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YES Alumnus Starts English Club for Ghanian Students

English Club 1

When Mordecai Nsabaah (YES 2016-2017, Ghana) returned to Ghana, he reached out to his community for their thoughts on an English club he wanted to create for children. He was met with positive feedback, and began his first session on August 7, 2017 with twenty eager students, ranging from ages nine to thirteen years,

Nsabaah's club runs during the three week vacation period of his students, and will wrap up the week of August 28, 2017. The club gained a total of sixty students, and the age range grew to include fourteen year olds as well.

The English club lessons focus on improving the basic grammar skills of club members, including how to use conjunctions, definite and indefinite articles, the verb "to be", and the use of "have and has."

English Club 2

While Nsabaah's club has been successful in gaining members and approval in the community, it also brought struggles to his attention.

"The biggest struggle so far has been poor internet connection," Nsabaah says. "Internet is a vital part of what we do at the club, as I seek to expose members to the modern world of technology through the integration of technology in my teaching process."

However, these struggles don't frustrate Nsabaah, nor do they get in the way of his own learning opportunities through this experience.

"The biggest lesson for me is the sense of accomplishment that I get every day after a session with the kids," Nsabaah says. "The feeling I get when I think of the impact that I am making in the lives of the members, the community, and the world as a whole."

English Club 3 Copy

The last week of sessions serves as a time of evaluation for the group. Members will look at and review what they've achieved over the three-week period.

Nsabaah wants the last week to be fun, and plans on showing educational movies, as well as playing games with the members.

The club will have unofficial sessions over Christmas and Easter, so the students can continuously develop their English skills. Nsabaah plans on running the club again next summer, and wants to continue to increase in numbers.

"The group is headed in a direction where our commitment will not only be in the classroom, but the community as a whole, as we seek to engage ourselves in projects that will bring development to our community," Nsabaah says.

Nsabaah currently uses his personal funds to run the club. While funding hasn't been an issue yet, he is actively looking into additional funding to run much larger club sessions next summer.

Being a past participant of the YES program, Nsabaah hopes to be considered for the Iowa Resource for International Service (IRIS) Alumni Global Grant this upcoming year. The grant is an opportunity for alumni of any IRIS program to receive funding for future projects they organize.


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