OUR STORY
Hope for Children Academy was born of Friendship and Vision: Two women reaching across the boundaries of culture, religion, ethnicity and language became friends. Then they responded to a need voiced by a Traditional Leader in the Northern Region of Ghana.
Lyn Burr Brignoli and Rahinatu Sibri Nantogmah, October 2024
THE VISON: In 2008 Kpatihi Naa Azindow Nantogmah, leader of a royal family in the Nanung Kingdom of Northern Ghana, made an announcement at a ceremonial gathering in Bimbilla: “The future of our village depends on the education of girls.” His vision to educate girls was radical. Historically girls had been denied schooling in Bimbilla.
Kpatihi Naa Azindow Nantogmah
How It All Began and Where We Are Now
Our Story Begins in 2000. Lyn Burr Brignoli, a volunteer teacher for children with disabilities from Greenwich, Connecticut, was traveling in Ghana on a Fulbright grant with a group of teachers.
Lyn (1st row far right) with Fulbright colleagues and teachers at a Muslim school in Tamale, capital of the Northern Region, 2000. Abdullai, Fulbright translator and Sibri's husband, front row beside the African American teacher in blue dress. Driver, Francis, on top of the bus.
In northern Ghana a translator for the American teachers, Abdullai Haroon, introduced his wife, Rahinatu Sibri Nantogmah, to Lyn. The two women spoke for hours. When Lyn returned to the U.S., a letter was waiting: “My Dear Sister Lyn, I am Mrs. Abdullai. Do you remember me?” It was the beginning of a long correspondence that blossomed into friendship.
Back and forth Sibri and Lyn wrote, at first with snail-mail then switching to email. One day, after a few years, Lyn asked Sibri, “Where are you at with your education?” Sibri answered it was her dream to go to university, but with three young children to care for and on a low-paying teacher’s salary, she couldn’t afford it.
“Let’s work together to make it happen,” Lyn wrote, realizing that to attend university was her friend’s dream—the desire of Sibri’s heart. Lyn encouraged Sibri to take the bus down to the coast to visit several universities near Accra to pick up some application forms. Finally, in 2007, after three years of applying, Sibri was accepted at the University of Cape Coast for a degree program in the social sciences.
Sibri’s registration photo at the University of Cape Coast, 2007.
Sibri’s older sisters, who were denied schooling in Bimbilla, are so proud of their little sister Sibri, the university student, 2008.
In 2008 Lyn Returns to Ghana. When Sibri’s brother, Kpatihi Naa Azindow Nantogmah, the leader of their royal family in Bimbilla, learned Lyn was coming to visit his sister Sibri, he decided to install Lyn as their Queen: Kpatihi Maligu Naa, Bimbilla Queen of Development.
Sibri is one of 42 children. Her father had 7 wives. And Sibri, next to the youngest of the children, was the first female in the family to even learn to read and write. When she was six, she was adopted by an older brother who recognized her intelligence. He took her away from her mother in Bimbilla to live with him in Accra and paid her school fees until he died. By that time Sibri had almost finished high school. Azindow Naa was deeply moved watching his sister’s transformation with her education and now seeing how hard she was working as a university student.
Kpatihi Naa Azindow Nantogmah arrives for the Queening ceremony, Bimbilla 2008.
2008, Bimbila: Sibri (on Lyn’s right); Alhassan Somed Dasana, Sibri’s nephew, guided Lyn through the Queening rituals, translating from Dagbani.
Somed instructs Lyn to wave the tail over the crowd to ward off juju (evil spirits).
Lyn seated on sacred animal skins inside the shrine. The traditional Nanung priest robes Lyn with the royal garments, then bestows her title: “You are Kpatihi Maligu Naa, Bimbilla Queen of Development.” Sibri, on far right.
Lyn emerges from the ceremony holding “the tail” (made of horsehair) and a walking stick—symbols of authority.
During Lyn’s Queening ceremony Azindow Naa made his remarkable speech: “The future of our village depends on the education of girls.” Astonishing since girls in Bimbilla had heretofore been denied schooling.
Azindow Naa sent Lyn a letter asking for help to build a school. “I will try my best to help you,” Lyn answered. Although, Lyn told him, she had no experience.
Sibri (on Lyn’s immediate left) with Lyn in a meeting to discuss girls’ education in Bimbilla, 2011.
Azindow Naa’s letter with his thumb print
In 2011 Sibri graduated from the University of Cape Coast with a BA in economics and Lyn returned to Ghana, this time with a team of Ghanaian advisors to evaluate the possibility of founding a school for girls. For several days the advisors and regional leaders gathered in Bimbilla to discuss “girl-child education.” It soon became clear they could build a school, but parents were not going to send their daughters. Societal pressure was too strong. They needed a way to show parents the value of educating girls.
With advice from educators Azindow Naa and Sibri along with Lyn worked out a program to offer scholarships to girls who already had some schooling. Three years later, when three girls had graduated—two became teachers, one became a nurse—Azindow Naa decided the community was now ready for the school.
2014: In the fall of 2014 Sibri sent Lyn an estimate for a simple, 3-classroom, cinderblock building. The cost was $13,000. Amazingly, a generous benefactor had already given Lyn a check in this same amount for the school.
In 2015 Construction Began. Sibri was now managing the Bimbilla school project; she designed the layout and was overseeing construction. Things were moving along smoothly, but the community was in disarray. A decades-long chieftaincy dispute in Bimbilla continued to flare up in sporadic violence. Relatives were fighting each other over who was the rightful chief. In February 2017, just as the workmen were finishing the roof and wiring electricity for the school, eleven people were massacred in broad daylight in Bimbilla—all of them women and children, except for one man. The workmen all ran away. Mobs of townspeople fled. But Azindow Naa remained steadfast, cautioning them to wait and let things settle down. By mid-July the workmen were back at work on the school.
In 2017 the school opens with 88 pupils, 2/3 are girls. Headmistress Sibri far right.
In September 2017 Kpatihi Maligu Naa Hope for Children Academy (named to honor Lyn as Bimbilla Queen of Development) opened with 88 students, 2/3 were girls in Nursery, Pre-K and Kindergarten classes.
In 2024 the school enrolled 329 students in nursery through 6th grades, completing the primary school.
Each year since its opening, we’ve added a grade; we are hoping to add junior high school grades, eventually a senior high school.
Hope for Children Academy is Helping Maintain Peace. After the school’s opening in 2017, the violence in Bimbilla ceased. The school is playing an important role. Everyone wants their child to attend Hope for Children Academy due to its high academic standing. Previously warring families now see the need for peaceful coexistence. They interact daily as they bring their children to school, working along with the teachers for a stronger future.
While the school continues its wonderful work in the community, there is still much more to do. We’d like to provide a solid education to as many children as possible.
Headmistress Sibri Nantogmah, September 2023
Kindergarten girl welcomes Lyn to Hope for Children Academy, October 2024