While in Ghana from May 18th to June 11th 2011, I was in Kumasi most of the time, having meetings, meetings and meetings. But before and during my stay in Kumasi I was able to drive around the southern part of Ghana and the Ashanti Region and visit some of our beneficiaries in Senior High Schools, Universities and Nursing Training Institutes. Here are some impressions.
Due to heavy traffic in Accra I was not able to pay as many visits as I intended, but I visited smart kid Comfort Duah, who started at the School of Hygiene in September 2010. (click on the pics to see them larger and sharper)
Comfort and the school’s signboard.
After that, together with Comfort I visited Valentine Akinkaba, who is in form 1 at Wesley Grammar School in Accra.
Valentine is one of two smart kids in High School who is not schooling in the Ashanti Region.
I was not able to pay a visit to our two students Justice Abakah and Lord Cudjoe at Legon University, but I visited them in previous years.
Sunday May 22st I drove to Cape Coast, on the way passing through Winneba, visting our twin towers and smart kids Marcus and Ernesto Parley, students at the local Educational University since September 2010. Smart kids Helina Acheampong and Thomas Kanga are students at the same institute, but I did not have enough information on them to visit them too.
Marcus and Ernesto in front of their hostel, next to the car I was driving, which was made available by its owner, George Fugluu.
Marcus and Ernesto in their bunk beds.
At the University of Cape Coast, on Monday May 23rd I met junior board president Lizzy Atulley, vice president Aliu Alhassan and other smart kids Frederick Baidoo and Isaac Frimpong. The next day I visited Cecilia Quaicoe at Ankaful Nurses Training College, just north of Cape Coast.
Cecilia’s most recent picture on Facebook.
In Kumasi I saw our kids at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and I visited several high schools with smart kids. Not as many as I wanted, because the car broke down and I had to do without it for 5 days. All the kids below are in form 1 of high quality senior high schools; they all completed junior highschool at Joy Standard last year.
The first school we visited was Anglican Senior Highschool, with Christopher Owusu. I forgot to take a picture, so here is Christopher a couple of days later at the 2011 Annual Meeting.
At Opuke Ware Senior High School Lizzy and I met with Gordon Putota, number one at Joy Standard Junior High School last year, and now again number one in class at this top senior high school.
Gordon, Lizzy and yours truly.
George Kolan at Armed Forces Senior High School
Latifah Abubakar, Gideon Manu and Lizzy Atulley at Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School in Kumawu
Our last visit on our two day tour around Kumasi brought us to Jackie Pramso Senior Highschool, where we met Mercy Abraham.
Lizzy and Mercy at Jackie Pramso, 15 kilometers south of Kumasi.
In Kumasi we also visited Prempeh College with smart kids Toyibu Fuseini and Felix Nsoh and smart girl Mary Konamah at Wesley Girls SHS, made pictures, and lost those pics again. Nowhere to be found. Their pics and stories can be found in “class of 2007”, through the menu on the right.
We also intended to visit most of the other Smart Kids in Senior High School, but due to several reasons (car breaking down, for instance) we could not. Hopefully I will be able to visit Paulina Amponsah, Sophia Atengpieng, Sarah Boampong, Emilda Daari, Sadia Haruna and Jennifer Nsoh at their schools next time I am in Ghana.
They all started with the SmartKids Foundation 4 years ago; their stories and pics from that time can be found in the menu on the right hand side: class of 2007.
Kees Hoogendijk