College for Ama (CofA) provides educational opportunities for adolescent girls in deprived, rural areas of Ghana to attain college education.

We are a non-government foundation, registered in 2006 under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179), DSD/3224.

CofA’s aims are three-fold:

1. through creative and social awareness subjects we work with female adolescents to help them attain a college education. CofA believes that access to information and education empowers the individual to make better life choices and become more independent with a higher quality of life
2. we develop the curricula and implement teacher training and organise adult literacy classes so that the whole community benefits
3. we are a learning organisation: through continuous evaluation and sharing the knowledge gained about adolescent girls, CofA contributes to the national youth policy and encourages institutional and social change.

We deliver this through:

• free annual summer training camps: between 40 and 60 girls from 12 to 16 years of age receive extra tuition in core subjects over a two-week period, to prepare them for entrance exam for Senior High School. They also take part in creative and social awareness.
• ongoing monitoring and support of current and past participants of CofA training camps
• teacher training workshops in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
• adult literacy classes for mothers which improves their economic power and, in turn, helps them pay for their children’s education.

We promote personal growth, self-esteem, discipline, respect for others and collective responsibility and build the capacities of young girls to achieve higher education.

We address the social, emotional, physical, spiritual and educational needs of the young girls. We do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion or disability. CofA creates an environment that celebrates the commonality of the human experience while respecting cultural, ethnic and political diversity. We promote youth leadership and encourage involvement in lifelong learning.

The CofA Executive Team and staff in 2016: (from left) Fafali Banini (Assistant Education Officer), Erica Burggraaff, Nana Apt*, Adzo Ashie, Jacqueline Daku Mante (Administrator, Marketing and Fundraising)** and Lydia Bedwei.

*Nana Apt, one of CofA's three Founding Mothers' passed away in March 2017 – she will be very much missed.

Lydia Bedwei, a retired business women from Ghana, is the Chief Executive of 'College for Ama' (CofA).