International Educational Services

International Educational Services (IES) is a small, non-profit organization created in 1995 to serve poor subsistence farmers in Ghana, West Africa. Our many diverse projects and services over the past 14 years have all been completed successfully primarily because we work in close partnerships with local schools,parents and other community members who want and deserve the same high educational standards for their own children that are evident in the majority of western, economically advantaged countries. I.E.S. works to provide the setting in which those standards may be achieved.Our Board of Directors serves on a permanent volunteer basis, which means that over ninety percent of all donations goes directly to villages in cash or kind.

Natalie E. Gray, Director

A former high school teacher for twenty-two years in the New York City public school system, Natalie personally learned of the plight of West Africans in the Peace Corps (Liberia/85-87). Subsequent to that, she   conducted doctoral research in rural Ghana in 1995 (USAID's Assistance To Girls' Education in Ghana) and has been involved there ever since.  Natalie was awarded her PhD from New York University in 1998.  She resides in Brooklyn, New York.

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Susan I. Richardson, Co-Director

An educator and dancer, Susan's (on the right in above photo) career as an arts administrator has centered on infusing the creative arts into New York City public schools.  Her invaluable assistance in helping to create IES continues in the additional roles of sounding-board, problem solver and advisor.  Susan is a graduate of Bennington College and the University of Michigan.  She resides on Staten Island, New York. Oh, yes, she is also Natalie's cousin.

Kofi Kuma Siabi("K.K."), Project Manager and Accountant

A tax auditor for the Internal Revenue Service in Ghana, KK has served generously as a volunteer with IES since the first day of its inception. Not only does KK oversee all financial transactions, but continually supervises all major purchases, visits all project sites regularly, and maintains up-to-date financial records.  As if this were not enough, KK and his warm, extended family invite all American volunteers to reside with them while in Ghana.  He resides in Haatso, Greater Accra region. KK is a graduate of the University of Ghana (Legon).

Philomena Mensah, Project Co-ordinator

"Philo" (above, in pink, alongside Cynthia Brakwa) has served as an IES volunteer for eleven years, primarily in Kwabenya Village, Greater Accra Region.  An elementary school teacher there, she has 'worn many hats' in her spare time, such as leading a Batik training workshop in Yabraso (above).  She also supervised all of the IES Scholarship Recipients through their nine years at Kwabenya.  A founder of the Batik Workshop in Kwabenya, Philo played a great part in the economic empowerment of the workshop graduates, many of whom have opened their own small businesses.  She resides in Madina, Greater Accra.

Sylvester Addo Fosu, Project Co-ordinator

Our newest volunteer, Sylvester came forward without hesitation to replace our two former coordinators, both of whom went back to the university in pursuit of master's degrees. A well-respected, industrious  junior high school science teacher at Yabraso, Sylvester was the one who first pointed out infrastructural needs of Yabraso schools during an IES exploratory visit in 2005. It was during that first trip to the village that we offered an open-ended partnership to the community. Sylvester is a native of Nsawkaw, a village only six miles from Yabraso.  We thank this very energetic young man for his dedication to improving the learning environment of his students.

Cynthia Brakwa, Textile Design Instructor

Born into a large, impoverished rural family, Cynthia knows first-hand the importance of learning a trade or skill that can sustain a family when farming just doesn't produce enough income.  For women, especially, it is important to have an independent source of money not under the direct control of their husbands.  Cynthia, our friend for over ten years and now IES colleague, has been well-trained in the art of batik, which she expertly passes on to all the women in our villages.  They want and deserve the right to control their own economic resources. We will do our part to help that become a reality.  Thanks, Cynthia! 

The Yabraso Schools Improvement Committee (YASIC)

Created in 2005 to oversee all IES projects and programs in Yabraso Village, YASIC has proven to be an invaluable link between the village community and our organization. The role of committee members, supported by the leadership of Sylvester Addo Fosu, Project Co-ordinator, is to receive and distribute funds to all pertinent recipients in each IES-approved activity.  They also serve as a sounding board for community and school staff requests, which are then presented to IES if deemed relevant to our mission.  We cannot express our sincere appreciation enough to our frontline staff who possess the local knowledge which the rest of us are not privy to.

Who We Are

I.E.S. is also open to volunteers from the United States and other countries, who wish to 'give back' and receive much more in return.  I.E.S. staff have traveled throughout Ghana and worked with a myriad of energetic, creative,  and committed workers, both African and American. Would you like to join us for a new experience? 

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Vinnie, Eleanor, Stacy and Regina (from left) crack stones for the junior high school construction in Kwabenya.

Karen and Stacy clean children's wounds caused by farming accidents in Kogle Village, outside Nandom.

Nathaniel, a junior high student, and Agbeko, a nephew of our Project Manager, volunteer after school to create a wall mural in Kwabenya.

Regina (left) works with construction crew building the junior high school in Kwabenya.

Vinnie and Stacy co-teach with Lillie, a science teacher in Kwabenya.

Natalie, IES Director, queries mothers in Kwabenya about their children's school attendance.

Regina teaching softball (she actually used tennis balls!) to students at Kogle

Teacher Mary Atiga, leads parents in a communal labor activity in Kwabenya.

Eleanor and Karen on their way to visit homes in Musuko, a village near Kwabenya.

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A child in Yabraso continues to work despite all requests that he stop.

Stacy and Eleanor, children in tow, carry fertilizer to the school compound as part of their flower growing project

Village men in Yabraso preparing the site for the new junior high school

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Breakfast Program volunteers Yabraso

Vinnie documents an IES project.

KK and family, our kind hosts in Ghana each year, meet all volunteers and see them off as well, at Accra's Kotoka Airport.  Meda ase!  Thank You!

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