Tomorrow’s Stars Highlights from Elmina, Ghana
George visited Elmina in October and was impressed by the progress our young people are making individually and as a group improving education. This all happens because of your donations.
Six Students Graduated University with Diploma or Degree
Eight New Students are entering University in January
We Lead Early Childhood Education with Jolly Phonics at 5 Schools
Our Girls’ Club is Inspired by Local Career Women
Our Stars Return on PIF Day to Share their Stories with the Younger Ones
Read on for photos and stories about our people and how we change lives through education.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Pending year end changes, we now support 16 students in University and 25 of our students have graduated! This makes us proud of our students and thankful for our donors.
Six Students Graduate University:
We are very proud of our students listed below. All earned scholarships with good academics and diligence in Paying It Forward. All will be doing a year of National Service (Very good experience required by the Ghana government).
Justice and Richard: Degrees in Medical Lab Technology
Emmanuel: Degree in Sociology
Esther: Diploma in Business, continuing Professional Courses in Banking
Mary: Diploma in Nursing
Daniel: Degree in Chemical Engineering.
Eight Pay It Forward (PIF) students to start University!!
In Ghana, after Covid, the school year has changed to starting in January. This year Tomorrow’s Stars is pleased to award University scholarships to 8 students who have Paid It Forward for at least 2 years.
Francis will begin a 6 year course in Medicine at Univ Cape Coast. He was Valedictorian at Edinaman HS before his PIF time at our library at Bantuma School.
Dorothy will also attend UCC in Nursing. She was a science student in HS and her PIF was mostly Christ Cares Library, Resource Room and early childhood literacy activities.
Others are Rolland (Ed Univ Winneba), the Odoom twins, Sam Sr and Jr (Nursing, UCC), Emmanuel (ICT in Accra), Enoch (Psych Nursing) and Ignatius (Cape Poly)
Our scholarships include tuition, room and a book allowance.
PLEASE DONATE TO HELP US WITH THESE COSTS!
Tuition is still less than $1000/year (except Medicine).
NEWS ABOUT OUR STARS:
Star videos
Our Stars are now making testimonial videos about their journey with Tomorrow’s Stars. Please see our BLOG! So far we have videos for Daniel, Lawrenda, Esther and Rudolph. Each is unique in their story and we are proud of all of them for “Becoming their Dreams”. There will be more coming!
Solo: Our Managing Director and Leader
Solo is the Leader of Tomorrow’s Stars in Elmina. He has a BA in Education and a Masters in Management as a Tomorrow’s Stars scholarship student. He is on our Board of Directors.
He oversees the PIFs, coordinates TS scholarships and activities, is President of Nsoroma Africa which manages a study center and other community activities. He is also Asst HM of Christ Cares Int’l School. Simply said, he carries out our vision every day and it is joy to discuss new ideas with him.
Spotlight on Isaac, Joseph and Leticia:
Isaac is a brilliant and diligent law student. After 4 years of prelaw near top of his class, he is now in his second year of law school and will take the “bar” in late 2023. His first year results were good and he taught a class to help other students and 90% passed. He understands “Paying it Forward”. He is always available with legal advice for our Stars and PIFs. We have our own pro-bono lawyer.
Joseph has completed 2nd year at top of his class in Petroleum Engineering, with nearly all A. He just began a 6 week internship with BOST, a Ghanaian oil transportation company. It will be great for learning and making contacts. Tomorrow’s Stars is enthusiastic about these opportunities.
Leticia was top of class in Early Childhood Education and was posted at Bantuma school for National Service. She is hopeful to be a KG teacher there, but no openings yet. She is helping Tomorrrow’s Stars with Literacy and Libraries while helping out at Bantuma until she is posted. Getting jobs in teaching and health care can be a challenge.
L to R: Isaac, Joseph and Leticia
Rudolph and Afua are married!
Our pioneer Rudolph got married on 5 Nov. Congratulations!! See our blog for his story and video.
LITERACY AND JOLLY PHONICS
At Tomorrow’s Stars we are using Jolly Phonics as well as reading to children (Fanti and English) to improve Literacy using our Literacy Resource Room. Jolly Phonics (which connects letters with sounds and motions) is important to help Ghanaian children read English, and they love the “dancing”. It is inspiring to see how the interest and participation of the children has improved.
We are fortunate to have 4 excellent young women who engage the children at the various schools. They are Leticia and Sharon and Philo and Aggie.
This trip we journeyed to the school where Philo teaches Grade 1 and has put in a resource room with Tomorrow’s Stars funding. Leticia and Sharon met with Philo and her kids for book reading and phonics. When break time came, they didn’t want to leave. It was wonderful to watch.
We met with Aggie later at her school. After her national service teaching KG, she is now in Nursery awaiting a posting, hopefully at the same school.
LIBRARIES
We support 4 libraries with PIF librarians and books and classes and Jolly Phonics. We also have reading contests and other activities with prizes for participation and achievement.
GIRLS’ CLUB EVENTS
The Christ Cares School Girls’ Club meets twice a week (30-40 girls in grades 4-9) with various activities. While George was there they had two inspirational speakers. Diana is a baker/cook who runs a local restaurant and Cecelia is a seamstress. Both gave inspirational talks about their journey to their current success and future plans, life is not easy for a young woman in Ghana. The girls asked many questions. Both were wonderful events to help adolescent girls navigate through teen years.
SOLAR POWERED COMPUTER (ICT) LAB
Our ICT lab is solar powered, we completed a renovation with new batteries. We have the best computer lab in the district including over 20 laptops as well as projector printer etc.
PAY IT FORWARD DAY
We always enjoy PIF Day when our Stars and PIFs get a chance to inspire their “juniors”. Tomorrow’s Stars pays their transport to return and it is always great to see them.
LIFE IN ELMINA
Our TS people attended a Funeral for Joseph’s father. Joseph is Asst HM at Edinaman and is important to our development of HS students. Funerals in Ghana are handled differently than in the US, but they include an obit/biography. Below are a few photos and also the bio for Joseph’s 96 year old father. I shared it because I found it enlightening and wish I had known him. I hope you enjoy it.
Star Reunion with Rudolph
Rudolph made it back for a brief visit and we had dinner at Coconut Grove with Solo, Francis, Otabil and Otabil’s new girlfriend. It was a special time. Friends of many years becoming their dreams and sharing memories, something that will continue. Also Otabil reminded them that he (again) beat Mr. George in ping pong!
Inflation in Ghana
There is serious and rampant inflation going on in Ghana on basic food and transport expenses. Much of this is due to the inflation of the Ghanaian Cedi against the US dollar. This benefits Tomorrow’s Stars as the $$ goes a long way in exchange and University fees are subsidized.
It is an opportunity for Tomorrow’s Stars which we are prepared to invest in.
Tomorrow's Stars 