Ghana Society for the Protection & Care of Animals has been an AKI Partner Organization since the start of AKI in 2007. For details about AKI support to GSPCA from 2016 onward, please see AKI Blog articles; for information about how GSPCA used AKI funds prior to 2016 (2014 and 2015), keep reading. We have so much information about GSPCA, their activities, and how they've benefited from AKI support, for years prior to 2014, please get in touch and we'd be happy to share the information.
Your support to AKI ensures that Ghana SPCA can continue their work in humane education. Donations to AKI cover the cost of printing Humane Education Manuals (each student gets one), small stipends for HE teachers, transport for GSPCA volunteers (David and Aluizah) to visit schools for HE Program start-up and to mentor HE teachers, and field trips for HE students. AKI donors cover 100% of the cost of the GSPCA Humane Ed Program!
Here are some of the teachers, students, and GSPCA volunteers who were so instrumental in making the GSPCA Humane Ed Program a success in 2014 & '15 and beyond.
In 2015, GSPCA added a new school to the GSPCA Humane Ed family-- Kukuruzua JHS, in Zebilla, Upper East Region of Ghana, the 1st school in that region to include Humane Ed in the currriculum! With Aluizah's help (Aluizah is the GSPCA HE Specialist), John Apam, the HE and science teacher, kicked off the program on June 21, 2015. Aluizah attributes John's negotiation skills to getting through the usual school bureaucracy. In the pictures below you can see John leading the students through the HE lesson. Aluizah had worked on getting the HE program into Kukuruzua JHS since January 2015, and everyone, including the head teacher, was so happy to finally kick off the 1st HE class. Aluizah told us that while teaching he saw "a few teachers peeping in at the class and eavesdropping on me and the lesson. I am sure they loved the lessons and have learnt new ideas, because I heard them whisper to each other (male and female teacher) on the meaning of sentient."
Thanks to AKI donors, GSPCA was able to provide each of the 77 Kukuruzua students in the Humane Ed class with a Humane Ed Manual (US$3/manual)! GSPCA donors, you have made these students very happy (pictures below)!
As part of their "hands-on" Humane Ed project, Kukuruzua Humane Ed students helped Ghana SPCA organize the Zebilla Donkey and Dog Vet Clinic, the 1st ever vet clinic in Zebilla, in northern Ghana-made possible thanks to AKI donors!
In April 2015, with David from GSPCA, I (Karen) visited North Legon School Complex, and saw for myself the impact that the GSPCA Humane Ed Program is having on the students. About 15 students came to school on a Saturday, normally a day off from classes, to join us for a special HE session. Each student brought his or her Humane Ed Manual, and they were so attentive...and so smart about dogs and cats and good treatment! And Elizabeth, their teacher, is so inspiring! (see pictures below). I handed over many of the gifts that were donated by AKI supporters.
If you ever wonder whether HE is making a difference, here's the answer: This boy came up to us after class at North Legon to show us his Animal Kindness Club medallion. Actually, it had been his father's, from about 15 years ago, saved all these years, and passed on to his son. Obviously, it had special meaning for the father. I asked the son if they have dogs and cats at home-they do, and from the sound of it, the father and son both have learned a lot from HE class!
Then, about 35 Trust Academy students showed up to class the following Saturday when I visited--on their day off. We had another vibrant humane ed session, and I gave Nana, the teacher, some of the gifts I brought along-thanks to AKI donors. Nana is a wonderful teacher, so good at keeping the pupils interested. And Mercy, the headmistress (in the group picture, far right with the blue cap) is so supportive of GSPCA and Nana.
Below are pictures of North Legon School Humane Ed students with Aluizah of GSPCA playing the very popular Humane Ed Quiz. As you can see from the pictures, Aluizah is a very enthusiastic teacher, and his enthusiasm is contagious!
Trust Academy in New Adenta, Accra, is 1 of 4 GSPCA Humane Ed pilot schools that started the HE program in 2013. At the end of the HE lesson in 2014, the HE teacher and GSPCA's Aluizah, held a quiz contest for the students. The contest attracted many teachers and students who weren't actually participating in the quiz, but found it so interesting they missed their breakfast break! Aluizah said, "It was the major event of the day of July 4, 2014."
The head teacher of the school, Mr. Ansong, one of the many adults who observed the event noted, “it was a good way of testing pupils." The prizes awarded to the winners of the quiz were donated by AKI supporters.
GSPCA HE volunteer Aluizah visited Akatsi north to supervise and teach at Ave Afiadenyigba (pictures below), one of the newer schools in the GSPCA HE program. Ave Ave is the 2nd school in this district new to the GSPCA HE Program.
Isaac Lam F., a student at Trust Academy, who participates in GSPCA's Humane Ed Program, drew these pictures below, as part of the HE program.
Akosua Tweneboa-Kodua, below, was the Humane Education instructor at Gospel International School in Madina estates, La Nkwantanang Madina Municipality in Accra.
Sadly, at the end of February 2014, Madam Akosua left that position. She leaves a legacy of kindness to animals. Akosua applied creative thinking to the Humane Education Program; she designed the humane education quiz contest (see pictures), which most of GSPCA's Humane Ed classes now use as a model.
The contest uses quiz cards, which Akosua personally procured, and it awards prizes. GSPCA Humane Education Coordinator, Aluizah, said of Akosua: "She persisted and made the course a place in the hearts and minds of the pupils who attended her lessons. She is cultured, humble and was quick to extend courteous overtures. She was very persuasive and, anytime she needed assistance in a lesson, she invited me with the words 'don’t you want to see my beautiful face?' It was fun being with Akosua, she was not only unique by initiating the quiz contest. Until Madam Elizabeth Ntow of North Legon School Complex came aboard this term, Akosua was the only female HE teacher, among four males, in Ghana for the whole of the first term in 2013 and continued until her exit."
In February 2014, Laurie, an Accra resident, joined Aluizah at Action Basic School (pictures below). Laurie wrote to AKI about the experience: "I was able to go and it was amazing! I was blown away by what he was teaching and the response from the kids and the teacher too. Aluizah was so great at teaching the content. It's so amazing that they do this all in their free time and for nothing."
In February 2014, while working in Ghana, I visited GSPCA's Humane Ed classes. Below, are pictures at Trust Academy during my visit: watching the Humane Ed lesson was inspiring-thank you Nana, Aluizah, and David! Aluizah's article about the start-up of the HE Program at Trust Academy is here.
Below: GSPCA's David leads a Humane Ed lesson at one of GSPCA's new schools for 2014, North Legon School Complex.
World Animal Day 2014
GSPCA used AKI funds to cover field trip expenses for this World Animal Day 2014 event. Seventy students from 3 schools, North Legon, Action Basic, and Trust Academy, who completed the 8-week GSPCA Humane Ed course, were treated to a field trip to visit with Dr. Bashiru Boi Kikimoto at Vet HQ (government offices), who gave a brief lecture on animal diseases. Then, they were off to La Veterinary Clinic to meet the vets (for most of these students, it was the 1st time they ever met a small animal vet) and get a tour of the clinic. They even had a chance to watch a cat and a dog get vaccinated against rabies! Then they all marched through the streets of Accra to celebrate World Animal Day. A field trip like this costs about US$400 (including preparatory costs and refreshments for everyone). This was the 1st of many more field trips, all sponsored by AKI donors, led by Ghana SPCA! All have been a huge success and very popular with Humane Ed students!
WE'RE ALWAYS IN NEED OF SUPPORTERS FOR GHANA SPCA'S HUMANE ED PROGRAM. YOUR DONATION MEANS SO MUCH TO GSPCA AND GHANA'S HUMANE ED STUDENTS.