New Year, No Limits

We at Titagya Schools hope your 2010 has started off well! The end of 2009 and beginning of this year have been busy but gratifying for us.

We really appreciate the outpouring of support by friends and partner organizations during the end of the year, and our fundraising campaign left us with enough to cover many of our operating costs during the first half of 2010. We also appreciate the many ideas and warm wishes people shared.

In addition, we had great December workshops in Dalun on accounting with Excel and how to use children's books as a basis for interactive activities. Those were led by one of our Advisors, Yaw, who has a background in management consulting and teaching and a long-time supporter, Debbie, who founded Project Educate In Africa and The Baobab Prize to promote education and African literature.

We're excited to keep the momentum going in the New Year. Our classes resumed this past week after a week and a half of holidays. We'll also begin constructing an administrative center and computer lab early in the year. The computer lab will allow our children to become familiar with the basics of how computers work from a very young age. Experiences like this help to shape children's definitions of what is "normal" and "comfortable" in a positive way that emphasizes the importance of technology as one component of their lives.

On the US side, one of our top priorities this month is completing and submitting our 501(c)(3) application to the IRS. Obtaining 501(c)(3) status will ensure that donors can deduct their contributions from their taxes and enable us to work with larger foundations and corporate giving programs.

In terms of plans for the blog, we're going to add some interesting new features this year, like profiles of our teachers and students, little-known (or at least great!) info about the culture and history of northern Ghana, and reflections by summer interns. We'd also love to hear what you'd like to see in this space - If anyone would prefer to share thoughts in private, please email agarza@titagyaschools.org.

Thanks for staying tuned! With your continued input and support we'll build more schools and reach more children this year! More to come soon...