SmartKids Foundation

Yeah yeah, in this part of the world where I come from (Ghana), most people if not all have been there. You remember how eager you or your parents wanted you to be a medical doctor when you were just a little boy? Well, I do remember mine vividly, you know why; I just had a space on the web to put it.

Growing up as a poor kid could never been more difficult. Education, food, shelter, etc. As a kid, I faced problems such as education, single parenthood, poor food and shelter. At my tender age, I loved to learn and I loved every moment at school. “Saato” (village public school) was the only option for me when I reached the school-going age.

I studied so hard throughout my primary and junior high school and I enjoyed reading the Junior Graphic (they were delivered to us by an NGO – AYA) and my favourite page in that newspaper was “Talk to Auntie Betty” (something close to that, I don’t quite remember). It was always fun, you would understand if you ever liked Junior Graphic.

Well, after Junior High School, I knew I was going to go to Senior High School but I just didn’t know how. There was no way my mum could afford the fees paid at that level of education. So by virtue of my accomplishments (uplifting the image of my district) whiles in Junior High, I went to the District Education office and made my situation known to them.
I was then enrolled in the SmartKids Foundation scholarship program. I went for an interview, I passed and everything, I mean absolutely everything concerning my education was taken up by the foundation.

When I was in Senior High, all I wanted was to become a medical doctor. It all changed when the foundation started giving us (myself + over 30 kids) lessons in computer usage at an internet café close to our school. I grew up to love these machines and sometimes I would ran away from school to town just to browse the internet.

I always say, I have a curious soul. I just wanted to know what really made the computer so awesome. This curiosity hunted me day and night and I was so ready to satisfy it but I was limited in the things I could do with the computers in the various internet cafés. Back at school, I would run errands for my friends who had their own computers in order to get access to their PCs, it was all fun anyway. Because of the basic knowledge I had in computers, I was more of a consultant to the guys who had PCs back in the house. So my quest to learn more about computers was heightened.

I am in my final year at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (actually, not yet, until August 2011) and I am so obsessed with technology and computers but that will be a story for another time. I conclude this part by expressing my utmost and profound gratitude to the SmartKids Foundation and its sponsors for my awesome development. I will do everything and anything within my power to see to the sustenance and expansion of the foundation.