Ghana Penn Alliance looks to give back overseas

The new Ghana Penn Alliance aims to provide educational resources that are comparable to what is available in developed countries for Ghanaian children. (Courtesy of Justice Nadutey)

Ever since leaving his native village of Tamatoku in rural Ghana, Justice Nadutey, a 2011 College graduate and student in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, has been looking for a way to give back to his community.

Now, through the newly formed Ghana Penn Alliance, Nadutey hopes to provide the children of his village with the educational resources they need to succeed.

Ghana Penn Alliance aims to “see what Ghanaian children in Tamatoku can achieve if provided comparable resources to children in more developed countries by sustained commitment between Penn and the people of Tamatoku,” according to its mission statement.

Last summer, Nadutey oversaw the building of a state-of-the-art library in Tamatoku in order to “create a space for creativity … and make the kids competitive,” he said. Through collaboration with village chiefs and Penn alumni from Ghana, Nadutey’s next goal is to give children from his village the chance to attend summer camp in Ghana this June.

Staffed by around 30 students from Penn and the University of Ghana, the camp will incorporate academic and extracurricular activities such as arts, cooking and water sports into its curriculum.

“This will give [Ghanaian children] the camp experience that a lot of them aren’t exposed to,” College senior and GPA member Lindsay Godard said. GPA expects about 120 Ghanaian campers to attend the free-of-charge program.

College senior and GPA member Joanna Ehrenreich sees the camp as a way to enrich students’ experience outside school and expose them to an international perspective by interacting with Penn students. The camp will “serve as a pilot for developing a sustainable model in the future,” she added.

“This model is unique because this is my village,” Nadutey said. “This isn’t philanthropy out of nowhere. It’s not just being imposed from the top down … it came as an organic idea.”

Ghana Penn Alliance has also begun to work with Penn Society for International Development to revamp the educational system in Ghana.

College and Engineering junior and PennSID Research Director Pratham Mittal is leading a student think tank in writing a paper on ways to restructure Ghana’s education system. “The idea is to create a policy statement and [use it] for lobbying in order to make a difference,” he said.

“We look at the specific facets of the education system [in Ghana] to see what is the status quo and how it compares to other countries, and how to improve it,” he added.

Nadutey’s project has received support from Penn faculty members such as Penn President Amy Gutmann and Office of Student Affairs Executive Director Hikaru Kozuma, who have helped GPA make contacts and become an established Penn club.

Executive Director of the Fox Leadership Program Joe Tierney also helped steer the GPA’s efforts, Nadutey said, adding that Political Science professor John DiIulio invited him to speak at Fox Leadership last March on inequality in the developing world.

To raise funds for the upcoming project, Ghana Penn Alliance plans to host a concert featuring Ghanaian performing artists Rocky Dawuni and Kojo Antwi, as well as several smaller fundraisers at campus bars The Blarney Stone and Smokey Joe’s. GPA is also working with Penn Athletics to arrange a charity soccer match between the United States and Ghanaian national soccer teams.

GPA’s goal is to “channel [these] resources to something specific, so that you can go to the village and measure improvement,” Godard said.

Ghana Penn Alliance will also be spreading awareness about its mission and recruiting Penn students to staff its summer camps through a presentation at Fox Leadership on Nov. 1.