June Update!

Hi everyone,

We hope the summer is starting well for you and wanted to update you on the latest at Titagya Schools.  Our team has recently started building our third school in a village called Kpong.  We’re excited at the chance to offer a high caliber of early education in a new community, and to work with our partners there to change young people’s lives.

The community has no early education, many children whose parents want them to go to school, an availability of teachers, and a chief (who used to be a teacher himself) who is passionate about educating his people.  We’ve started creating the concrete blocks that we’ll use to build the 90-student pre-school, and there’s a picture to the right of our management team and local leaders visiting the plot of land.  The school is generously being sponsored by Falcon Investment Advisors. 

We’ve also been gratified to deepen our partnership with Bryn Mawr and Haverford College.  18 Bryn Mawr students and faculty members visited Dalun over their spring break in order to learn firsthand about education in Ghana and to offer their ideas about how we can further enhance our impact (pic below).  The visit took place in relation to an integrated set of Bryn Mawr classes called 360.  Following the trip, Bryn Mawr sponsored a visit by Habib to the US in April to discuss ways we could expand the partnership. 

In addition, we have a great intern named Clara working with us in Dalun over the summer.  She’s a student at Haverford and will be posting on the blog over the course of the summer.  She’ll be focusing on a curriculum development project, serving as a TA in the classroom, and helping with the planning for the school in Kpong.

That’s all for now, but please stay tuned for upcoming posts!  If you’d like to read more about the Bryn Mawr / Haverford partnership, see this article http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/05/10/360-trip-titagya-director/ and I was also recently interviewed by our great partners at Givology here: https://www.givology.org/~gmweiss/blog/?tagfilter=andrew%20garza

Happy New Year!

Nii tee yuu palle (Happy New Year in Dagbani)!!

We hope that 2011 finished well for you. It was a great year for us, as we opened our second school, a kindergarten in Dalun. Our 120 students are enjoying learning pre-reading and basic math skills, as well as developing their creativity and self-confidence through educational games.

We also made changes to our leadership team, including bringing on board Manzah Iddi Habib as our new Managing Director. In addition, we hired a new Project Manager, an Accountant, and two new Teachers. We're proud to have attracted such talented individuals who share our passion for educating young boys and girls in northern Ghana.

We're also greatly looking forward to the rest of 2012, as we seek to build two more schools in northern Ghana. The two schools will be a pre-school and kindergarten in a new village in the region. The first one will be sponsored by Falcon Investment Advisors, a private equity firm in New York, and we are still in the process of asking for contributions for the second.

Thanks for your support over the past year and we can't wait to work with you over this coming year! We hope it's a prosperous one filled with fun challenges for you.

Video!

Take a look at a new video we have up about our work in Ghana. See the students you've been hearing about for so long here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApwT4TVIAFw

We're very grateful to our intern, Chris Brandt, as well as Joan Bogden and Yaw Agyenim-Boateng for creating this video.

New York Launch!

Next Tuesday, October 26th we'll be hosting our first major fundraiser in New York. Please join us from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at White Rabbit (145 E. Houston St., Between Forsyth St. & Eldridge St.) for a fun night and a chance to raise funds to deliver our services to 60 more students! It'll be a night filled with great people, fun US and Ghanaian music, beautiful silent auction items, and special guests.

You can register or make a donation here: http://titagyaschools.eventbrite.com.

Please also sign up for our Facebook event group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=160222023998367

Thank you!

Initial Impressions of Dalun and of Titagya-Dalun School

The next morning, I began the first official day of my internship. On my way to the school, I started my first walking tour of Dalun, and I met many more residents, some of whom I learned were parents of Titagya students. Those who I encountered frequently struck conversation with me and even invited me inside their homes! Considering that I was still a stranger to everyone there, I was surprised by the humbleness of the environment here in Dalun. The most enthusiastic residents were the children who ran up to me and Alison and shout “deseba!,” or “good morning!” in Dagbani, one of the most widely spoken languages in the Northern Region. Perhaps, coming from a large metropolis where people rarely acknowledge each other’s presence had made living in a remote and homely Ghanaian village seem completely relaxing and secure to me. From that point on, my initial homesickness quickly turned into an affinity for the local culture.

When I finally arrived at the school after navigating my way through a maze of houses, I had made many new acquaintances in a society totally unfamiliar to me. During the morning hours, I learned more about the school’s operations, observed classes during the first and second period, and had an opportunity to meet my other colleagues. The school’s daily schedule consists of two major one hour periods from 8 to 9 am and from 10:30 to 11:30 am with built in rest and playing time included in the scheduled breaks (the times in between periods and from 11:30 to noon). Friday, however, as an extended day of prayer for Titagya’s Muslim students, stands as an exception, and as a result the school grants the students more playtime than on other days.

The school building has two main classrooms, fairly large in size, which hold the two age groups of students: one for younger students (ages 3-4) and another for older students (ages 5-6). Titagya employs two fulltime teachers, Madame Baraka and Abdul-Azeez, and allows Alhassan, a professional teacher who trained at a teaching university in Tamale, to volunteer with the older students. In the younger class, Madame Baraka teaches the English alphabet and beginning English language skills to her students (many children here speak Dagbani as their mother tongue) by using mnemonic devices and educational workbooks. In the adjacent room, the older students sit at their desks in a semi-circle around Alhassan or Abdul-Azeez for their first period Mathematics class. Although the teachers create modules that include topics from various subjects, the main curriculum centers on giving children a firm footing in Mathematics, Informational Computer Technology, and English speaking/grammar skills. One of the major strengths of the curriculum is that it allows kids to enjoy the process of learning by offering a more interactive and participatory classroom environment. Additionally, Titagya believes that rigid teaching styles are counter-productive to the students’ real needs, because such styles do not target the correct methods to stimulate enthusiasm and motivation. Some of the effective styles in practice at Titagya-Dalun School mirrored those I saw at the Gateway School (a Special-Ed school for gifted students where I interned at as a high-school senior).

From my own observations, I was impressed to see how much the teachers and students had achieved in the nine months since the school’s inception. A sizeable number of the students in the younger class could understand spoken instructions and recite poems and songs in English! A handful of students in the older class could read and write English words, and a few of the more precocious students in the group could even understand multiplication and long division! Stay tuned to hear more about my daily experiences as an intern and to learn more about my responsibilities this summer!

Arriving in Ghana and the Journey North to Dalun

Instead of feeling anxious about travelling to Ghana, a place where I had little familiarity, oddly I remember envisioning Ghana as a new home, one where I would be staying with a long-time family friend in Accra, and one where I would meet my new family (all of my colleagues) for the next ten weeks. For the few days before I headed off to the North, I spent the time touring the Greater Accra Region and Cape Coast with a family friend and gaining a better sense of the Ghana's culture and customs.

Although everything seemes flawless in this first trip, things quickly took a nasty turn when I experienced a severe case of food poisoning. A rough night and subsequent trip to the hospital might send many travellers searching for the earliest flight home. However, the excitement of plunging into my project in northern Ghana helped me remain optimisitic during this event. At that point, the only agenda on my mind was getting to Dalun, which was not a short or simple journey.

When the day came to begin my intership, I drove with my family friend to the STC bus station in Accra. Once I arrived at my destination, I stood on the bus platform among a crush of passengers preparing to board. When the bus finally pulled in, everyone including myself rushed toward the porter near the entrance of the vehicle's main door. As soon as it became my turn, the porter checked my ticket and then crammed my large suitcase into the bottom compartment of the bus next to a cage of chickens and a stack of other tightly packed bags. While I stood gazing in amazement for a few seconds, it quickly dawned on me that it was inappropriate to stare at this uniquely Ghanaian but humerous sight (something that I forgotten to do in the heat of the moment). Although this event is different from anything I have seen in the U.S., I instead viewed it as a way to acquaint myself with the culture and to prepare myself for what I would observe during the next two months. Shortly after, I decided to walk away from the scene and then board the bus to take my assigned seat. Bracing for a 12 hour trip to Dalun, a village located roughly 650 kilometers north of Accra, I looked out the window and took in the scenery as the bus left the station.

Later that evening, when I finally arrived in Tamale, the first leg of my journey, I stepped off the bus to see both Fatawu, my Managing Director, and Habib, my Project Manager eagerly waiting for me beside a nearby car. With ominous rain clouds hovering above, I hurried into the car and rode to Dalun before the sky had unleashed a torrential downpour upon us. Stay tuned for information about my initial experiences in Dalun and my first day interning at the school!

Classroom Snapshot: Reading with Nursery 1

Chris and I brought all of the expected amenities to Ghana: light clothing, bug spray, flash lights, and our computers, but we also each brought a bag of books given to us by Andrew, to be added to the Titagya library. Although these tote bags of books proved to be a cumbersome carry-on, the inconvenience was completely worth it when the teachers and students at Titagya saw the new additions to their library. Titagya School is currently the proud owner of over 70 books, giving us one of the best school libraries in northern Ghana.

Last week Madame Baraka took some time in her Nursery 1 class to teach the children how to treat the books with care, and allow them each to “read” a book. We are only in the pre-reading stage with the Nursery 1 class, but most of the books have wonderful illustrations and interactive aspects like added texture to elements of the page or pull out sections; perfect for a beginning reader! The students were so fascinated by what they were finding in the books, and were excited to show me different animals, numbers, and letters that they were reading.

A particularly memorable moment for me occurred when I sat down with Abiba to read a book with her. This book uses vivid photographs from around the world to demonstrate different colors. As I pointed to photos and told Abiba the English word for each object, she began to repeat the English word to me, and then tell me the Dagbani word for the object. Soon another student, Irene, who knows another local language called Ewi, was telling me the object in Ewi as well!

This moment stands out for me because of the generative exchange that happened so naturally between the three of us, despite all of our differences (including language, age, position in the classroom, culture). It is not always easy to break down the hierarchy that somewhat naturally exists between teachers and students, but opening a space for the exchange of ideas between students and teachers is very rewarding for both groups. This interaction while reading exampled a way these hierarchies can be surpassed with positive results. I was also happy to see the idea reinforced that everyone, no matter what age or background, possesses valuable knowledge to pass on to others. Although I’m sure none of this was passing through the minds of Abiba and Irene as we continued teaching each other, I could tell that they were also enjoying the moment and that they recognized it as a special one.