When Godwin Agbeli and I first brought this idea to Kopeyia’s elders, our goal was to provide strong education that would enable the village to improve its health and welfare and enable it to eventually outgrow the need for money from the USA. At that time, we didn’t know if we could accomplish that, or how long it would take.

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.

Now in 2007, with your generous help, we have fulfilled that vision--and much more!

Every year for the past 19 years, I’ve written about our successes and our goals: the completion of each school building, the library, water tanks, canteen/cafeteria, teacher housing, school farm plot, vocational and bike workshops; the first graduation from our Primary School, and then from our Junior Secondary School; scholarships for our top graduates to attend Senior Secondary Schools, Vocational Schools, Polytechnics, Teacher Training Colleges, Computer Schools, Lab Technician School, Art School, University of Ghana, even the University of Northern Iowa! I’ve shared news of Ghanaian national recognition for our school’s Girls Club, for our cultural performing troupe, and for our students’ artwork and athletic accomplishments. You have read about hiring our own graduates to work as teachers in the school after they had completed higher education, and our success in finally bringing electricity to the village and to the school in 2004 after 13 years of tenacious advocacy—and with it, computers and TV with educational programs to enhance learning at the school. Throughout all of this progress, our ultimate goal has remained the same: economic self-sufficiency for Kopeyia through education.

The collaboration between KGSF and Kopeyia made those successes possible.

• Agriculture

• Vital financial support from KGSF donors provided educational opportunities that Kopeyia and the government of Ghana could not, or would not.

• Over the past 19 years, more than 30 KGSF emissaries, American volunteers, lived in Kopeyia, administering KGSF programs, while providing tutoring, encouragement, and direction.

• Many Kopeyia youths utilized their opportunities well, through hard work and talent, completing their studies amidst an intense daily ritual of chores, from carrying water, collecting firewood, and cooking, to farming, going to market, and more.

Tough and liberating realizations

KGSF support has produced terrific results, building emotional ties and a close working relationship with the village. Reluctantly, and with surprise, I began to realize that continuing dependence on KGSF was not in the school’s, or the village’s, long-term best interest. Weaning is a difficult process for both mother and child; sending a young adult into the world to fend for herself is fraught with worry. However, discussing these issues honestly with Kopeyia’s leadership brought us all to the liberating and uplifting understanding that the community is now completely capable of supporting its school and continuing its educational programs. For Kopeyia to succeed now and in the future, the village must take full responsibility for its own welfare. .

KGSF has indeed taught Kopeyia “how to fish.” We provided tools, training, and 19 years of enthusiastic support and guidance while the Kopeyia School gained momentum and became an established educational institution in the Ketu District. Now it is the duty of our graduates to use their education to increase farming yields and grow the local economy. It will take time to see village-wide prosperity, but they can do it! In fact, life in Kopeyia is remarkably more secure and healthier now than it was in 1988. The school has given the villagers new knowledge to overcome the health and farming challenges they face, and strong new connections to the world that have created many opportunities for economic development.

Kopeyia’s resources

In my recent meetings with Kopeyia’s leadership, we outlined all the resources that Kopeyia can utilize to become independent and prosperous. Because we owe these resources largely to your generous support for 19 years, I want to list them for you!

• More than 600 graduates from Kopeyia Bloomfield Local Authority Junior Secondary School (equivalent to 9th grade), many of whom still live in the village.
• Over 150 scholarship recipients for higher education, all of whom have signed scholarship agreements promising to return to live and work productively in Kopeyia for 3 to 7 years--equal to the term of their KGSF sponsorship.
• Essential practical information about farming, health and nutrition, problem solving, vocational skills and business operations.
• Stronger relationship with the entire district: administrators, teachers and students commute to school from miles around; hundreds more come for regular competitions and festivals, and our students travel across the district for competitions.
• Electricity!
• Kopeyia Business District: KGSF brokered the donation by Kopeyia’s elders of a large plot of land in a central Kopeyia location. There our school’s graduates and other villagers who currently run businesses elsewhere can build new businesses without having to purchase land, and a new market will be created. Any business or person selling at the market in the Kopeyia Business District must pay a small fee that will be used by the PTA to support and maintain the school.
• Computer center at the school: Kopeyia is the only school in its district, and one of very few in all of Ghana, where Kindergarten through 9th grade students learn to use computers, for educational purposes and for employment possibilities.
• Film show: using the school’s new TV to play wholesome entertainment on weekends; currently using admission proceeds to pay the school’s electricity bill!
• Mini-store at the school: run and operated by our oldest students, who learn business skills, sell school supplies, stationery, and cold drinks - with fridge (a big deal in Kopeyia!) After re-investing in fresh inventory, the faculty supervisor puts profits in a savings account for scholarships for participants.
• Bike shop: with tools for bike repair, maintenance and frequent training workshops.
• Cultural performance troupe: Odartey Sodzedo was a student in our first graduating class, and in the school’s first troupe, trained by Godwin Agbeli. He now teaches at the school, training Kopeyia students to perform traditional drumming, singing and dancing pieces. They compete and also perform for fees, which are used to maintain their drums and costumes.
• Girls club: in addition to a focus on local health issues, girls learn valuable nutrition information, meal-preparation skills, batik and sewing. They sell their creations to buy more materials for cooking and seamstress lessons.
• Teachers’ housing: KGSF built three residences for teachers to rent while they live and work in the village, with proceeds used to maintain the residences and for school maintenance as well.

Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) is a Ghanaian government policy, put in practice in 2005, which made school mandatory and eliminated school fees for everyone from Kindergarten through 9th grade. In Kopeyia we realized that though a public school is not currently permitted to charge school fees, the PTA could easily assess and require a ‘PTA fee’ equal to the affordable amount that parents were paying as school fees before FCUBE. This ‘PTA fee’ will help the village to sustain the school without KGSF:
• The families that pay the fee will have a greater stake in the quality of education in the school, and more leverage to get issues addressed.
• Some families will not pay the PTA fee, choosing instead to send their children to other schools, reducing class size in Kopeyia. (Many students come from very far away because of our faculty, beautiful facilities, and scholarship opportunities.)
•The Kopeyia PTA will become an active, responsible and accountable organization with economic clout and a strong voice in school and community affairs, and will have regular and meaningful contact with all the school’s parents.

Most importantly:
• The PTA fees collected from just 800 of our 1,000 students will cover salaries for the teachers and night watchmen that KGSF has supported to augment the insufficient staff provided by the Ghana Education Service. There will even be ample money left over for school maintenance, and for a fund to provide future PTA scholarships for graduates!

During my December visit, we decided that KGSF will pay teachers’ salaries and emissary expenses only through the end of the current school year (August 2007). The village will keep the school running effectively and in good physical condition on their own, beginning in September 2007. KGSF will use the remainder of contributions in our account to sponsor a few more of Kopeyia’s best graduates to further their education, until our funds are exhausted. That will give the Kopeyia community time to build up its own scholarship fund.

Our relationship will continue!

Just because we won’t be sending further financial or material support to the school doesn’t mean our relationship will end! I will monitor developments closely, and offer moral support and encouragement. I hope you will also keep Kopeyia in your thoughts and prayers, and check our KGSF.org website where I will continue to post news and photos.

Sharing this project with American students

Your support for education in Kopeyia also supports students here in the USA. The power of education, and the importance of sharing it, has been a central theme of this project. I have trumpeted this concept to thousands of American students, from Kindergarten through university. While sharing the joyful vibrations and gyrations of traditional Ghanaian drumming, singing and dancing, I try to plant in them the positive message that our school project inspires. “Study hard and use your education to create a strong and happy life for yourself and for others!” We have also connected thousands of American students with our Kopeyia students as pen pals! Your support has brought to life this important lesson to our own students: you can make a difference through commitment, action, and organizing support.

Dedication to Godwin, my parents, and you

Today is a day I have dreamed of for a long time. Since launching this project 19 years ago as an idealistic 28-year old, I am frankly amazed at how far we have come. My heart is full of joy and gratitude to all of you who joined your spirit to this effort, and I want to give special thanks to you, and to a few who were most influential.

From 1988 until his passing in 1998, Godwin Kwasi Agbeli served Kopeyia with tremendous effort, skill and caring. He made great sacrifices to build this school and organize his community’s participation. We have all felt his absence, but Godwin’s memory has been my inspiration to press on, and many times I have felt his active spirit spurring ideas and moving events to help us overcome obstacles. Godwin’s rock-solid reliability and dedication are the foundation on which the Kopeyia School was built.

I also owe a special thanks to Elaine and Douglas Levin, who raised me to appreciate education deeply, and taught by example as they helped people less fortunate in their every day life and work. When I came home from my first trip to Ghana and told them I wanted to build a school in Kopeyia, they thought I was crazy. Yet they helped me every step of the way. My parents’ spirit living in me moved me to initiate and carry through this project. Thank you Mom and Dad! Your positive model and unshakeable love and support are the foundation of my actions and achievements.

And to each of you who has donated and volunteered to help KGSF, thank you for trusting me with the resources you generously provided. Your gifts have enabled me to dig deep and aim high. You have supplied faith, backbone, courage and the strength to create an effective educational institution in a rural third-world village a continent away. You have all helped raise this seedling school from its infancy. The Kopeyia school is now 19 years old—ready to live on its own. With your attention and care, it has grown mature and strong, and the roots of education reach to every corner of Kopeyia. Nourishment awaits those who partake in the ripe fruit on every branch of this tree of life.

To you. To education. To life!
Peace,
Robert Levin, KGSF President