Global Ghana Youth Network

The Global-Ghana Youth Network is a local-global organization working to educate, empower, and inspire youth in the United States and West Africa. In the impoverished Ghanaian neighborhood of Kissehman, we provide desperately needed resources and educational opportunities, meeting childrens basic needs while encouraging them to learn and grow. In America, we work with schools, organizations, and youth groups to facilitate exciting cross-cultural exchange.

To view the monthly budget, click here.
To see how your donations are helping the Global Ghana Youth Network, click here.

2010 Report

You can view the 2010 report by clicking here

A Special Thank You

The GGYN would like to thank Ana Andrade-Wolf for her great support. Please visit her website here to show your support for children everywhere.

The Struggle

The school work at GGYN came to a dramatic halt one day in the beginning of february, when all of a sudden a flash flood covered the whole community in water that reached a grown man to his waist. When the water cleared, the staff was faced with a hard task; everything was covered in mud. The schol ground was covered in several inches of mud and the water had broken down the door of founder and director Mollishmaels house that also works as office. Books, pencils and papers had been ruined by the water. Furthermore the water had carried with it over half of the much needed benches and tables and scattered the rest all over the area. With determination and hard work the ground was cleared and what was left to save was cleaned and polished. Nearly a week and a half later the school was ready to begin again and with the arrival of a volunteer from Denmark things began to look bright.

However... after only two days of school, the rain came back. This time, with the drainage and gutter still clogged up with water and mud from the flood two weeks earlier, the water rose and it kept on rising. Sylvester and Daniel was in Sylvesters house when the rain started. After a few hours it became clear that it was a bad situation. Everything worth saving was stacked as high as possible on shelves or on top of cabinets. At twelve o'clock in the night the water was rising fast and the two young men together with Sylvesters landlord, his wife and dog climbed to the roof. In the darkness they could catch glimpses of furniture, barrels, even a chicken house with frightened chickens clucking for the their life inside being carried away downstream.

The situation was desparate. Frightened and helpless the group looked to each other for an answer. It was obvious that the rain was not going to stop and the water kept creeping towards their feet, merciless and unrelenting. From the feeble refuge on the roof could be heard the cracks and fearsome noises of doors breaking under the immense weight of the water and furniture being slammed into walls and through windows. After a deep look into each others eyes it was decided that the nearest place of shelter would be in the landlords house and after a chlling swim through the dirty, snake filled water security was finally theirs, squatting on the narrow beams beneath the roof. The experience is not recommendable.

The next day an assesment was made of the damages: Everything had been destroyed. Every book, every piece of paper, every bench and table had been ruined. This is where we stand now, without even a safe place to store the school supplies and a definite uncertainty as to whether the school will be covered in mud tomorrow. Plans for building a proper school has been made and the building is to start in June, but without even a safe house to sleep in the future is shrouded and unclear. But we are optimists. We look forward and we will never stop believing that what we do is good. The children suffer for something for which they are not responsible but we will keep fighting for their right to free education. This is the only way forward.

-Daniel Fox, 4th March 2011

How the GGYN is giving quality education to children

By Adobobe Sylvester

In the community of Kissehman, many children wish to go to school but their parents cannot pay for their school fees and uniforms. Although they want to learn, these children either sit in the house, go to the market to sell, or play in the community all day. Global Ghana Youth Network helps children who cannot afford to go to school by providing a safe place for them to learn and play. Global Ghana Youth Network (GGYN) is a non profit organization that provides education for children whose parents cannot pay for them to go to school. GGYN provides everything for the children so that they have good education, including books, pencils, erasers, computers, and sometimes food.

Currently, we have about 42 children ranging between the ages of 3 to 13. Some of these children have never been to school before so we begin with the basics, including how to hold a pencil and write. We make sure that they can read the alphabet from A-Z and also recognize the letters. We also teach them how to write their names and learn how to count.

In Kissehman, the majority of the families come from Ghana’s Volta Region or Togo, and they speak Ewe or Twi as their first language. However, English is the language of education and business in Ghana, so we teach the children how to communicate in English. We start with the basics, for example how to respond to questions such as “How are you”? “How old are you?”, “What are you doing”? The children learn quickly, and most of them can communicate and express themselves in the English language. The performances of most of the children is very good. Now, most of them can write their names, do sums, draw, and speak English.

The school is growing. From the 4th of January we have been admitting new children. But we have some problems as the number increases. We need more tables and chairs and more school supplies. We are expecting about 100 children by May this year; more parents want to bring their children. However, since we have limited chairs and tables for the children to learn at, we cannot admit more children until we have more school supplies that can enhance the learning of the children.

The staff of the school is also increasing. We are expecting some volunteers from Denmark and the United States in a few weeks and we know that will help a lot. More volunteers have expressed interest. Some of the potential volunteers are even asking what subjects to teach and what other projects they can help with.

We had 4 members of staff helping to teach the children: Mollishmael Kwame Gabah (Founder and Director of GGYN), Jill (Co-director of GGYN), Mavis Wenya and Adoboe Sylvester. Currently, Mollishmael and Jill are gone to the US and Scotland respectively to raise funds for the organization so at the moment Mavis Wenya and Adoboe Sylvester are teaching GGYN’s two classes.

GGYN has also created a recycling program with discarded water sachets (in Ghana, tap water is non-potable so people buy and drink water from bags), where the children paint the sachets. The recycling company Trashy Bags then sews the colorful bags into zippered change purses and gives them to GGYN at cost. The change purses are then sold in the United Kingdom and United States to raise money for GGYN. In addition, the water sachets are recycled instead of littered or burnt, and the kids are able to express themselves by doing colorful artwork.