Help Build a Bridge from Philadelphia Schools to Ghana

School saved my life.

Growing up in Southwest Philly, the options around me were limited, yet it was in school that I found a safe place. I was blessed to have incredible teachers who recognized my potential, poured into me, and gave me opportunities to excel academically and surpass my wildest dreams. I received a full ride scholarship to attend the University of Pennsylvania through Questbridge, and it was there while studying abroad as a Penn student, that a pivotal moment occurred.

Ghana changed my life.

Through the University of Pennsylvania's International Development Summer Institute program (IDSI) I spent 1 month in Kumasi, Ghana. In Ghana, I took classes at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, I volunteered at the Kumasi Children's Home and I made life-long connections with Ghanaian students. Those Ghanaian students became my friends and exposed me to afrobeats and afro pop music, we visited the Elmina Slave Castle, and I was given a new perspective on what it meant to be Black.

This Philly girl returned home with a deeper sense of pride in Black culture, and a commitment to take Philly youth to Africa so they could also have this transformative experience.

For the past 8 years I've been a high school teacher, and last year I became the founding teacher in Philadelphia's first teaching academy program for high school students.

This is where you enter the story. I have the chance to practice Sankofa, a word from the Akan tribe of Ghana, that means to go back and fetch, or learn from the past, to guide the future. I want to establish a program that takes high school students from Philly to Ghana, but I first need to return there myself, and plant the seeds and foundation for an organization, that will carry out these trips yearly as apart of its mission. (Please see the link below for the organization's description.)

By donating to this gofundme, you are helping me and my family return to Ghana, so that we can build this organization that will offer a life changing travel experience to Philly's youth.

Here's the details:

Next year I plan to partner with my husband to take high school students from our classrooms and Philadelphia at-large to Ghana.

However, this year we need to get our feet on the ground in Ghana to build necessary relationships and physically ensure that transportation, travel plans, and accommodation are appropriate for a group of high schoolers next year. We also have a personal desire to take my mother, brother, and two baby girls to visit Africa for the first time in their lives. We have $2,000 raised, but lack $7600 more to make this a reality. Anything you can support with would be an amazing help. Whatever is raised will go directly towards getting to Ghana, and when there we will be meeting people and arranging plans for our students for next year.

Breakdown of Funds:

5 Flights at $1400 each = $7,000

Lodging: $1,000

Food: $1,000

Visas: $600

Total: $9600

Raised from Gina and Brendan: $2,000

Remaining Total Needed: $7,600

I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read my story. Please consider how you can be apart of this journey. With your donation you get to help me practice Sankofa and provide a transformative experience for teens from Philly. Please help me make this dream a reality.

Three Seed Community Description

https://bit.ly/ThreeSeed