The GLP moves into spring with inspiring

momentum. This winter, Ghana Literacy Project director and co-founder Hannah Davis connected with philanthropy organizer Rudi Doku and opened discussion about his interest in raising funds for a community education center in Pokuase, Ghana. The community center, a collaborative effort of the GLP and Women’s Trust, aims to extend the success of the Girls Enrichment and Empowerment Club, GLP’s pilot program that introduced the concept of supplemental education to Pokuase in the summer of 2007.

The project’s foundational idea was conceived in Hannah’s senior year of high school when she traveled to Ghana intending to broaden her global perspective and narrow the focus of her collegiate studies. While in Ghana, Hannah took note of the overcrowded classrooms, lack of resources, and high-drop out rates, particularly for girls. Hannah discussed the issue with students, parents, and teachers in the community, fostering the idea of a more individualized learning experience for girls whose education was often overlooked. Hannah and Kathleen Keefe, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Seattle University, developed a curriculum focusing on self-responsibility and critical thinking, empowering students to change the perception of their education in the community. Back home, Hannah voiced the need of Ghana’s schools and earned the support of the Jamestown Rotary Club and Women’s Trust, a non-profit organization providing microfinance loans to the women of Ghana. Now in operation for over a year, the Girls Enrichment and Empowerment Club is giving Junior and Senior Secondary School female students the opportunity to experience a learning

Dear GLP Supporters,

Ghana Literacy Project

environment unavailable in public schools. The three year program introduces the girls to scientific principles through experiments, enhances literary and reading skills through a monthly book club, teaches practical mathematics such as budgeting and personal finance, expands their world view through lectures and field trips, provides career-based mentoring, and reaches out to the community through service projects and end-of-term presentations. The program also includes computer and Internet training — a rare educational experience for girls in Ghana. The GEEC also provides help throughout the college application process.

Davis with GEEC students in Pokuase.

Pokuase Village, Ghana

Ghanaliteracy.org March 2009

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Mr. Doku, born in Accra, Ghana (the countries capital, one hour transit from Pokuase) decided it was time to reconnect with the community from which he attributes his childhood and education. “I have always wanted to make a contribution to Ghana in one form or another. Each time I visit, this zeal gets stronger.” Presently, Doku resides in Bisbane, Australia, returned after seven years overseas in London, The Hauge, Amsterdam and Singapore. Mr. Doku attended the university primary school in Legon and continued his education at the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School.

Goals to Expand GLP Find Support The successes and influence of

the GEEC and Women’s Trust have encouraged support for educational growth within the community. Working together, the partnership has secured a long-term lease on a potential building site and is in the process of approving funds for the construction of a community center. GLP and Women’s Trust constituents emphasize the fact that the project represents the future of the program, and will require tenacious advocacy and foresight. However, encouraging steps were taken in November when Ghana native Rudi Doku contacted the GLP with proposal ideas to facilitate the project financially.

“I have always wanted to make a

contribution to Ghana in one form

or another. Each time I visit, this zeal

gets stronger” -Rudi Doku

Mr. Doku lived in Ghana until 1988 when he began a traveling stint that was inspired by his father’s work for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.Mr. Doku’s parents and sister have since moved back to Ghana.

In cooperation with the Rotary Club of Balmoral Bisbane, he plans to raise funds through a network of philanthropists, and is making headway with other sources. Doku discovered the Ghana Literacy Project via non-profit Internet networking. “While searching for established programs, I came across the Ghana literacy project. I was inspired to read about Hannah's project and decided that the best way I could contribute while living overseas was to help Hannah with her project.”

Although the project is still very much on the drawing board, goals for the center are extensive and expected to give the GLP and Women’s Trust plenty of flexibility and opportunity for growth. The center will provide resources to host adult literacy and art programs as well as computer, reading, math, public health and science classes. It will embody a less exclusory approach to education, giving all Pokuase residents access to education. Davis shares her vision for the center, “I’d love for it to be a place where everyone can feel comfortable going to learn.” Ideally, by making education accessible to the community, it will become a priority in the local culture, therefore extending the change to subsequent generations with the potential to diversify the primarily subsistence agricultural economy and progress traditional gender ideologies.

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Gemma Cooper-Novack arrived in Pokuase in the first week of January to expand the project into the more artistic realms of education. Cooper-Novack, a trained thespian, has recruited thirty-four students to engage in self-expression and ensemble building exercises in a six-month study with the Theater and Performance Club for the Ghana Literacy Project.

Ms. Cooper-Novack comes to Pokuase with a wealth of New York and Chicago experience as a theater artist and nontraditional educator, including prior work with Barrel of Monkeys, After School Matters, Anshe Emet Synagogue, Redmoon Theatre’s Dramagirls Program, City Colleges of Chicago, and Saint Ann’s School, her alma mater. She plans to include professional techniques developed by theater gurus Viola Spolin, Michael Rohd and Augusto Boal. The program will focus on

Theater and Performance Takes Root in the GLP t

cultivating critical thinking skills as well as teaching the foundations of Ghanaian and Western storytelling and the purpose of theater and performance. Cooper-Novack will be instructing two sections, eighteen students in Primary School and sixteen in Junior Secondary School. As the program progresses, each class will create and perform a play they have generated as an ensemble, and present the play to the Pokuase community at the beginning of June. Ms. Cooper-Novack expresses her excitement and high hopes for the program. The GLP is encouraged by her innovation and the invaluable aspect of education she has brought to Pokuase.

A Note From GEEC Teacher Samuel Gyabah “I am Samuel Gyabah, an instructor for the Ghana Literacy Project. I

am 26 and a graduate of Cape Coast University. I must say I am very glad to be part of the Ghana Literacy Project

(GEEC club). The club has really brought some hope to the girls in Pokuase since most girls see Junior High as the end of their education because of the inability of most parents to see the rewards of Senior High School. The club has brought some hope for the girls in the form of scholarships facility has given to continue their education to Senior High and even through to the university level.

The program also has really come at the right time as there is much effort now for gender equality in our country, and I think this club with its aims and ambitions will go a long way to help promote girls’ education in our country, that is if we (the club) are able to fulfill our ambitions.

The club has outlined various activities to help empower the girls and these activities are embodied into 2- hr weekly, intensive and freely interactive classes designed to suit the grade of the girls.

It’s interesting to see how we play and learn in our weekly classes, the girls are allowed the freedom to air their views on various topics as compared to our regular schools where the teacher is seen as the repository of all knowledge, spoon feeding the students with every bit of information in the classroom.

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The reading and writing skills of the girls has also improved through the book club where they are given storybooks to read after which they produce a report on the story and discuss it in class. Thanks to term presentations the girls are able speak well in public, also the computer thread has exposed them to basic computer and Internet skills which they can access the Internet by themselves, send mail, fetch information etc. I think the best one can do to help a nation is to help educate its youth who are the future leaders of the country. Giving them good training is helping to reshape the future of the country. “ -Samuel Gyabah

Mr. Gyabah graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Social Science Education. He’s been a field coordinator for Time for Trees, a non-governmental organization where he coordinated activities in effort to protect trees from deforestation. He has been a teaching Girls Enrichment and Empowerment Club classes for over a year and has been trained in business education.

Help the GLP Grow If you would like to help the Ghana Literacy Project grow, please visit http://www.womenstrust.org/ and click the yellow “Donate” button in the left-hand margin. Your tax deductible contribution will help us pay our teachers, buy school supplies, build the community center, send the girls to Senior Secondary School and add another class in the upcoming school year. If you would like more information about the project visit our website http://www.ghanaliteracy.org, contact GLP co-founder Hannah Davis at hannahdavis0220@hotmail.com or newsletter editor/writer Trevor Donaldson at trevdd@gmail.com.

“I think the best one can do to help a nation is to

help educate its youth who are the future

leaders of the country.” -Samuel Gyabah

Mr. Gyabah teaching the GEEC.

Mr. Gyabah graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Social Science Education. He’s been a field coordinator for Time for Trees, a non-governmental organization where he coordinated activities in effort to protect trees from deforestation. He has been a teaching Girls Enrichment and Empowerment Club classes for over a year and has been trained in business education.

The Ghana Literacy Project was founded in 2007 to promote literacy and critical thinking through supplemental education in Ghana. GLP is currently a partner of Women's Trust, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to providing microfinance loans to women in Pokuase.