The Kuntu Village Nkosohen Committee-USA

In July 2000, Betty and Perry Kirklin, were with a tour group to Ghana, West Africa. A Ghanaian family friend, Ato Olise-Aikens, had asked them to visit his mother, Victoria Hanson, in Saltpond.  She introduced them to the chief of nearby Kuntu village, Nana Kwesi Brebo III. They were warmly welcomed in the chief’s home. They learned that Nana Brebo was most proud of the Kuntu village schools and since it is customary to give the chief a gift, they gave him some school supplies that they had brought in hopes of donating them to a Ghanaian school. Later they learned that these school supplies were badly needed in the Kuntu schools.

Betty and Perry returned to Ghana the next year with some family and friends and brought more school supplies and other items to Kuntu.  Nana Brebo announced that he and the village sub-chiefs and elders wanted to make Perry a sub-chief of Kuntu. His title would be Nkosohen, chief for development. He would have the stool name of Nana Kwame Baffoe II. Perry did not accept immediately but after much thought and consultations with Ghanaians in the U.S., he agreed to become Nkosohen of Kuntu.

Perry returned to Kuntu in August 2002 with his daughters Cheryl Merrell and Pamela June and granddaughter Stephanie Hawkins for the Nkosohen initiation ceremony. This was a major event for Kuntu. There were days of dancing and celebrations. There was drumming, dancing, and speeches by chiefs of neighbor villages. The timing of the "outdooring" and installation of Nana Baffoe after 3 days of confinement was followed by the regional Odambea festival that reunites the tribes that migrated to the current Nkusukum traditional area. Nana Baffoe was included in Nana Brebo’s entourage of chiefs and elders at all of the festival events. His family was "adopted" by the royal Nsona family and each given an Nsona family name. When they returned to the United States, they formed the Kuntu Village Nkosohen Committee-USA, a tax exempt, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, to help the Kuntu schools and village.

The mission of the Kuntu Village Nkosohen Committee-USA is to help Kuntu schools and Kuntu villagers.  We will not change the world and we want Kuntu to develop at their own pace.  We have focused on education.  Because Kuntu is a small village we believe that even the smallest measures (by our standards) will bring satisfying results. But we need more dollars than the founders of the KVNC-USA can provide.  Our business plan is to raise money and solicit donations for KVNC-USA projects.  KVNC-USA is all volunteer - no one receives remuneration. All funds and donations received are added to their contributions so that 100+ percent is used for Kuntu village projects.  All donations are tax deductible.

The Kuntu village council of chiefs and elders formed a companion Non-Government Organization (NGO), the Kuntu Village Nkosohen Association, in Ghana to work with Kuntu Village Nkosohen Committee-USA.