April Newsletter

Written By Choose Love Ghana

Choose Love Ghana - April Newsletter

Welcome to our very first newsletter subscribers! 

We hope that this will be another way for people to stay informed about all the wonderful things Choose Love Ghana is doing. We will aim to get a newsletter to you each month. 

Because this is our first newsletter, we’d like to share a quick summary of ‘our story’, who we are and what we do. 

Meet the team: Grace Aitken, Jaimee Perrett and Kelsie Small run this charity from a small town in Picton New Zealand. Grace is a graphic designer running her own buisness, Jaimee teaches at Linkwater School, and Kelsie is a Maritime Officer and Coastguard Volunteer. 

This year, we welcome Kelsie Small as a new trustee (right). She will be helping us out with everything financial as well joining the volunteers travelling to Ghana this year in June. 

We recently farewelled Megan Wills-Perrett, who has volunteered her time to our charity for the last 6 years as our financial advisor. She travelled to Good Foundation School in Ghana in 2020 but had known the family through phone calls since 2014. She remains in regular contact with her new found family in Ghana and is going to be busy with new life commitments. We are so grateful to Megan and her time with Choose Love Ghana. We wouldn’t be here without her! 

We work closely with Raymond Nsiah-Asare who is our coordinator in Ghana. Raymond is closely connected to Good Foundation school through family ties and he is currently a high-school teacher in working near the capital of Ghana. We will share a story from him further down in this newsletter. 

Recent Updates

  • Earlier this year the volunteer team from Gisborne confirmed that they will be joining us in Ghana in June and July to get the roof on Good Foundation School

  • This year we have been busy in January and February selling stock at the Lions Club Cruiseship Markets and at the Maritime festival. It has been wonderful chatting to new supporters from all over the world. 

  • We’ve been lucky enough to have a little bit of media coverage to tell our story

    February 18th we featured in an article in the Blenheim Sun - it is so wonderful to be getting our name back out there and making https://chooseloveghana.org/s/A-School-with-Heart-Blenheim-Sun-Feb-18-2026.pdf

  • Local businesses have contributed items and vouchers for giveaways for our fundraiser raffles.

  • We have raised nearly $4000 NZD in total this year thanks to the efforts

Coming up

What can you do?

April Feature:

A story from Raymond - 

“My name is Raymond. My father and mother started a school with a singular purpose: to provide quality and affordable education to the children of Tetrem, a small town about an hour’s drive from Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region. They named it Good Foundation School (GFS).


In time, the school quietly transformed into a haven for the needy and orphans. There were no donors, no external grants, and no safety net - only vision. My parents never gave up. The modest income from my mother’s petty trading and my father’s farm produce paid the salaries of young teachers. Their mission was not just to teach the curriculum, but to nurture learners to be responsible, respectful, hardworking, and academically excellent.

After I completed Junior High School at the age of 15, I offered my service to the school, handling lower primary English and Maths for children aged six to nine. I was smallish and lacked self-confidence then, but I gave my best for four months before entering Senior High School. During every vacation, I returned to teach. After SHS, I became a confident volunteer ICT teacher for all levels, from Primary 1 to JHS 3. It was physically exhausting, but the joy of helping others sustained me.

My late grandmother once told me something I carry with me to this day: 

"Ray, in a world where you can be anything, just be kind." 

That has been my guiding virtue.

The school began in a hired, uncompleted building in the year 2000. Five years later, my father acquired land and built six classrooms (partly block at the foundation and partly wood with bamboo and later iron roofing). As the population grew, we added five more wooden classrooms. The community embraced GFS because of our dedication, learner-centred approach, and the free tuition and meals provided to orphans.

Many young SHS graduates offered their service pro bono, just as I had done. But over time, the scarcity of voluntary teachers deepened, driven by financial strain and the deteriorating condition of the buildings. My mother fell chronically ill, which drained her both physically and financially. She could no longer help my father manage debts or provide free meals for the orphans. Throughout my four years at university, I travelled home frequently to teach, which likely affected my grades - though I still managed to complete my degree with a Second Class Upper Division.

In my final year, a friend introduced me to an international student exchange program. Coming from a low-income home, I knew I could never afford such an opportunity. But I told my friend the story of Good Foundation School - what we had been doing and the dire situation we faced. That friend offered to send volunteers from abroad if only we could provide accommodation. My parents agreed, even though we lacked space in our own home. A kind neighbour provided a place, and the chief of the community was informed.

For the very first time, "obroni" (foreigners) were coming to stay and teach in Tetrem. The excitement was palpable.

In 2013, GFS received its first set of five volunteers from Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Among them was Ms. Perrette, affectionately known as Jaimee. My mother treated them exactly as she treated her own children and the orphans who lived with us. They were welcomed into the heart of the community. Because of that warmth, GFS was highly recommended, and more sets of volunteers followed.

Jaimee, from New Zealand, bonded most deeply with our family and the school. During her return visit in 2016, my mother called her "my daughter," and she accepted. But Jaimee did not just visit; she observed. She saw the poor condition of the buildings - the rusted roofs and the leaking wood. When she returned to New Zealand, she did not forget us. She rallied friends and former volunteers, and their initial donations funded essential repairs to keep the learners safe.

It was not enough. The wooden structures were failing.

Jaimee, now truly my sister from New Zealand, later worked in the UK and shared our story again. One conversation led to another, and eventually, she broke what we call the "goodnews" (named after our ten-year-old dog): she and her friends wanted to help us rebuild the entire school.

In early 2020, Jaimee returned with family and friends from New Zealand and Europe. Together with local builders, learners, parents, and teachers, we began constructing a new 13-unit classroom block. We were expecting more friends and builders from abroad in March to help finish the project. Then, COVID-19 struck. Borders closed. Donations were severely affected. Jaimee and three others were stranded in Ghana as the world locked down.

Simultaneously, my mother’s illness worsened. Amid the chaos of the pandemic, Jaimee helped our family survive when we could barely afford food. Through all the mayhem, she and her team never gave up on the rebuild, just as my family never gave up on the children.


Even the passing of my beloved mother in 2022 did not stop us. In fact, her memory is what inspires us most to continue this legacy.

Now, Jaimee and her team (through Choose Love Ghana, a New Zealand based non-profit making,  non-governmental organisation) are returning to Ghana this June to continue what we all started. All the blocks have been laid. We are now facing one of the most financially draining stages of construction: the roofing.


With a little help from you and I, we can revive GFS and honour its core mission. The legacy of Good Foundation School must continue. The sympathy my late mother, Maa Feli, the mother of all, had for the under-privileged and orphans must not end here. My dream of helping to provide quality, free education to the innocent children of Tetrem must come alive.


This is why we must contribute. No amount is too small. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean.

Let us do this in loving memory of Maa Feli. Let us do it for the big vision my father started. Let us do it for the wonderful children of Tetrem, especially the orphans. And let us do it for you, who want to make a real impact in this world.

Please donate through the link below to keep GFS alive.

Thank you and stay blessed”

Choose Love Ghana
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